oel Downs is the type of video game buff that Sony Corp. expected to fall for the PlayStation 3. The 32-year-old Culver City entrepreneur is tech savvy, loves his PlayStation 2 and has the money to afford an upgrade.

But Downs is holding out.

“There’s no compelling reason for me to buy it,” he said. “There aren’t enough good games for it. And it’s too expensive.”

The PS2 has been a runaway hit and profit machine for Sony since its introduction in 2000. But its highly touted successor, the PS3, is off to a slow start, leading some game-industry insiders to question whether the consumer electronics giant will dominate this generation of consoles as it did the last.

Analysts caution that the complaints echo those made early this decade about the PS2, which also lost hundreds of millions of dollars at first. This time, however, the stakes are much higher, making the PS3’s success all the more crucial. Sony spent more than $1 billion developing the console and invested a sizable chunk of its future in it ? not just games but also its broader entertainment and consumer electronics businesses.

“PS3 is Sony’s flagship product for this decade,” said Richard Doherty, principal analyst for Envisioneering Group, a consulting firm in Seaford, N.Y. “There have been a lot of expectations put onto that device.”

Sony executives stress that the game is just starting. They say the PS3’s technology is so advanced that it won’t be considered obsolete for another decade, giving them plenty of time to catch up in sales.

“We didn’t get into PS3 for the first six months of 2007 ? we’re into this for the next 10 years and beyond,” said Jack Tretton, president of Sony’s U.S. PlayStation unit. “A million units one way or another at this point isn’t going to worry us.”

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