The worst move Sony made was leaving one man to decide the direction of the brand.

@ darth / badgenome: I see a lot of people saying price, but the PS2 wasn't cheaper when it launched and it did okay...

@kowenicki

fantastic point

I forgot removing BC was a big point for the initial drop that lead to PS3 outselling 360 for a while

your right,,,,,otherwise looking at NA sales before the price drop PS3 was in a dire state!

You are wrong. The PS2 was much cheaper.

When the PS2 launched in Japan, it was priced at around $390. The PS3 was priced at $465 for the 20gb model, and $558 for the 60gb model.

In North America, the PS2 launched at $299 opposed to the PS3's $499 (for 20gb) and $599(for 60gb).

BIG differece

Ps2 was never WAY HIGHER than competitors in price

n launched 2 years before the main 2 did

BIG BIG difference in situations

I agree it is unfortunate, but it was a necessary move.  The original PS3's shipped with both the GS and the Emotion Engine.  They removed the EE for the "software emulation PS3 version 80 gig", and ultimately removed the GS for the non-bc version we have today.  Sony saved a lot of money per unit by removing these components.  It was probably the only thing Sony could do once they realized that the casual elements of their user base had no desire to pay $600 for their console.

Regarding your off-topic note, the 360 began to outsell the PS3 when MS started cutting the price, there really isn't any correlation to the removal of the BC PS3.

I know the PS2 launched at $600+ in Belgium, so maybe that's what you remember. But it was much cheaper elsewhere.

Agree with Rainbird, worst thing that Sony did to their consumer, but not their biggest mistake this gen.

I would have bought a shitload of PS2 games if I had a PS3 with BC.
Well seems like I would never be able to play all the good PS2 games :(

The worst decision was obviously a $600 console