For gamers yes it has been a success in the last few years at least. Some of the exclusives are brilliant both from a technical and gameplay pov.

For the company as a whole it's been a mixed success. The gaming division has lost a lot of money, one of the main reason being Sony trying to push propriety technology like blu-ray and the Cell (with disappointing results). Blu-Ray will never be as popular as DVD (instant HD + surround sound streaming becoming more and more popular) and the Cell is dead as an alternative processor to the likes of Intel, AMD and even IBM's Power PC. Still I commend Sony for being risky even if it didn't pay off as well as they hoped.

yeah that's what you think, but go back into past finacials and marvel at all the "OMG WOWZ @ ALLZ TEH MUNNIEZ GONE, SONY DOOOOOOMED!!!"

i'm not even sure if you understand what i mean lol.

they really released a new handheld? wow yes this totally proves that a company doesn't need to make money to have more of it for r&d...they can have just 10% of the money the competition has and they will still be much better forever! ;)

just like i said, they would burn money the next 20 years trying to play the role they played this gen. it was a financial flop for them you can deny it like you want that doesn't change it and it doesn't change it that companies with money are in a better position now and sony doesn't have so much of that anymore. maybe the ps3 will get some money back but reaching the black? or reaching the black with other products in the future because of the ps3? i really can't believe that at this moment.

maybe you think i'm a fanboy hoping that sony will fail but that's not true i would love to see all three big players making much more money than they do  and i would love to see all selling double the amonunt than they did.

i just say that the ps3 was not really a succes. yes they won the blu-ray war (maybe they would have won it without ps3 as well) but i bet if you would be a close firend of the sony boss he would say you "the ps3 was really not the success we were hoping for"

i really don't wish to talk more about that it's not like i would care a lot about this success thing^^

but i hate one thing, you always reply to my first post and i always edit it the same time you are answering that post! lol just joking. at least i changed it a little bit to look better for sony^^

btw just because the vita is more powerful means nothing. i bet nintendo could make the vita as well if they would like (yes sony could make the 3ds as well)

why isn't there a sign showing that someone edited his post? almost every forum has this right? this would help a lot sometimes^^

I planned to update it but by the time I got home that day, the thread had taken a life of its own.  There was nothing I could add that wasn't already said.  I may add somme to it when I get home.

Depends on how you define success. If you define it by the amount of systems sold compared to its competitors, then no. Neither would it be if you compare the amount of systems sold to its predecessor. I think the most important question that sony should ask itself is "Covering the entire generation, did the PS3 make money?" It's hard to make an estimate of the amount of money that Sony invested (R&D, hardware manufactoring/distribution, software development/maintenance costs) versus the amount of money they earned (first and third party revenue, maybe profits from sold systems), but if I had to take a guess, I think they made money in the end.

Besides, it's the most successful console to ever finish third in the console race. That's gotta count for something ;)

What was the famous statement, something along the lines of "People will get a second job for a PS3".  The answer to that was no they will not.  Sony never planned to lose as much as they did on the PS3, they had a choice, let the Playstation brand take a massive hit by letting the console die slowly or take a financial hit and hope the long game negated some of the losses. 

Ultimately the entire PS3 strategy was terrible from the start.  I will conceed that had they sorted the bluray laser/drive production and Cell issues early enough then the strategy may have been ok but ultimately the product delivered was 6 months late to the party, too expensive in comparison to the competition, with nothing to demonstrate why to the majority of buyers. 

Sony are indeed loss leaders but they never expected any of the manufacturing troubles to cause so many problems and certainly didn't factor that the Wii would destroy them in sales for most of this gen.  All in all it was badly managed at launch and people paid for their mistakes with job losses. 

To balance the above, the work done between 2008 and 2011 to repair the launch damage by Sony has been excellent.  They have used smarter PR, improved the obvious deficiencies with the console, added lots of new features and of course invested in a large number of new IP's.  Ultimately though it doesn't matter how good the PS3 maybe doing now, it is never going to make up for the first few years and that's why a lot of people class it as not a success.

Isn't about time we had this thread for the 360, I expect a reverse of the above poll and a lot of interesting opinions on the subject.  The 360 looks like it is set to make money this gen but can profit wipe out the poor image the console had for years due to shoddy hardware.  I expect hypocrisy galore on all sides.  Only the Wii could be argued a success I feel given most metrics.

Make the 360 thread!  As for the Wii, I still think many would have reasons to call it a failure, too (Crazy people, of course).  I'd like to see people's opinions!