It's a huge success and here is why?:

1. One has to remember that the last generation was the only generation where all consoles sold extremely well. Before that there usually only was one popular console and the other's were all left in the dust.
2. Sold a large aamount of software and it's on it's way.to skip the Wii software sales.

When looking at what other second place consoles made in previous gens I think you will change your mind:

1 Xbox ~ 30 million 

2. N64 ~ 40 million

All first place consoles sold over 100 million.

You'll hear more people deem the PS3 a failure than the 3DS a failure even though both couldn't realistically outsell the high milestones their predecessors set. 

This series of threads seem eerily similar to a series of threads made by some other sexy poster in the past....

It lost market share and it lost a lot of money, so I'd classify it as a failure from a financial prospective. There were plenty of poor decisions that went into creation and execution of the PS3. They say you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes though.

Same answer from me that I gave for the x1. From sony's point of view it was a failure. If they went back in time to do things differently they would have made billions in profit instead of a loss.

It is a failure on pretty much most fronts ...

It didn't make Sony any money in the end ...

It didn't focus on gaming ...

It didn't focus on the customers ...

It didn't help that developers were struggling with it ...

Hardly anything good came out of it other than the fact that it taught Sony a really hard lesson ...

Success doesn't exist on a single relative field. It may not have been as big a success as the PS2, but 85m units (probably around 90 - 95m LT) is still a sales success. If it weren't then every Nintendo and MS home console, bar one, could be considered a failure in that respect, which would obviously be silly (even the Wii/PS1 would be cutting it close).

OT: I wouldn't say the PS3 was a success or a failure; it's sitting in somewhat of a grey area (similar to the 360). In many respects, such as market share and profitability, it was a failure compared to its predecessor. On the other hand though, despite Sony's colossus early gen fuck ups, it ended up being able to maintain the brand's reputation, and still made it a lot closer to the PS1's doorstep (install base) than anyone would have guessed. Had it not been for those latter two factors, the PS4 likely wouldn't have been able to achieve its current success.

I'd personally consider it slightly more of a failure than a success, but not by enough to use the word definitively.

The PS2 and PS3 are seperate consoles. They don't share sales or market share with eachother. 

I consider it a failure, but a great lesson for Sony. Out of the PS3 came the PS4 and that's arguably the best thing that the PS3 did.