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[Justin9mm]

The PS3 era led them to where they are today. The PS4 was highly successful from mistakes learned. The PS4 era was also the rise of digital games and libraries for console, this is why Xbox lost the console war going into current gen. If PS3 was successful and they didn't learn anything going into PS4, it could of been very different with people staying with Xbox, building their digital libraries and could have easily transitioned to Series X. Phil Spencer said himself they lost the war because they couldn't convert PS4 players to Series X because gamers already invested a lot into that ecosystem that would be lost by switching to Xbox.

 

[Humdinger]

"We flew too close to the sun" sounds a lot better than "We got arrogant."

 

[sncvsrtoip]

They will be lucky if they survive gaas and multiplatform games company era

 

[Lokaum D+]

Don't know who would claim that when Xbox 360 and PS3 were virtually tied in sales at the end.

Of course, really easy to append all kinds of claims to what "some around here" supposedly say without quoting any of them, isn't it?

Fun fact: X360 was way way easier and cheaper to jailbreaker so in countries like Brazil 360 was King, once jailbreak consoles weren't a thing anymore Sony took over once again.

 

[Self_Destructive]

Amy Hennig and her character Nathan Drake saved Playstation.. full stop.. and not only that, but it put them on course to become the behemoth they are today. If it wasn't for Uncharted, which completely changed Sony's perception on what games could be, the Playstation we have now would not exist as it does.

That of course is my own personal opinion, but I just don't see how anyone can deny it. Naughty Dog carried PS3 so hard.. and inspired most of Sony's other studios to level up their game, figuratively and literally, leading them into the PS4 gen on an incredibly strong note. So yes, Sony was lucky to survive.. but they were also smart enough to capitalize on the gold they struck during that generation as well.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

Just as a reminder, PS3 only managed to recover by burning ALL the profits earned by PS2. As in yes, they had a great library, but it was a great library made with no consideration for profitability.

Sony with no regard for profitability = great PS3 games.
Microsoft with no regard for profitability = Gamepass.

 

[Ebrietas]

I feel like this is one of those "i miss the good ol days" moments.

The beginning of the HD era was rough as fuck. Games went back to 30fps that gen (and we're still recovering from this), many didn't even have that much. Games looked brown as fuck. The huge Sony hack that made PS3 offline for an entire month. Those game updates that lasted forever. The moment my PS3 stopped working for a day because PS3 didn't recognize February 29 as an actual day

If we had games nowadays performing like they did back then it would be outrageous i can tell you that much.

That said...Sony was experimental as fuck. Many of those games flopped but they were interesting. Plus, PS Home was something else. I also remember Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 online modes. I spent MANY hours in there. LittleBigPlanet was addictive as hell as well. I always say MGS4 and LBP were the turning points for PS3 and still stand by that.

Also...the Buzz! games! Started on the PS2 but PS3 had those as well and the remotes were now wireless which was great.

KZ2 and Warhawk. There has been nothing like them since. I really wish Sony would remaster those two.

 

[Badlucktroll]

Regardless, it was the only console you could play MGS4 on.

Shockingly, it is still the only console you can play MGS4 on.

I wonder what sketchy Chinese company konami hired to port it off the cell with probably worse performance than the original for MGS collection vol. 2

 

[Spiral1407]

Fun fact: X360 was way way easier and cheaper to jailbreaker so in countries like Brazil 360 was King, once jailbreak consoles weren't a thing anymore Sony took over once again.

Really? Because PS3 had an unpatchable vulnerability that made all the Phats and early slims moddable, while 360 still doesn't have a softmod to this day.

 

[Auto_aim1]

They have forgotten the lessons. They did everything right till the PS4 and now have dropped the ball.

 

[aclar00]

Didn't 360 launch a year ahead of PS3 and $100-$200 more? And then ultimately outsold it?

IMHO the PS3 gen was way better than PS4, which as of now is better than PS5...my two cents.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Really? Because PS3 had an unpatchable vulnerability that made all the Phats and early slims moddable, while 360 still doesn't have a softmod to this day.

Well, here in Brazil X360 was the king of piracy that gen, It used CDs that were way more easy and cheaper to burn and It was cheaper when compared to PS3.
It took way longer for moded PS3 to become a thing over here, 360 was so ahead of PS3 that the ratio was 10 moded 360 to 1 PS3 back in the day.

Fun fact: Wii was pirated as hell over here too, but x360 was the more "traditional" console and for that reason It sold more.

 

[saintjules]

Lol 'lucky' to survive. They were going to continue to thrive despite whether or not the PS3 failed. They have too much money.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Cell processor was a risk, and changed how console manufacturers approach hardware quite a bit, 360 vs ps3 some didn’t want to take a side, and Wii had “fun first” values and moments with Wii sports

Wait till we see the cell processor 2, obviously Sony wants to take another risk again, I think the problem is it makes sense for Sony to be safe with AMD and not in the crosshairs of Microsoft.

Ps home was also problematic in competing with Wii’s Miis, and Xbox avatars.

 

[Gamerguy84]

Actually...Sony was losing over 300 dollars by each PS3 unit sold at 500$ on retail. It almost bankrupt Sony.

They literally lost all the money they made with BOTH PS1 and PS2 generations with the release of the PS3.

How many units they sold didn't matter.

That's why they removed PS2 Emotion engine, cut 2 USB ports, all the card ports the PS3 had, and quickly removed more stuff that was included on that launch unit. It wasn't sustainable.

Impressive as fuck at the time...but it almost destroyed them and it's not hyperbole.

