Apparently some lawsuits have started on Sony’s potential price-fixing of all games on their platform since they’re now the only retailer. Before anyone gets excited, these are probably going nowhere, but it’s neat that something is happening. The idea seems similar to the Epic vs Apple/Google lawsuits.
PS2 was a cheap DVD player, PS3 was a cheap Blu-Ray player, but your point stands.
And the OG Playstation was a cheap CD player. There’s still a cult following for the “audiophile” variant.
By the time the PS1 came out, lots of people already had CD players though. They weren’t cheap, but they weren’t crazy expensive either. DVD and Blu-Ray were in their infancy as the consoles were released, and they were the cheapest options available for playing them.
That’s a pretty big boost for console ownership.