Sony announced on Tuesday that the PlayStation 3 will feature online movie rental and puchase system, which will offer a choice between standard and high-defenition versions along with HD for TV shows.

Now Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 are in direct competition, with Microsoft's recent announcement of introducing Netflix accounts which will enable users to stream Netflix movies from their Xbox Consoles.

But it's doubtful whether PS3 or Xbox 360 will be able to handle the heavy bandwidth of video services, because both Sony and Microsoft are already struglling with the gaming networks on their consoles.

Also, the game consoles have a history of being poor media players, except the PS3, which has a fabulous Blu-Ray player. Moreover, the users might get skeptical in watching movies on their video game consoles rather than on a regular DVD player.

Despite all these speculations, Sony has joined Microsoft in the race of making their game consoles, a strong media hub. Sony's offering TV purchases for $1.99 per episode as well as movies between $9.99 and $19.99 depending on the title. Users can also rent movies for $2.99 to $3.99 per title.