http://gamer-rider.com/2013/02/28/historically-the-playstation-brand-has-forced-everyone-to-deviate-or-die/

Great article I think everyone should read, especially those who have been around to see all these things unfold.

Microsoft forced Sony to change as much as they forced Microsoft. Competition is good...

I agree, competition is a great thing. It forces companies to focus less on making as much profit as possible, and more on outdoing their rivals to keep their customers, so they don't go out of business with inferior products.

I think Sony really was forced to change as well, and they had an absolutely phenomenal gen as far as quality releases, and updates to online, software, etc.

Nintendo and Microsoft to a lesser extent need the same kick in the pants.

That article reeks of Sony bias, the 360 is after pretty much the exact same market as the ps3 and is still ahead of it in sales despite sony's massive ps2 brand recognition and free online, calling Sony invincible in the core market is insanely wrong and as for Sony "forcing" ms into motion controls, what about Sony themselves with the move?

Nintendo keeps doing their own thing, and will do until its last day.

^Nailed it.

Everybody forces each other to change. Sony deserve no extra credit, nor does anyone else.

sony got cocky with the PS3 and with the ps4 they will be more down to earth and i think MS will get cocky with the 720

hmm, that article is quite biased, especially in the 7th generation.
Also, no one denies the strength of the PS brand, but its clearly not nearly as strong as it once was.

I'd say that manufacturer success/failure depends more on what they do moreso than what the competition does. Look at Ninty, they just do their own thing and are still around. Sega just screwed up with the DC but if they were a bigger company, they'd still be in the manufacturing business. Releasing so many consoles back to back was like giving 3rd parties a middle finger especially the way they dropped support for their old systems. This just created distrust from both gamers and developers alike and eventually led to their demise.

A smaller company would have gone bankrupt in the early years of the ps3. I got the thing 5 months after launch and spent more time playing the likes of FFXII, Persona 4 and other ps2 games mosreso than ps3 games for the 1st year or 2 after I got the console.