Yeah, but Atari and Nintendo (at least until Sega showed up) basically had monopolies on the gaming market at their respective times. When you’ve got competitors making similar (Microsoft) and more innovative (Nintendo) machines that cost hundreds of dollars less, telling people they should work more for their particular machine doesn’t come off very well.
BUMP!
Well, comparing the PS3 to the Premium 360, $150 buys you wireless networking, bluray playback, superior DVD playback (the PS3 is one of the best upscalers on the market), and 40 GB extra hard disk space. It’s not a terrible deal.
Consoles in the 80s were something that a parent bought as a toy for their kids. Nowadays, consoles are purchased by teenagers/adults with jobs. $500 for a system that endures 5 years is not expensive at all.