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The PlayStation 3 is a failure ... not my words!
9:30 AM on 09.10.2007, Jim Sterling 64 comments

The PlayStation 3 is a failure ... not my words! photo
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Okay, many editors in the world of videogame journalism, myself included, have made fun of Sony and its handling of the PS3. As harsh as we may be, one thing we tend not to do is go as far as to say that the PlayStation 3 is a failure, especially this early in the current generation. One man, however, has thrown courtesy out of the window and asks, in his new book: Why Did the PS3 Fail? Tane Kiyoshi attempts to analyze why the PS3 has not been quite the wonderhorse Sony had hoped for, which could prove to be quite the fascinating read.

Fascinating it may be, but surely it's a little early to slap "FAIL" on the PlayStation 3's forehead already. Certainly, Sony has screwed up bigtime during the course of the PS3's lifespan, and perhaps the console has been a failure in that it didn't do what Sony wanted it to do at the right time. That said, there's still everything to play for, and should the PlayStation 3 regain its lost ground, Tane Kiyoshi is going to look a little bit stupid.

It's just a shame that it's in Japanese.

[Via Canned Dogs] 


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AngelsDontBurn's Avatar
AngelsDontBurn at 09/10/2007 09:28
Haha, or a box of cookies! I wouldn't say it failed. But it most definitely struggled and still is though Warhawk actually helped it a bit.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 09/10/2007 09:28
Jesus, it hasn't even been a year. Granted, not the smoothest for Sony, but damn dude...
Steel Frog's Avatar
Steel Frog at 09/10/2007 09:33
Saturn?
mandlebaum123's Avatar
mandlebaum123 at 09/10/2007 09:57
Its way to early to say it failed failed, but it certainly has failed to live up to the hype built up before launch.
bhive01's Avatar
bhive01 at 09/10/2007 09:59
Last I heard, it's initial sales numbers were on par with the PS2 numbers. While not spectacular since the market has grown, it's still pretty good, and we all know how well the PS2 did.

Regardless, it's way too early to call the PS3 a failure. It's had its hiccups as well as some pretty bad PR blunders. So bad, you'd think PR Nightmare had been involved.

IMO, they're already righting the ship with some exclusive releases this fall. Including WarHawk, Heavenly Sword, and Rachet and Clank. Sure it's not as EPIC and TOTALLY AWESOMESAWCE as the 360 library right now, but the 360 has been out for a year and as such developers have had more time to play around with the hardware. That and MS has worked tirelessly to get exclusives away from Sony (see GTA IV). Kudos to MS, but don't count Sony out yet.
bhive01's Avatar
bhive01 at 09/10/2007 10:00
Also, Chad Warden is a <French word for Shower>.
hexfix93's Avatar
hexfix93 at 09/10/2007 10:00
Fools. sony in round one touted the ps3 as a media center, because of the high price, and they knew only high end people with big wallets would shell out for it. Sony knew they would get the price down a year later, and then even more 2 years later. The developers knew this too.

Sony is holding many aces as far as software exclusives go. They knew this too.

You watch over the next 2 years as the ps3 price drops, they will market it more like a gaming console once the average consumer can afford it... They were smart, and still sold 4.5 million consoles in less than a year, how has sony failed when you sell this many consoles?

120 million ps2 users. 10 million wii, 10 million 360. 4.5 million ps3. so you think all the people who have ps2s, when they finally go next gen when they can afford it are going to buy a toy for kids(wii)? a 360 with a broken design red ring of death plaguing nearly 50% of the consoles out there, when buying one you have a 1 in two chance of it breaking and having to wait up to 2 months to have it fixed? with only 3 good exclusives?

Sony has better exclusives, blue ray, free network online gaming and a machine that doesn't have such a high failure rate. it's 2x faster with the cell at crunching numbers.

