I believe it will go down at Sony at not being a success. The PS3 has lost Sony a lot of money and the key would be what has it gained. It has not gained Sony market share, profits or even successfully solidified the PS brand. The PS brand has weaken, MS brand has strengthen even in countries that think PS is gaming, and Nintendo has done nothing but dominated. In order to even stay in the race, Sony had to slash the price for the PS3, killing any profit they made through manufacturing. Sony is still bleeding money off of the PS3 which if it continues will put a lot of pressure on their business as Sony attempt to fend off MS and Nintendo with their next consoles.

The PS brand is not the top dog any more and believe that the PS3 will start to net a profit or even have the successful lifespan like the PS1 and 2 would be optimistic. There is a significant chance that the Wii U can definitely cut into that 10 year life span and we still have to consider what the next Xbox will bring to the table.

Then I guess I'm a teenager because the "hot chicks" are all that matters to me in this analogy. I'm not that big a fan to be looking at the business reports of companies, I don't find that fun. Yes I am aware I'm on the wrong site as someone always inevitably chimes every time I say this but believe it or not I came here for the atmosphere.

It is relative. Compared how dominant they were last gen, its weak performance

A qualified success I'd say. It's LT sales will end up decent and it'll have sold a decent amount of software. It got Sony a decent foothold in online gaming in the West (if a second place one) and it ensured Blu Ray won the format war.

But it cost too much to produce for too long vs what the market was prepared to pay and was part of a loss of market-share for Sony (I'd blame how Sony handled this gen at the beginning and how weak PSN was to begin with vs the PS3 itself really - the console was feature rich itself but let down to an extent by weak surrounding services.

From a consumer perspective though it's definitely a success - it's over 60 million in sales, has a lot of exclusives and entertainment hub features and is still showing YOY growth.

So a qualified success overall.

It's creepy how often you stay true to your name regardless of the fact that this is the internet.

No
What Sony wanted from this gen was another success like the PS2, and it is has failed miserably. The huge R&D costs could only be justified by a success on that scale. It has lost loads of market share and damaged the brand. Previously, PlayStation was the word for gaming, but this is not so much the case any more

So despite the financial failure, Sony has improved for the long term. After the slow start, the PSN service has improved massively and is now competitive with XBL. I also feel that after the failure of the launch and PR mis-steps, the PS Blog has done a great job of connecting with fans, and giving a more friendly look to the brand

The success since the awful start has been good, and model for the struggling Sony as a whole, shown by the promotion of Kaz to president (shortly)

The other positive is that they seem to have invested even more in their first party studios due to the loss of the 3rd parties, and in my opinion have produced much better games throughout SCE

So we can all agree that financially it has failed, but there has been some benefits for Sony

Nope, its all comes down to profitability. Ps3 lost Sony so much money.
From 1st place from last gen to 3rd place this gen.
Just because it is selling more now, or have a lot of exclusive doesn't make it a success.
If it doesn't make any money how can Sony continue to support it, it can't continue to let the ps3 eat up all their resources.
If the ps4 flops again and isn't profitable, Sony is probably gonna leave the console market.

Yes it is, it is a succes even after all the doom and gloom articles and hate over the years. Mark my words, PS3 will end up selling above 100 million, by the time this happens PS4 will be current gen and we will look at the PS3s sucess story.

As a gamer and consumer, yes.