The joke was funny the first time it was mentioned, when everyone else does the exact same thing it stops being funny.

OK give this guy a break, back to serious discussion.
Personally Sony gave me one hell of a year. 2011 has been Sony best showing in this gen and i look forward for their show next year. Do i think Sony failed sales wise. Yes, releasing LBP 2 in a non holiday season, abandoning the marketing for motor storm apocalypses after the japan earthquake( though i can understand why.), trusting Zipper to make a good Socom game which lead to mix reviews leading to poor sales and for focusing to much for marketing the sharpshooter instead of resistance 3.

Okay - serious response this time.

I don't think it was a terrible year, but as ever Sony seemed to suffer bad luck in some cases (the issues affecting Motorstorm launch) or just plain bad release schedules - LBP2 delayed post holidays.

TBH I think Sony still seems somewhat lost with how to market this gen - particularly in US.

LBP2 should have launched with a great family bundle and Move support - even if they had to draft it extra staff for MM to help out - for example, not when it did.

KZ3 - as with the Resistance franchise - keeps changing aspects of gameplay/feel which means - like Resistance - the franchise seems to draw in and lose people each time it releases a new title rather than building a steady demand base (like Uncharted say).

But I don't think it was horrible. PS3 based titles do sell over longer periods, party due to geographic spread and partly due to demographics, so I do expect inFamous, etc. to end up with okay sales.

I agree though, of the new IPs, only Uncharted has really clicked as a new exclusive for PS3. Mind you, I don't think that's too unexpected - Gears is really the only significant new 360 IP. The reality is few titles really click to huge levels, and currently most of these are multi-platform - Elder Scroll titles, CoD/MW titles, Battlefield, Assassin's Creed, etc.

This year (Uncharted aside) PS3 simply had more decent exclusives release vs the big hitters (God of War, Gran Turismo, etc).

So I don't think it was terrible games sales wise because I think you are expecting too much of mid tier franchises.

I do think overall though, with currency issues, continued problems with their overall business as well as external events Sony didn't have a great 2011. But to be honest, as a company they're not going to have a great year until they sort themselves out a lot more than they have as a business (assuming they ever manage to do so).

Quality-wise: NO

Sales-wise: NO

The last line of your OP is a joke

@OP-

Those sales figures you mention are pretty disappointing. PS3 fans keep going on about how it has more exclusives but not enough of the user base are buying them and if that's the case then Sony will turn it's focus elsewhere rather than give PS3 owners wave after wave of AAA in-house games.

I think the problem with a lot of first party games from Sony is the lack of timing, hype and advertising. I own a 360 as well and whenever MS release any exclusive (like Crackdown 2 for example) they always bombard the user with VidDocs, Inside Xbox focus, that kind of thing. With Sony there's nothing of the sort.

I also agree with a previous comment about the lack of identity and too much change in direction from one game to the next. Also we have to remember a quick look at Meta scores will reveal quite a few of these exclusives get average to rather good scores rather than fantastic. For non established franchises (one previous game doesn't count) this will have a bearing on asking players to part with their hard earned cash when there are better third party options available.

I checked the numbers and...

PS3 is doing BETTER than 2010.

So?

It really has everything to do with Sony's marketing failures for certain IPs, as well as the timing of certain releases. There was zero hype for Resistance 3 this year, and the only thing anyone heard about Infamous 2 was that it was part of a bundle. And again, bad timing and marketing had to do with LBP2 not stepping up as a worthy sequel.

The hardware is doing well, but I'm still seeing the general PS3 ad campaign not making much of any sense to US audiences. At least it's a bit better than this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqkNPcUMffU

You cant argue what happened this year. Aside from Uncharted 3, all PS3 exclusives are showing signs of degradation. The OP forgot to mention Motorstorm and Rachet and Clank lackluster openings. 

The quality is there and you have no argument on that. But the numbers don't lie, PS3 exclusives that don't have "flagship" status (only Uncharted, GOW, and GT have this status) tend to fade away as the years go on.