Sure, call me a fan boy. I have loved every playstation i have ever owned. the ps1, the ps2, the psp, and the ps3. why not be a fan boy when its the only console company that has made me happy the last 3 generations? I bought a gamecube, and a wii, both were mistakes. I played my friends xbox's and 360's, not impressed... so what.

the only crap i ever read about the ps3 is that its doomed, or the mistake that are made. WARHAWK is AMAZING. and no one gave a crap, the media barely made note of it. I feel like the entire online media has been bought out by microsoft.
mandlebaum123's Avatar
mandlebaum123 at 09/10/2007 10:03
hexfix, fanboyism is just tired. Save your time. Stop typing.
brainderailment's Avatar
brainderailment at 09/10/2007 10:06
Only the holiday after games like Metal Gear Solid 4 and FFXIII and even GTAIV come out will someone be able to make any call. Price of the system during holiday '08 will determine a lot about PS3s future.
Neonie's Avatar
Neonie at 09/10/2007 10:06
This man is a genious.
wardrox's Avatar
wardrox at 09/10/2007 10:13
BLUE RAY!!!!!! JIM!!!!! YOU FORGOT THE BLUE RAYS!!!!
branflakesinmilk's Avatar
branflakesinmilk at 09/10/2007 10:21
hexfix, you should channel all that emotion and energy into something more positive. Who cares if you love your PS3 and other people don't. I love scooby doo push-up's (red especially) but my brother doesn't but it would be a waste to convince him otherwise because then he would eat all my push-up's. So instead of writing an essay on how he should like push-up's, I'm going to gobble one up. Scooby Dooby DOOOOO
Mike Maloney's Avatar
Mike Maloney at 09/10/2007 10:26
Who is Tane Kiyoshi?
Koopa13's Avatar
Koopa13 at 09/10/2007 10:35
no one has a right to just say, oh this console is crap it failed, especially seen as it hasnt even been around for a whole year in some countries.
its like a flower, u can plant the seeds and one season it might not blossom at all but then a year later it might be better than all the others in the garden.
i think its like the wii is kinda doing the reverse at the moment, it had a so so lineup, then there were a few games here and there, now all there seems to be is "hey look whats coming out in the next year"
the only console that is succeeding is the 360 and i think for 2 reasons

a) its been around long enough to adapt to the needs of the consumer
b) the company is american therefore is in direct contact with its main consumer and listens to them.

its a big culture thing and xbox are doing well cos they know what the american culture needs, however with the likes of ninty and sony all the way over in ashun land, that culture is rapidly different, i mean come on, they fucking eat dogs.

but to tie it all up, basically i dont think no one can be declared the true winner for at least another year, nor can no one be called the failure.
1D10T's Avatar
1D10T at 09/10/2007 10:35
Missing the point people... He has a best-selling book. It was a perfect title and a perfect subject at this time to sell a ton of books. It's not publishing justice - it publishing business. There are fanboys who probably do twice as much research for fun than this guy did who could have written their own book but are sitting at home thinking up a crushing response to this very post.

Here's a title: How Nintendo Utterly and Finally Defeated Sony. Get me 100 pages by the weekend, and you'll have a best-seller too and can afford to buy PS3's for your grandparents so they can play Sixaxis bowling at the home.

So, now you have a choice.

Red pill - Reality
Blue pill - Believe what you want to believe
Green pill - Advil Liquigel
crizz's Avatar
crizz at 09/10/2007 10:43
I wouldn't call it an outright failure. Consider how poorly the 360 sells in Japan. That's failure. SONY has failed at marketing a nice piece of hardware, but it isn't quite over yet. Make some must-have games and people will buy the PS3. Maybe when MGS4 hits, things will pick up.
jerrt's Avatar
jerrt at 09/10/2007 10:48
have we had anyone look at the translation for loss of possible meaning. are the words that fill the head line [words i've seen 4 other times today] possibly not exactly what the author ment?
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 09/10/2007 10:55
We all know that the PS3 is mostly made of fail right now. Do we really need a book about it? It's especially foolish once you remember that 2008 will probably be when the PS3 finally starts hitting its stride.
DGX Goggles's Avatar
DGX Goggles at 09/10/2007 11:02
Not too early to write going to fail though.
Professor Pew's Avatar
Professor Pew at 09/10/2007 11:04
Sony fails hard at the marketing and PR department in this generation, so much is clear. MS on the other hand is doing a surprisingly good job in these departments, surprising because they are MS. But then their hardware is still shit.

