It depends on your measure of succes. If you own a PS3 and like it, then you could consider it a succes. But for Sony, the PS3 is a huge failure and has lost them millions of dollars. If the PS4 turns out the same as the PS3, expect Sony to leave the console market.

It is a success for the gamers and gaming community for sure.

However one has to wonder looking back how did Sony manage to screw things up so badly with the PS3 in terms of finances and execution.

Best recovery ever award though.

Facts:

• market share significantly down - from first to last place
• a financial nightmare for Sony (billions of losses)
• most of its third party exclusives lost for years (generations) to come
• It let MS step in the gaming industry big time 

The bad thing is that most of these facts will make an impact on the next generation for Sony. People know that MS secured 3rd party content when the next gen starts. Nobody knew this is in 2005 or 2006. Sony needs to get profitable sooner than later with the next generation of consoles, so I don't expect a massive hardware update for the PS4. MS will be in this industry for the next generation as well. Regarding their profits for the past 3 years they will probably stronger than ever. So the PS3 definitely weakend Sonys position in the gaming market and overall as a company. You have to be a fool to think the PS3 would be the same if Sony had the chance to time travel back to 2005. So no, it is not a success at all.

for gamers yes
for Sony no

The PS3 is like a guy who pissed away his inheritance, threw away amazing 6 figure jobs where he didn't have to do jack all day but is a success because he banged a lot of hot chicks.

No, but its certainly not a disappointment.

I get the job part but how does the "hot chick" part equate?

Absolutely not.

I have no idea what you said in the second sentence so I'll assume you're calling me sexy. 

As for the first sentence, what you said is obvious and I didn't think I had to spell it out.  I'm simply stating that if Sony sold fewer consoles and its rivals didn't gain market share then it wouldn't be as much of a problem.  Sony would still be the leader and Nintendo and Microsoft would be left with the scraps. 

As for the last sentence I'm not concerned about being bipartisan.  Look at my game collection and it's clear what my console of choice is.  But, nothing I said isn't true and I'm sure Sony is not happy that Microsoft gained such a market share so my comment wasn't biased, it's fact. 

I don't think the PS3 was a failure, I rather enjoy mine and Sony is making money from it.  I just don't think I'd call it a success.

My opinion, nothing more.

Incoming wall of text (can't make paragraphs with my phone browser).-----Hindsight is 20/20.  We can look at things now and see that our three players, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all made huge mistakes this gen.  The painful truth:  Nintendo released a horrendously under-powered console, offered piss poor support in 2011, and failed to shed its "kiddie" image.  Microsft was a sham of a first party with very little in the way of diverse first party releases.  Their hardware was the most unreliable in console history (afaik).  Sony lost billions of dollars, marketshare, and exclusive support.  They went from being an untouchable juggernaut to being the bottom of the totem pole.  All of the "Big 3" fucked up majorly.  The measure of thei success comes from how well they lived up to expectations.  customer expectations, company expectations, financial expectations, etc.  When it's all said and done, how will history remember the PS3?--I'll edit this in about three hours.  I hate posting from a phone.  I'm going somewhere with this, though!  Bare with me!!