well sony conquered one industry (the next media format) by using the gaming industry as a stepping stone. a good corporate strategy but now they need to fight their way back to the top again (which since the release of the slim is going pretty well).

Lol, abandoning the ps3 = abandoning console manufacturing and never returning just like sega.

fine. Ill reword it. it was an unnecessary and overly expensive feature that most Playstation fans and gamers in general would not care for.

After two hundred million selling consoles, Sony was arrogant, and complacent. They thought consumers would buy anything they released for a ridiculous price with little quality software and an underdeveloped online system.

Over three years, they've just about managed to recover from their mistakes (though not on the financial side), and the positive consequence is that Sony will NEVER make this mistake again.

As for why they still support the platform, because they want to make back as much of their investment as possible. And they don't want to have a failed console.

Why aren't gamers supporting them? Well, the PS3 is $300 now, and that's given it a firm lead in the HD battle, but it's too late to even attempt to beat the Wii. It tapped into a new audience (or rather, enlarged an existing audience - who previously owned PS1/PS2 - and tapped into THEM) and delivered, admittedly, a new gaming experience.

Next generation should be very interesting.

HUH???!!!! Sony hasn't been on the cutting edge of ANY technology since Walkman.

In fact, Sony is an also-ran in almost every product division.

Samsung is a better innovator in phones and TVs

Apple is a better innovator in music players and phones

Toshiba and Acer are better innovators in laptops

The list goes on and on....sony is no longer a leader.  They have been reduced to a follower that releases more expensive products than its competition.

Blu-ray added no innovation - HD-DVD did the exact same thing blu-ray could for cheaper.

The only thing HD-DVD lacked was 600 million $$ dollars in bribe money to buy off Warner Bros and Fox

http://gizmodo.com/344680/the-real-reason-warner-went-blu+ray

They took a risk and saw the outcome. They didn't know they would lose billions of dollars, or they wouldn't have done it.

Amen!  This is why Kutaragi was "shuffled" out of the company.  The PS3 was a horrible misfire.  They've managed to salvage a bit of it, especially this Christmas, but the fall was hard.

I dont understand the way most people are thinking here. Sony have always build high end appliances. They build the thing that they want to build and then choose the price after. Its a different mentality where they think of the product before thinking of the profit, there is other companies like that also. But its harder then before for those companies because of all the cheap stuff that sell for way less and looks to do the same thing.

599$ 3 years ago wasnt THAT much, but compare to another console that look to do the same thing for 299$ it sure looks overpriced. But Sony knew that, they have a lot of very intelligent people thinking about this kind of thing. They still chose to make the PS3 because it was the product they wanted to make. If they only wanted profit, they would have released an upgraded PS2.

This is not what we call being dumb, this is what we call integrity.

They surely know because they were selling at 599$ something that was costing 800$. It doesnt take university to know that your going to loose a lot of money in the short run.