People that don't follow internet news or blogs often don't seem to care however, and they are just sold by the games and the price. Since most of Sony's PR failures are mostly known on the internets and the hardcore crowd, most consumers won't care about it much. Or at least, they don't seem to care or know about it.

I'm sure the PS3 will eventually overtake the 360 when decent games are out. FF13 will sell millions even if it sucks. Japan will want next-gen shiny jRPG's to go with their Wii/DS mania as well, they are just not out yet. MS should just give up on Japan.

And with 90% of all games being made for both the 360 and PS3, people will probably just buy the one console that their friends use for online play or their friends/family/co-workers tell them to buy.

Let's hope the Xbox1080/XboxHD and PS4 will both have good devkits, stable hardware and an equally competitive price that's right for the actual market when they hit, eh?
foxhound009's Avatar
foxhound009 at 09/10/2007 11:06
PS3 is surely no fail, if hexfix 93's numbers are right sony have made some smart moves... they'll drop the price and then when ps3's price will be just $50 higher than xbox 360... we'll see wich one will you choose when you enter the shop.... I'm no fanboy, but if I had to choose between xbox 360 elite or xbox 360 + hd dvd player... I would definetly choose ps3, sorry but I can't risk a month without my gaming machine :), But for now..... it's xbox 360 for me because of the price.
gamesronlygames's Avatar
gamesronlygames at 09/10/2007 11:12
Why is this considered a news worthy piece. If Pachter or somebody in the industry said this it would be worth the story, but honestly...Are we going to see stories from nobodies around the globe. "Yeah, Mike Hunt around the corner on 5th and Seneca in Apt 1020 says the xbox hardware is a failure. Yeah it was in an email to his friend who knows a friend , who knows the janitor here at destructoid. So what do you say we print it. Must be true. People probably really care what this guy thinks. Top story." Wow....
h3lios's Avatar
h3lios at 09/10/2007 11:15
What the fuck, it's barely out for a year and people are marking it as a failure already. While we're at it, lets make a Genesis FAIL , GameCube FAIL and Xbox 1 FAIL.

And what the hell is a Tane Kiyoshi ?
gamesronlygames's Avatar
gamesronlygames at 09/10/2007 11:17
Dont gert me wrong but other than Dead Rising and Gears 9 months after the 360 launch what else did they exclusively have? I remmber people saying it was a failure too. Seem to recall the same ignorant garbage spewing out of mouths about the xbox, ps1, and ps2. Learn you histroy morons.
gamesronlygames's Avatar
gamesronlygames at 09/10/2007 11:17
Dont gert me wrong but other than Dead Rising and Gears 9 months after the 360 launch what else did they exclusively have? I remmber people saying it was a failure too. Seem to recall the same ignorant garbage spewing out of mouths about the xbox, ps1, and ps2. Learn you histroy morons.
gamesronlygames's Avatar
gamesronlygames at 09/10/2007 11:18
Dont gert me wrong but other than Dead Rising and Gears 9 months after the 360 launch what else did they exclusively have? I remmber people saying it was a failure too. Seem to recall the same ignorant garbage spewing out of mouths about the xbox, ps1, and ps2. Learn you histroy morons.
foxhound009's Avatar
foxhound009 at 09/10/2007 11:38
Can someone please tell wtf is Tane Kiyoshi, he should get his ass kicked for talking bull crap. He reminds me of a guy which made "fun clip" of eminem how he makes songs only about his daughter and wife...
hollywooda's Avatar
hollywooda at 09/10/2007 11:47
@gamesronlygames :- posting things three times doesnt make what your saying anyless a pile of steaming horse shit....
Chris Taran's Avatar
Chris Taran at 09/10/2007 11:48
Koopa13 said:
"no one has a right to just say, oh this console is crap it failed, especially seen as it hasnt even been around for a whole year in some countries."

