I think the problem is that they're completely different divisions. However the BD side of the PS3 is obviously tied to Sony's BD strategy as a whole, so it is odd that something like this hasn't been done anyways.

Up until now standalone BD players have been rather underpowered and feature lacking compared to the cheaper and more versatile PS3. And while I *do* want a standalone player for my system, I won't settle for something that's not as good as or better than my first generation PS3 (20gb model!).