Why did the Sony PS3 Fail? Japanese book reveals

Being a trojan horse for Blu-ray made it too expensive for mass market and a small user base, difficult architecture and high developement costs have lost it the kind of game support that the PS2 enjoyed, Sony may be able to improve it’s market share given time with further price cuts and incentives but it will never prove a to be a success from a financial point of view as it will be too heavily subsidized and Blu-ray is failing to get the level of adoption Sony expected and needed,
Sony will settle for trying to keep the Playstation brand alive till PS4 and maybe learn from it’s mistakes.

There if only I could have padded that out by another couple of hundred pages maybe I could have had a best seller in Japan.

Little Big Planet is the key.

You do not have the ability to write.

Christ, this site is painful.

Dan, are you programmer? How do you know if the architecture of the PS3 is that bad… have you worked with it? Depending on who you talk to, some say the architecture is fine but will just take some getting used to (just like PS2), and being a programmer, I can tell you that not all programmers are created equal. Some grasp different architectures at variable degrees of understanding. Give it some time, it’s a new system.

It’s also to early to say the Blu-ray has failed, as it still has the most major movie studio exclusives and was still outselling HD-DVD 2-to-1, last I checked. It also has more storage and is more scratch resistant.

Wait till the battles are over before you declare a winner. Rocky almost always got the crap knocked out of him before finally coming back in the end. It could still happen… we just have to wait and see…

What an idiot. The console generation has only just begun. PS3 has been out for less than a year. (6 months in Europe), and is just getting upto speed, with quality releases.

The 360 also had a dry spell for it’s initial 12 months, but I don’t remember the doommongers writing cash-in books about it failing (ironic, as that’s what the 360 is good at).

Please, PS3 will be going good guns this Holiday season. Come back in 18 months time and write a book if you want, but I suspect it will be titled “How Sony got it right again”.

The PS3 as it stands is a solid product. The marketing /PR department is running around like headless chickens.
First the 60Gb and 20Gb fiasco which ended with the demise of the 20GB wired machine. Then along came the 80Gb machine. Next we had the rumours that the 60Gb was being phased out leaving the 80Gb machine. (Is this happening – are we past caring?) Now there is talk of a 40GB machine. Hey Sony, could you do more to confuse gamers. You TWITS !!

http://psplaytime.blogspot.com

I read lots of comments regarding the failure or success of the PS3, and most poeple do point out that the PS3 has only been in Europe for 6 months. Also people say that the Xbox had a slow time in its first 6 month ( which is true), but the xbox didn’t have to compete for people’s hard earned cash with 2 other consoles riding high. The wii is selling shed loads and the xbox is probably getting to is prime. So really it may already be too late for the PS3, which would be a same as we need as many consoles on the market as possible so developers spend money on good games and not like we had in the late 80 where most games were bad and the sector fell apart… just to say I have both the PS3 and Xbox. I have to admit that I am looking forward to the xbox games more than the PS3…. Sorry Sony…

@Sled

I have some experience in programming, not with current generation consoles but I do have friends that work with the format.

I never said that the architecture was bad in any way just that it is particularly difficult to get to grips with and with a relatively small user base some devs are choosing not to take the extra time to get the games up to scratch.

As for Blu-ray and HD DVD go i’m making no predictions as to which will come out on top but let’s be honest, they are both failing to make an impact in the market and Sony has staked a great deal on Blu-ray.

My comment was not so much about who will win or lose in terms of eventual market share but more about why I believe the PS3 will fail to be a success from Sony’s financial perspective.

If you don’t agree with my comments from a business point of view i’m happy to debate the points i’ve made but please don’t draw me into a which console is best arguement as I have no interest in fanboy issues.

What an assload of fuck!!!

Anyone ACTUALLY around for PS1 and PS2 launches? Guess what, developers complained they were hard ro develop for, consumers moaned they were initially too expensives..

There is nothing different happing this time around, aside from an army of brainwashed Xbox owners trying to derail the PS3, to make their early rush into the next-gen console market seem like the right more.

WTF!!!
The bashing continues…The PS3 has not failed, if any systems has failed (in Japan) it’s the XBOX 360! They say the will is out selling the PS3 by 3to1 well lets take a look at the 360 it being outsold 50 to 1!!! Write a book about that punk!

Mak, i’m in my 40s and so was around when the Atari launched and for the record it was the Saturn that had the complicated architecture and price disadvantage, while being theroretically more powerfull than the PS1.

Complicated architecture is only one factor in the success of a format, the PS2 had many factors in it’s favour to spite not being the easiest platform for programming, such as the success of the PS1, price, developer support, the inclusion of a DVD player at a time when the market was ready for a new and much improved video format, a head start over the technically more powerfull Xbox and ofcause the exclusive and timed exclusives like the GTA franchise.

Being difficult to develope isn’t the deal breaker here, there are a lot more factures to consider.

*factors

why can’t you guys admit it? sony fuxx up, they could still get it right but they just wont listen to what gamers want, if a book is writen about a console faling and people are buying the book sony should read it and change his whole marketing strategy.

