Why All The PS3 Hate?

[donathos]

PS3 hasn't done well this gen.

We've noticed it here for a while -- now, mainstream media is picking up on it, in part due to the deathwatch that general recession has brought on.

The article writer wants to say that PS3 hasn't done poorly at all; that it's sold a lot of consoles. And, hey, that's nifty! A lot of consoles = a lot of consoles, right? But of course it leaves out all of the context that we have: the expectations of the system going in; the historical success of the Playstation line; the success of its current competitors; the costs involved in the system's development, production & advertising.

I mean, hell, independent of context, selling *one* console is a great thing! If Sony had sold 10 PS3s during November... that's 10 more in the Sony family, right!? :) But it turns out that context does matter, and that the PS3's sales declining from last November is a pretty bad sign, regardless of the absolute amount sold, especially when considering that the PS2's sales are strongly down as well.

Of course CNN, Time, etc., aren't going to have the hardcore gamer's perspective -- they're mainstream and don't have the same knowledge base, passion or points of reference -- but whining about the mainstream press catching wind of what's going on here isn't going to solve anything.