Obviously this thread is inspired by the Nintendo one, but considering that Sony has been giving us consoles for 30 years it’s just as important to ask the question about them. 

What has Sony done to maintain a life in the console business that has left so many failed companies in its wake?

Are the things Sony has done different than what Nintendo has done and would either strategy have worked for the other?

Same as Nintendo, bring the games people want to play and make it only possible to play them (first) on their system.


Difference between Sony and Nintendo is:

Nintendo banks on familiarity, safety, affordability, milking the same franchises since the start, marketing aimed at families.
Sony banks on graphic fidelity, cinematic experiences, pushing the boundaries, multimedia, marketing aimed at teens and young adults.

The two strategies seem to be rather mutually exclusive. Different target audiences with small overlap. Sinking yourself for hours at a time into a 100+ hour RPG fits better on PS while short burst play fits better on Switch.

Anyway to stay in the console business you have to make people want to buy your console. Primarily by providing exclusive games people want to play.

I think it has to do with how strongly they started with both luck and accepting how future tech would play out. But also their name so heavily associated with consumer tech.

By the time PlayStation came to market, pretty much all other non-major console platforms ceased to exist or were faltering dramatically (TurboGrafx, 3DO, Atari, etc) outside of Sega and Nintendo. Sega shot themselves massively in the foot with the Genesis add-ons then the famous pricing announcement of the Saturn that Sony trounced them on with the "$299" checkmate.

The Saturn was notoriously difficult to program for, and the console launching the way that it did lost third-party games fairly quickly. Nintendo then stuck to their guns with a cartridge based N64, most notoriously losing Squaresoft in that decision, and pretty much lost all other major third-party companies that haunted them for a LONG time afterwards.

So that combo of competition shooting themselves in the foot brought all the third-party support to the PlayStation early in the consoles lifetime, so there was an abundance of games on the platform and when that kind of support continued even further in the PS2 era, PlayStation's long-term survivability was insured.

5th gen and 6th gen console sales weren't even close. Closest to a console monopoly we've had. A decade of that kind of dominance allowed Sony to survive their "Sega moment" with the PS3 announcement of a high-priced console and a platform that was difficult to program for.

PS4 was then handsomely won by, again, competition shooting themselves massively in the foot lol. So the combo of consistently great games and competition not doing themselves any favors, has greatly benefited PlayStation in the console space to the point where even now at a time where exclusivity is becoming less and less common, especially amongst third-party publishers, PlayStation continues to thrive.

Several reasons:

1) A very strong business acumen that goes back for decades.
2) A reputation for being consistent and reliable.

3) Great hardware.  Is there any company in the world that understands the electronics business better than Sony?
4) Building strong partnerships with certain third party developers.

5) Empowering promising small developers.  Both Rockstar and From Software were little guys before Sony partnered with them.
6) Gradually growing their first party studios in both quantity and quality.

7) A tech company oriented toward entertainment from (nearly) the beginning.  Their first big success came from selling portable radios to teenagers in the 1950's when Rock and Roll first became popular.  This means they've always looked at tech from an entertainment angle.  This is very different from the many other tech companies who have tried their hand at the video game business (Microsoft, NEC, Google, etc...).

A mix of first- and third-party games with hardware people typically like
Capitalizing on the mistakes of their competitors (PS3 was one of the only times they didn't, and Microsoft and Nintendo took advantage of that)

Which is why I love Astrobot. You get a burst-game without feeling like you're watching Nick Jr.

Sony knows the mainstream better than any other platform holder... and always has. It hasn't always been perfect or flawless, but it's been the closest to it, and that's why they've been able to do what they've done for so long.

Securing the mindshare of the market as the home of the biggest traditional yearly 3rd party franchises like COD, Fifa and other sport titles (also seasonal old franchises like GTA and BattleField)

Exclusivity deals of selected titles that give a cool and edgy look (Works as bragging material for their loyal audience. Some weird status achievement about being mature or something...idk)

Easy access to AAA games and great perfomance for those that cant be bothered to build (or even learn to build) a PC

Maintaining that formula for every generation

Luck is the mix between preparation and opportunity.

People have been dismissed their success claiming it's because of luck or rivals making mistakes, they've made a few mistakes as well, especially in the PS3 era, but they've been consistent, and it paid off. 

It definitely helped that Sega and Nintendo made major mistakes when PlayStation first entered the console business.

If Sega didn't work on the Genesis add-ons to extend the Genesis lifespan, and focused on making the Saturn to being an easy to develop console at an affordable price, putting their entire focus on the Saturn from the start, there was a good chance that Sega would've continued the success they had with the Genesis.

But most importantly, if Nintendo weren't stubborn and actually adopted CD technology for the N64, which third-party publishers were begging them to do, they wouldn't have lost Squaresoft, Capcom, Konami, etc to the PlayStation. Earlier this year, Shawn Layden was reminiscing on the feeling the division had when they realized they were gonna be able to secure Final Fantasy VII. He said that was the turning point when they all knew they were gonna be able to compete.

I'm sure the PS1 would've still been a good success as there were still many more great titles like Crash, Spyro, WipEout, Gran Turismo, etc, but if Sega and Nintendo hadn't shot themselves in the foot so dramatically the way they did, the PS1 wouldn't have been the utterly dominant force that it was during that time that allowed Sony to continue that dominance for the next decade.

Sony took advantage of the opportunities that were presented to them at just the right time.