Actually, people have the right to say whatever the hell they want. Whether it's correct or not can surely be debated though. (For instance you have the right to say that people don't have the right to say something, even though it's clearly an incorrect statement.)

908peruvian's Avatar
908peruvian at 09/10/2007 11:50
i'm going to write a book about how his book will fail
908peruvian's Avatar
908peruvian at 09/10/2007 11:57
what the fuck is goin on with that Indian kid?!
foxhound009's Avatar
foxhound009 at 09/10/2007 11:58
I'll support you 908peruvian :P
hollywooda's Avatar
hollywooda at 09/10/2007 12:03
@Crizz:- "Make some must-have games and people will buy the PS3. Maybe when MGS4 hits, things will pick up." If I hear one more person say that i'm gonna find you & beat the sense into you, that's not the fcuking point!!! after the Ps2 sony had it all lay'd out all they had to do was build on the massive success & give the gamers what they wanted!!!...did they?, no...they gave us what they wanted... however you cook it, Sony throwing away the games console lead they had after the PS2 is a monumental fcuk up of titanic proportions!!..
that where the PS3 has failed.... good night & thankyou.
FuriousGeorge's Avatar
FuriousGeorge at 09/10/2007 12:06
Book? blasphemy.... I dont need a book to recognize the grandeur of 'tha triple'
foxhound009's Avatar
foxhound009 at 09/10/2007 12:06
not permanently though, after the price drop it shall rise and shine again :P
xenon's Avatar
xenon at 09/10/2007 12:17
The PS3 was launched at an outrageous price, and every PS3 sold reportedly means a loss of about 200$ for Sony. Again, reportedly, a big chunk of its cost is Blu-Ray, while comparatively HD-DVD standalone players just hit the low 200$ price tag. This whole paragraph means two things to me:

- PS3 was launched at the wrong time, when PS2 was still doing great and Blu-Ray was crazily overpriced (and it still is)
- Sony as a corporation wanted to push the Blu-Ray movie standard, even at the expense of PS3 and the gaming division in general.

Addtional thoughts: I don't know if the consequences of delaying the launch of PS3 and leaving the market even more open for Wii and Xbox360 would have been affordable. My guess is yes, but I'm no expert. I think it can actually be an advantage to avoid following the same time-line as the competition, sometimes. I also believe exclusives are overrated and extreme fanboys that follow them are not the best customers for Sony and friends: one game bought in five years! :P
And no matter what they market it now, Playstation was, is and will be a gaming brand in people's minds. When they find out it *also* does this and that, they're probably happy, but that's it. It's not like people buying PS3 and the like do not already own a personal computer at home. All this, and PS3 games are not piratable yet - compare that with X360 and Wii that are already torn apart.
SourGr8pes's Avatar
SourGr8pes at 09/10/2007 12:20
Well, at least there's backwards compatibility from the best selling console of all time... Ps2's STILL sell like hotcakes, so Sony doesn't have it all that bad.
RICHARD BLOCKER's Avatar
RICHARD BLOCKER at 09/10/2007 12:56
@ Xenon

interesting points. I'm sure there was alot of discussion about when to launch the PS3. There was a real balance that had to be considered. Every day they stalled, Wii and 360 were selling more consoles and developers were enticed to produce for those consoles already on the market. The whole problem was Blu-ray. How could they correctly predict the right time to produce playstations to coincide with a cheaper Blu-ray? Blu-ray is the Beta max of our times. Sony just needs to not try to corner the market with their exclusive format. They've been burned on that before.
zardoz's Avatar
zardoz at 09/10/2007 13:01
No, it's not early to call the PS3 a failure, and here's why. If Sony were even half right about the future of videogames, then the Wii should be a complete and utter failure whilst the PS3 with superior horse power, Blue Ray, HD support and so on, should be destroying everything in it's path.

