Are other Blu-ray HW makers pressuring Sony against PS3 price cuts?

[Tyrannical]

If patents expire, it means that the products made with the patent gets CHEAPER. But that doesn't mean that the cost is passed down to the consumer. If DVD patents expire, studios still can charge US$15 for a movie and still generate more revenue. In the meanwhile, they ALREADY charge more for BD and they do get more as they should.

I was actualy refering to the profit margins that the film studios would make. With DVD patents expiring, the studio's margin would increase without having to increase consumer prices.

I know the HW OEMs have paid them money to relase movies on their format.

Prove it.

I know when the Blu-Ray/HDDVD format war was in full swing, some stuidos were exclusively supporting one format. Are you saying money did not change hands to pick sides or to support the new format? Maybe cheap introductory royalty rates? Didn't Toshiba pay a lot of money to secure some HD-Dvd support (with an escape clause)?

Remember that PS3's core hardware cannot change because that would be disastrous for the game component. Standalones can add any new feature because the features are not standard.

Sure it can change, and it already has twice so far by removing the integrated HW to allow backwards compatability with the PS2. Obviously the one feature that can't change is ability to play PS3 games. MS added HDMI to all 360's ~ two years after launch, and then there was the optional HD-DVD drive. I'm sure it's much easier to software update a PS3 then a stand alone blu-ray player.

Before the PS3 was released, the DVD market was flourishing and almost the same situation exist between branded DVD players, non-brand players and the PS2. The CEs didn't see the PS2 as a threat at all.

I assume you are talking about the launch of the DVD enabled PS2 and how it affected DVD OEMs.

Very different situation I think.
DVDs had already established themselves by the time the PS2 launched. The PS2 was certainly a good value if you were looking for a gaming machine and a DVD player. But it was priced at $299 and I beleive DVD players were around the $199 mark and falling then. The PS2 also wasn't a great DVD player.

The PS3 came out much earlier in the blu-ray cycle then the PS2 did in the DVD cycle. The PS3 unlike the PS2 is at least as cheap and as good as comparable blu-ray players so I've heard. I haven't heard too many people unhappy with their PS3's blu-ray capability. The PS3 also seems to be setting the price for inexpensive blu-ray players, something the PS2 never did.