Not to mention smartphones were killing their camera sales. Vizio or Samsung came along killing TVs. Add in the recession and Sony as a company was getting it's ass beat from every angle.

Yea halfway through the gen it was looking very bad for them. I remember people on forums logging in first thing in the morning asking if Sony was dead yet. I never seen a crowd looking for the jugular like the anti PS crowd.

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

PS3 was always a real mixed bag that never quite fully lived up to the hype for me, there were some great games, aspects are nostalgic after all this time, yet pound for pound it was a step down from the PS2 and pretty much permanently wrecked a certain momentum gaming had been on that's never fully recovered.

 

[SHA]

The power of the brand helped them. Microsoft didn’t have the brand to help them with their disastrous XOne generation.

The Immortal Box, it's Microsoft's strategy.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Yep. I loved it way more than my PS2.

People were like PS3 had no games, and aside from Resistance and Motorstorm, I felt the same until August when Warhawk and Heavenly Sword came out. Then it was Ratchet and Uncharted to end the year along with multiplats like AC1 and COD4 and that was the end of the PS3 has no games feeling.

2007 was Motorstorm 1, Uncharted 1, Ratchet FoTD, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword
2008 was MGS4, LBP, Resistance 2, Motorstorm PR and Socom Confrontation.
2009 was KZ2, Infamous 1, Uncharted 2 and Ratchet
2010 was MAG, GOW3, Heavy Rain and GT5
2011 was KZ3, Uncharted 3, LBP2. infamous 2
2012 was Starhawk, Twisted Metal, Journey and PS Allstars. Their weakest year.
2013 was GOW A, Beyond, TLOU, GT6.

I loved 90% of these games. Genre defining, industry leading graphics that set up Sony for a massive success in the PS4 era.

It really was the best console of the time. Sony was also marketing towards the fanbase and not "modern audiences".
They announced stuff and had killer E3 conferences.
Marketing was on fire. First the baby and weird commericals, then The uncharted girlfriend commercials, then kevin Butler. It was edgy and they were fun. I usually hate commercials.
We even had digital magazine with Qore.
PS Home was a cool virtual hub that would of done better then next gen but they axed it, sadly. But it was the first taste of digital delisting. People paid money for clothes and items only for the whole service to be taken down.
All the characters were amazing and cool. Not a dud among them.

I loved ps1, but I finally upgraded to a pentium 2 in 1998 from a 386sx. It was quite a leap. So I ditched console and kept upgrading computers. It wasn't until the psp drew me in.
That darth vader white psp, was mine. The games on that were awesome. It was like ps1 but portable and filled with jrpgs, and it played ps1 games.
Getting in to that I figured I was missing something with consoles. Xbox seemed like a non started due to having a gaming pc.
I tried wii but returned it when I seen GTA4 and MGS4 launching around the same timeframe.
I got the ps3 with MGS4 and gta4. Also picked up Heavenly Sword (underrated game), Folklore, Motorstorm and Uncharted. Amazing time.
Then later that year we got little big planet, Resistance 2, Motorstorm pacific rift, Wipeout hd, super stardust hd, and and oblivion came over from xbox.

2009 brought infamous, killzone 2, uncharted 2, and Demon Souls. A game I had imported before it was announced here, and knew it was something special.
We then got God of war 3, heavy rain, puppeteer, uncharted 3, infamous 2, beyond 2 souls, puppeteer, Ratchet tools of destruction, Socom confrontation, Socom 4, A crack in time, tlou...
Not to mention the multiplats.

PS3 played all the ps1 disc games, it played all the ps1 digital games they released. It played ps2 games if you had an earlier model. It had linux, and a CD/dVD/Blueray player, part of which we don't even get anymore, a cd player.
It got me back into console gaming.

 

[_Ex_]

We know who really saved the PS3...

Spoiler

 

[LordOfChaos]

"We flew too close to the sun" sounds a lot better than "We got arrogant."

That's literally what the Icarus metaphor means tho

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Why can’t it be both?

Sony and Microsoft have different standards.

The PS3 was a failure by Sony standards.

The Xbox 360 was a success by Microsoft standards.

The PS3 still outsold the Xbox 360.

It’s no different to the Vita and Steamdeck. Vita is considered a failure with 15 million total sales. The Steamdeck a success with 3 million total sales.

They're all failures though.

 

[HoodWinked]

people forget how fucked Sony was during the PS3 Era. The thing that saved them was selling life insurance in the Philippines.

 

[SweetTooth]

people forget how fucked Sony was during the PS3 Era. The thing that saved them was selling life insurance in the Philippines.

people forget how successful Sony is RIGHT NOW!

Damn

 

[Kyo]

Just make it the best game machine of all time.

And yet they gave us the PlayStation 4 instead.

 

[Sub_Level]

that first couple of years game drought was EXCRUCIATING. i went and bought a 360 lol

2007 on Xbox 360 - Mass Effect, Halo 3, Bioshock, Ace Combat 6, The Orange Box, Katamari, Eternal Sonata, Project Gotham Racing 4

2007 on PS3 - Unsharted

 

[Humdinger]

That's literally what the Icarus metaphor means tho

True. I'm just saying it SOUNDS better to compare yourself to an ancient mythical figure than to just say, "Uh, we got full of ourselves."

 

[mckmas8808]

The cell lead the way for most standard modern day multi cores.

IBM knew what they were doing but it should have nevwr touched a game console

This is so true. Funny how when time flies, the finer details start to float away.