I`m surrounded by idiots.

Av a go on Motorstorm then shut the f*** up!!

Erm…

1 thing. Play on ‘PS3 network’ FREE! Play on ’360 live’ costs green ‘cash’.

Trust me, when you own all 3 next-gen consoles. You will not want to pay out for a live subscription. Its pointless…..

Oh wait… everyone who is on live is still paying for the console… Doh!

Is this his 3rd book? Did he wright the book ‘how the PS1 failed?’ Seeing how PS1 sale in the US for its first year was only 500k and did this guy wright a sequel ‘how the PS2 failed?’ if you mean that being the most successful game console in history mean failure then yes. “I’m a fanboy and I gonna wright a book about something I haven’t a clue about but because I hate PS3 for some reason”

PS3 is gaining momentum like a snowball rolling down a mountain. Rumours of another price cut soon and a rumour about a 40gb PS3 with the blu-ray Spider-man trilogy bundled in for $400 which I predicted just after E32007. And this is also to be a confirmed leak by a Ars technica who also leaked info of 2 360 related reports and they we’re both confirmed to be right. Also another rumour about another price drop in spring ’08 of a further $100 which I also predicted after E32007 that the 80gb will be $400-$450 in March ’08.
PS3 sales will be big this holidays and 2008 sales will be huge competing with Wii and 360 puting them on the defencive.

Blu-ray is kicking HD-DVD ass. since January blu-ray sales had to catch up and overall are now at a 2:1 ratio over HD-DVD and reports state that current sales of blu-ray are 70%. SO will see the year overall sales of blu-ray at a 3:1 ratio over HD-DVD? You could bet on it.
Blu-ray support is massive having more exclusive backers. HD-dvd had only Universal as exclusive and I have read reports that suggest that Microsoft have been paying for that exclusivity. Paramount and Dreamworks went to the sinking ship of HD-DVD and anyone would think thats a dumb move and your right. But I’ve read that this is only temporary will one report stating they we’re paid $150 million? Its probably just to get Transformers? A bit like when one of the big 3 pays for a timed exclusive on a game.
Blu-ray are predicting it will now only take 18months for HD-DVD’s defeat, sounds like a safe bet?
Porn industry won’t help HD-DVD as porn is also coming to blu-ray and as more use blu-ray this helps the manufactering prices to come down. Porn didn’t help DVD that much contary to belief. I got in this debate with someone before and after searching, that the porn industry is no where near the dvd movie industry. And that the majority of the porn came from the porn sites. With everyone conected these days which is easier? going to a descreet store to buy it? ordering a DVD online and waiting even though you want to polish percy now? Or having instant access to it and it is way more cheaper with having way more content that gets updated. And these site have HD porn. There are more sites than there are porn dvd’s in stores. And who decides on an expensive next-gen movie player on porn? also sk yourself this question, could DVD survive with just porn alone without the movie at tv business? I say no. Would the dvd have survived with the movie and tv business alone and without the porn industry? I say yes.

can’t be bothered to check my grammer.

yo ps3 is tha best fuk u lot man

@what ever

Wow that was an angry fanboy rant.

The title of the book is obviously supposed to be controversial and it seems to have got your attention, seeing as how neither of us has read it, it would be pointless to attack or agree with it’s contents.

I can’t be bothered to counter the points you’ve tried to make as they appear to be more of a rant than valid points of view such as when you wrongly suggest that the porn industry was argued to have had some effects on the success of DVD when infact if you had been paying attention you would know that it was the success of VHS over Betamax that was linked to the porn industries backing.

In future if you don’t want to come over like a raving fanboy try getting your facts straight, show sources and state your thoughts as opinion and not an angry fanboyish hissy fit.

http://www.playfuls.com/news_05907_Sony_Refuses_to_Help_the_Porn_Industry_with_Blu_Ray_Licenses.html

“Ok the PS3 has sensational game titles …..”

Where? lol

“According to Kiyoshi Tane the Japanese game journalist says why the Sony PS3 has been a failure in his all new book which has 207 pages called “Why Did The PS3 Fail?”

Im writing a book of 208 pages called “Why Kiyoshi Tanes book failed, and why doesnt Godzilla kill him?”

I’m writing a book of 209 pages called “Why Marth’s book failed, and why Godzilla didn’t really destroy Tokyo, it was an inside job”.

Ok, financially, the PS3 and Xbox 360 are both failures! both make a loss when a unit is sold, so frankly as a product, they are not productive at all! On the other hand wii makes a profit on each console.
Ps3 and Wii both have a limited game libary, where xbox 360 has alot of games… but has a 33% failure rate so more games, just less chance of being able to play them while you wait a month to have it repaired and sent back to you. Ps3 is far to expensive, i would say the xbox is but compared to the ps3 i guess it can be concived as reasonable. Wii, good price.
So… i have lost my train of thought and will just say, sony messed up big time, and hopefully will learn for the ps4. ^_^