@ Garcian Smith

Probably you mean console specs, I was thoroughly unimpressed by the original XBox from a home console perspective. In the past I stated the XBox 360 seemed like a much better device, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case, but for other reasons than with regard to the original XBox.

The XBox and PS2 were very different, at some things the PS2 may well have been more powerful and the XBox at other things. The specs and features differences are much wider for this generation.

Really, the success of the Playstation was because it launched at the perfect time with a proven format (cd's). The marketing campaign for the PS1 was shit: remember that purple polygon head? With Sega's history for burning it's fans, and the Project Reality/Ultra 64/Nintendo 64 nowhere in sight, it was time for a new king.

By far, what has hurt Sony the most is their need to shoe-horn everything except amazing games into their VIDEO GAME SYSTEMS. Using their powerful Playstation brand to force UMD and Blu-Ray down consumers throats is a bad idea. Techno junkies eat this stuff up. The main stream don't care. Hardly anyone I know used a PS2 to watch DVDs after the first year. Nobody uses a PSP to browse online.

If Sony puts the focus back on games, they can be #1 again. As it stands, to paraphrase an old PS catch phrase; Sony, "U r not (red) e".

Enos will live again.

I wouldnt call it bad marketing..(sure the baby cried when the ps3 started looking at it..)it actually really got me into buying the ps3, the pla b3yond commercials were godly.

I was a Sony fan last generation.

6 things that I hated and made me switch...

1) I owned many Sony laptops, phones, TVs, and PS2's... All died within 6 months of warranty expiry. Mostly for inexplicable reasons...
2) Sony's handling of the root kit incident.
3) Sony always has premium pricing and within a few months, there is always some other vendor coming out with something just as good overall.
4) Sony is Japanese and I prefer to buy Canadian or American... Not prejudice, I just want to support jobs here as much as I can (Even though they are just corporate head office jobs and not manufacturing).
5) Sony's support... I have phoned support for them many times and it took hours to get to where I needed to and after that I never got a satisfactory result.
6) Sony got too sucessful with PS2 and stopped responding to users. XBox Live swept through and Sony was asleep... Near the end of the last gen most games were also getting built for Xbox but Sony had a such a large market share they never responded.

@ Sporticus

What the PS3 does for Sony remains to be judged 5 years from now. Remember all the "PS2 is Doomed" stories from when the PS2 launched and all the criticism for using a DVD drive (at the time I stated on forums it was a good choice).

When the PS2 first launched the Dreamcast was its main competition and it already had a lead. The same complaints existed back then...where are the PS2 games? I already have a DVD player, so who cares!

Well, we all know how the PS2 ended up doing.

Things are a bit different now, with the PS3 priced the way it is, but Id say every console launch has its similiarities. 

That doesnt mean history will repeat itself though....  

@ friedtofu

Agreed, the higher entry price means it's a huge step to take for many parents to just go out and buy one for their kids. So slower sales until future pricedrops were to be expected.

However the high specifications also means the PS3 will be able to tap into markets Sony couldn't tap with the PS2. Currently it's one of the best choices as a low cost entry device into high definition movies and an interesting multi-media solution, possibly later on the device could even double as a DVR, etc.

Also the PC games market has significantly declined compared to around the PS2's launch. Now with the PS3 specced this high we may well start to see games more and more impressive than PC games for years to come. There's just so much of untapped headroom left for developers to use, I think we will see much greater differences in future PS3 games as compared to launch games than we saw with the PS2 (God of War 2 vs launch games). IMO games like Ratchet and Clank Future and Killzone 2 are just the beginning.

My personal pet peeve with Sony is what I perceive as a lack of originality. The PS1 launched with what was essentially an SNES controller with handles. As soon as the N64 launched with an analog stick, Sony announced their dual analog set up. Within months of the release of the rumble pak, Sony announced their Dual Shock controller. When Nintendo announced motion control as their top secret ace in the hole, Sony ditched their boomerang controller and had their own motion control 8 months later. Even minor things, like Gamertags and (rumored) achievement points, that set Microsoft apart mysteriously find themselves on Sony's formats.

I'm sure Nintendo doesn't invent this new technology, but they do take a chance and say "hmmm. maybe a touch screen can be good for gaming". Sony's approach appears to be "hmmm. that appears to be a good idea. we need our own version of it." Only Sony can be a leader and a follower at the same time.

Being a Ninty fan, I was contempt with Sony during the PS1 and PS2 era. They had Nintendo beat, fair and simple. But as they began to copy more and more things that clearly were first invented by Nintendo (i.e. Rumble). I started to get a bit annoyed but oh well. By the time the PSP came around though... Was that really necessary? I mean Sony had 70% of the console market and Nintendo had the handheld market, things were going great for both companies. Then Sony greedily decided it wanted both markets, I know this makes perfect business sense, but I just loathe companies that use their name to tread on other companies home grounds by flashing their brand name to customers. Like Microsoft and the Zune, Sony's goes: "hey you all like the playstation, now buy the portable version! Forget the fact that the word Gameboy is synonymous with road trips, this is a PLAYSTATION for christ's sake! Buy it not so much to increase our profits, we just want to hurt Nintendo!