The fact that this has not happened and something like the Wii has seen runaway success, means that the PS3 is failure, it's not about what will happen, it's about the decisions made by Sony to arrive at this very point, Sony's decisions were wrong and their vision was wrong, Sony have failed with their product.

There really should be no contest, the PS3 was riding on the wave of one of the most successful home consoles of all time, for the PS3 to be where it is now took a massive misunderstanding from Sony.

The PS3 is a failure, everyone knows it, much in the same way everyone knew the N64 was a failure. Sony have also created an unsustainable beast, it's alright for Microsoft, they have literally more money than they can spend and no company can compete with Microsoft at their own game, inscluding Sony. Apple and Nintendo have shown that in order to compete with more powerful companies, you have to take a side step from the current trends and innovate, unfortunately Sony aint innovators.
Sharpless's Avatar
Sharpless at 09/10/2007 13:14
Sony, the company, is full of fail. The console, however, still has a chance, so long as there aren't too many more Lairs in its future. Here's hoping Heavenly Sword delivers.
rmsk8r05's Avatar
rmsk8r05 at 09/10/2007 13:18
The PS3 is still good, its still good. I knows it. hahahahah!

Seriously now Sony isn't proving us any thing but the fact the developers still can make a great game on a standard DVD format, most people aren't ready to understand that their $600 gaming system can do more then play games, and that thier PSN store is really lacking to what I heard the Xbox live service has. I have PS3 and I know that its struggling, maybe next year it will turn around with some more solid release that don't have to involve MGS4.
Corak's Avatar
Corak at 09/10/2007 13:18
Give it time and it will do well. Once people get fed up with the rings of death, and when the novelty of the Wii wears off there isn't any other choice really. Metal Gear and Final Fantasy will definatly help the console pick up steam, and to some extent Heavenly Sword looks like a blast. And with the inevitable price drop that will happen at some point it will look more and more attractive to more people. Calling it a failure now seems to early, is it not going as well as Sony had hoped and predicted? Sure. But give it some time and Sony will sell more and more consoles.
timmet's Avatar
timmet at 09/10/2007 13:20
The biggest sign of failure is when the public perceives that you have failed. I wouldn't say the PS3 has failed but it is clearly on the road to fail. I doubt the PS3 will come back, they rarely do. And to do so would require marketing savvy unheard of in the corporate world. And come on, this is Sony.
Milofo's Avatar
Milofo at 09/10/2007 13:57
I'd wait for sales figures of big exclusives like MGS4 and FFXIII before I call the PS3 dead.
vinnchan's Avatar
vinnchan at 09/10/2007 14:50
I think we all need to take a quick step back.

This is a book for professionals. It's for marketers. And as a case study in marketing Sony DID fail... and they failed hard. That's what this book will most likely be about. The future is anyone's guess, but so far (which is all the author can write about) he's right; and that's what he's writing about. It's a textbook case for... wait for it... a textbook!
kawitchate's Avatar
kawitchate at 09/10/2007 15:17
it's just some douche that wanted to make a quick buck by claiming that the PS3 is a failure early. i could do the same thing, write a book on how the Xbox 360 is a failure - and with their failure rate and extended warranty, i think i would make a better case!

that said, NEITHER console is a fucking failure yet - everyone just hold yer horses.
Bull Dozer's Avatar
Bull Dozer at 09/10/2007 15:42
He called it a failure?Somebody didn't like Talladega Nights....
wonky360's Avatar
wonky360 at 09/10/2007 16:04
I hope the PS3 gains ground purely for the reason that microsoft need a good competitor to keep the quality up and the price down. I fear the ps3 is gonna become a neogeo or turbografix16 style affair where it will continue to exist in sizable numbers in japan alone.
I was a ps1 and ps2 (1st day) adopter and loved everything sony was doing at the time. It took way too long for the ps3 to come out. I then bought an xbox and loved it too. It was fun being the underdog. Much as I have complaints about the 360 in many aspects (aaarrggghhh the noise) I would never dream of owning the ps3 in its current form. I thing christmas will see 360 slay in the uk, I dont hear anyone I know talking ps3.
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