not releasing last
growing in NA
growing in UK
growing the casula audience
competive price

All things mentioned are good/valid answers; and that, unfortunately, shows just how many issues Sony have.

I'd say the 3 biggest obstacles are Microsoft/North America (related issues), Sony themselves (they continue to make unbelievably nonsensical decisions that defy reason), and their financial situation.

Another issue would be the lack of a distinctive, popular mascot and/or a (consistently released) system seller. The mascot issue I guess falls under the "identity" category...

Speaking of identity...Sony has only just NOW tried to identify a color/color scheme with the PS brand. They chose blue. That's it. So boring and bland. They don't even understand the importance of aesthetics. Look at Microsoft..green is their main color (which they decided in their FIRST generation), but they combine it with white and silver to create an aesthetic appeal. Then with Kinect, they added purple, which also adds appeal, but makes it clearly stand out as a different (but also still xbox-related) item. Sorry, had to get that off my chest. I want Sony to succeed, but there are just so many issues they have/mistakes they make that can be seen clearly by the average "joe shmoe", yet CAN'T be seen by their team of professionals. Drives me crazy.

Anyways, good thread. Also depressing.

I would say their financial position ...

While I don't think that price is the only problem with the PS-Vita, the fact that Sony hasn't dropped the price of the PS-Vita to spur sales implies to me that Sony is unwilling or unable to cut its price. In my opinion, the most likely reason for this is that Sony can not afford to take the financial hit associated with this. Although I don't think console manufacturers should take losses on hardware, a core component of Sony's strategy has been to lose money on hardware to drive sales and I don't believe they can continue with this strategy in their current financial position.

In my opinion this is a challenge for Sony because selling a $400 PS2 for 300, or a $900 PS3 for $600, is substantially different from selling a $400 PS4 for $400; or selling a $300 PS4 for $400. Nintendo has been successful with it primarily because they've de-emphasized the hardware and have focused consumers attention on the UI and games. Sony may be able to do something similar, but it will not be an easy task.

Thank you :)  And one of the better comments that was well thought out.  All three has problems so if you want you can voice your opinion about the other two in my other threads

Fortitude

Financials.
They also have to think twice about making their consoles vessels they use to push new standards onto the market (PSX - CD, PS2 - DVD, PSP - UMD, PS3 - BD). This went ok with the first two consoles, but was the main reason why PS3 didn't win this gen. There is no doubt in my mind they would win this gen had they gone with a DVD drive like everyone else. Giving PS4 a 4k TV-out could be good long term, but since there is no guarantee people will buy 4k, they should include it only if it doesn't increase the price of the console more than a few bucks.

Keeping the Vita relevant while still trying to push the PS4. They're not doing a very good job of convincing people to buy the Vita now, and I'm thinking they're going to let what little momentum the VITA currently has dwindle away when they start to focus on their next console.

they need a gimmick, pushing a format won't work this time

just to understand, do you mean identity as a console brand? as in you think its lost its name?

Making games not only focused on graphics and Michael Bay-scenarios.