That isn't saying much in a country that happily consumes all sorts of electronics. Here in the U.S., I don't see the PS2 as a big influence on DVD adoption. I've met all sorts of people who own a PS2 but don't use the PS2 as their exclusive player. Just wasn't happening. I'll happily take that comment back if you show me some U.S. sales numbers showing a relation between an increase in DVD sales and the introduction of the PS2.
No, I would tend to agree with that. However, I could see the PS3 affecting this particular go-around because it differs in a couple ways from DVD. First, DVD had no technological competitor. There was no format war, so it was a matter of either being adopted, or not adopted, but there was no possibility of it being overlooked in favor of another competing technology. Second, the DVD, as you mentioned, was already well on its way to acceptance in the U.S. with or without the PS2. In this case, the PS3 was nearly the first BluRay player on the market, and certainly the most affordable. Sales of PS3s actually make up a VERY significant portion of total BluRay player sales. People who own PS3s
do seem to be making heavy use of it as their
only high definition movie player, which was not the case with the PS2 in the U.S.
The early trends favoring BluRay are almost certainly caused in large part to PS3 sales, but the thing about these types of trends is that they can easily have a domino/ballooning effect. Studios want to make money, and they're going to base the releases on movies on potential sales. Currently BluRay presents the highest potential for sales, so it makes sense for companies to give it more attention, but that, in turn, only makes the format that much more attractive to consumers and they begin favoring the format even more, which in turn makes the studios favor it even more, etc., etc.
If the PS3 is responsible for an early, even undeserved lead with BluRay, and having an early lead is responsible for a domino effect that ultimately leads to the war being called in BluRay's favor, then PS3 absolutely would have influenced the outcome of the war.