DonFerrari said:
| Mandalore76 said:
When referring to the PS3 as a failure, it is very important to look at the context of what is being discussed. It is very easy to say, how can 86 million units be considered a failure? But, when you look at the bigger picture, it very definitely was. In the 6th console generation, Sony sold nearly 158 million consoles and controlled 74% of the home console gaming market. By the end of the 7th console generation, Sony had lost over 70 million customers, and had ceded 42% of the console gaming market back to its competitors. This was despite Kaz Hirai stating in 2008 that the PS3 would go on to sell 150 million units by 2015. Even worse than these precipitous drops was the fact that the PS3 cost Sony over $3.3 billion in losses. The amount was so staggering in fact, that the PS3 losses completely negated all of the profits Sony had made in the previous gen on the 158 million PS2's that they had sold. That's why the PS3 is considered a failure. 70 million lost customers, 42% of marketshare lost, and $3.3 billion+ lost that wiped out all profit from previous gen. There is no good way to spin that trifecta. The reason why 22 million Gamecube's sold isn't looked at in the same way, is because Nintendo didn't lose $3.3 billion while selling them. Nintendo was profitable during that gen. Same for Wii U. Nintendo posted losses early in the gen, but had returned to profitability prior to the launch of the Switch. It's all about context.
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Yes, sure...
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Well, he makes a good point. Everything must be considered in context. 86 million in isolation sounds great, but when you consider PS3 lost nearly half of PS2's marketshare, bled billions of dollars, and lost the 7th gen sales war, it's hard to see that as much of a success.
I mean, theoretically speaking, if Switch sold less than the 3DS lifetime and was a net financial loss it'd be hard to argue that as a real success story too.
Last edited by curl-6 - on 12 February 2019
