Sony has been a disaster of a company period. They are trying very hard to get back on track, but they have lost so much on what made them great.

Their products used to be the best designed, high quality and innovative ( Sony clie), now they are making ugly stuff with no innovation and charging a premium prices because of its brand name forgetting how it has faded away.

No, thats not true, THATS IMPOSSIBLE!

It looks like the huge gamble Sony took with the PS3 is finally paying off. What a lot of people seem to forget is that besides disc size, Blu-Ray was an inferior product compared to HD-DVD. Many of the features that were eventually incorporated in Blu-Ray were already available on HD-DVD. Plus HD-DVD was much cheaper to produce. The PS3 was a major factor in the destruction of HD-DVD. So in that sense, Sony succeeded in their early goals with the PS3.

Now that Blu-Ray has succeeded and the PS3 is now profitable it's up to Sony turn a big enough profit between the two the to justify the ass kicking the compamy took to put it in this position. They are going to need the 10 year life span of the PS3, great stand alone BR player sales, and increasing BR disc sales to do it. So I guess will have to wait a few more years to really answer this question.

Thing the Ps3 did for sony:

1. beat HD-DVD format
2.????

uhhh, as you can see, it has not been a success for sony, however, lately they have been on the right track.

I noticed how you switched from profits, to lack of support to profit. Being the devil's advocate, I will switch again.

Blu ran has seen incredible support, from new releases, to movies out well before BR. The PSP is pretty much FAT, JUICY profit. The way over priced price tag is proof of this. And even though the PS3 has lost a lot of money, it still (imo, of course) has the best 1st party line up of any of the big three.

OT: No, I really don't think it was a success.

3rd place
sells the less software among the other 2 competitors
Sold for a loss till very recently


you make the maths

yup a success, most likely wont surpass ps2.
amazing games
amazing graphics
improvement of psn
improvement of software
what more can you ask for.

I think Sony has written off this gen from the standpoint of achieving financial sucess from the PS3, so there's no point in talking about it any more. It's lost them money and that's that. Best thing that can be said from an economic perspective is that they lived to tell the tale.

So the only form of success they can salvage is of the PS brand itself. The brand, as Squill has pointed out, has lost a butt load of street cred and hence value. BUT, the brand is being rehabilitated as we speak. The PS brand is improving its credibility through PS3 in the eyes of the media and markets, but it still has a way to go before it returns to the sort of favour PS2 achieved for the brand. I think it might get half way back by the close of the generation. The rest of the job will have to be on PS4 and (if there is one) PSP2 to achieve.

PS3 could have been "the decline and fall of Rome" for Sony. Fortunately Sony managed to turn it into the "Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin".

So in absolute terms PS3 has been an unsuccessful genersation for Sony. But in relative terms PS3 will succeed in keeping the PS brand alive and giving the next PS console a reasonable launching pad.

It's then down to whether Sony screws itself over for a 2nd time in a row. (3rd time in a row if you include PSPGo.)

Hell no!.

Its a great console but it has been a financial pain in the butt for Sony, I don't think they will make a good profit overall. Maybe if they stick with the "10 year plan" but I doubt this will happen.

look the PS3 has made a tremendous comeback, but massive damage was already done in the first 2 years that it can't possibly make up for. You can't make up 5-6 billion dollars, that's nearly twice as much as Sony made the whole PS2 gen. They went from 1st to 3rd, they had to fire the creator of playstation. It's impossible, but even if they somehow did make all the money back and get 1st place it still isn't a success. They aren't in the business to break even. Even the PS2 could be seen as a dissapointment financially when you compare it to the PS1, they obviously took it for granted that they would win last gen, and it paid off because they did. Well that strategy only works if you win.