The PlayStation 3 is in a really rough spot right now. Much poorer sales than expected in all regions. Relatively few big exclusive titles, coming out at a fairly slow rate. Highly-hyped titles that haven’t performed very well, in sales or reviews. A PR department that can’t seem to avoid contradicting themselves or insulting their own customers. A price tag that remains fairly high. Developers and series traditionally loyal to Sony jumping ship or at least branching out to the Wii and 360. And a constant stream of new revisions with ever-decreasing features. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

So why in the world did I just buy one?

Besides being touched in the head, that is. Well, the supply of the fully-back-compatible 60GB ones is right on the verge of running out, and it’s unknown when they’ll bring it back, if ever. I do still have my PS2, but it is starting to give me some trouble with glitches on the video output. The software BC might be improved later on, but that’s uncertain, and there are a few big titles I have that are known not to work at all under it.

It’s supposed to be a pretty good DVD and Blu-Ray player, letting me replace another old DVD player I have as well. It’s unfortunate that we got into an HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war to begin with, but I don’t really have a preference either way, and Blu-Ray is off to a pretty big lead so far.

And for games…well…hopefully there will be more good ones on the way. There are a few decent ones out right now, Ratchet & Clank Future looks extremely good, the next Disgaea game is sticking with the PlayStation, and down the road there will inevitably be FF13, another God Of War, and hopefully more of the unique niche titles the PS2 had so many of.

But I’m not even really ready for it right now, as it’s going to be stuck on an S-video connection until I figure out whether I want to finally get a proper HDTV, or upgrade to a better monitor with component or HDMI inputs, or what. It’s a calculated risk, driven by impulsive desperation and the hope of paying off down the road more than anything else. Here’s hoping…