What is Sony's biggest mistake this gen?

their marketing division... if anything Sony's approach was rather arrogant, and because of that, it suffered a lot of unwarranted and self-inflicted bruising early in the race... If releasing the PS3 a year later than its primary rival, with a poor launch lineup, at a premium price AND still expect to compete is not an example of arrogance, i don't know what is... (although Sony is still doing well-enough despite its oversights :P)

Normally, i would also bash Sony for purging AAA-quality exclusives (especially FF13), but i also happen to dislike how SE conducts their business; so shifting a little bit of weight on those two-faced, greedy little bastards is only natural.

I think price and exclusive loss has really hurt them. Another thing in my opinion that has hurt is lack/misuse of features. Home was a huge waste of time IMO. It's kind of neat, but that time and $ could have been used to make other options better.

Not that this is a "mistake" on their part, but I think that they could have had a golden opportunity to crush M$. I personally think that if Sony would/would have teamed up with Apple, they would have created the ultimate console. I mean, think about it. Imagine if your PS3 had iTunes on it for video and music download and storage. You could watch almost any movie released by rental (PS Store has a lot, but I think iTunes still has them beat), purcahse and use/transfer any song. It would be great if I could choose to carry my music/videos on both my iPhoneAND my PSP by transferring them using my PS3. Also, if teamed with Apple, the PS3 would actually have a decent web browser (Safari) that could open 98% of web pages and their full contentscompared to maybe 70%(?) currently. I know it would have been a very hard venture for them to accomplish, but I think it would have ultimately led to PS3 dominance. iPods are the best selling mp3 players, iTunes is used by tons and tons of people. I just think it could have been incredible if they would have thought to do it and then made it work. Of course, this is all just my humble opinion, I know it would have been pretty much impossible to do.

the high price

They priced it way too high and didn't have a lot of games at launch. Yes they lost some exclusives but some of those exclusives didn't turn out all that great like Assassins Creed and Fatal Inertia. Exclusives aren't really the problem anymore, Valkyria Chronicles and some other now PS3 games were supposed to be 360 only. The biggest fault as of now is the lack of marketing. The mainstream still says that Sony has no games or that the only games Sony has is Gran Turismo 5, and God of War 3. They most of the games of fall 2008 slip through the cracks with barely any advertisment. When people go to the store and they see Xbox 360 for $300 and PS3 for $400, they automatically think the 360 is cheaper and since more people have that system and hype it up to the nth degree that is what they buy because that is what is cool or all of their other friends have 360's.

I just was at a gamestop today and a sign said that you can get a 360 for $400 with Fable 2 and some other hit game I forget what it was now. I have seen similar advertisments in Wal Mart and Target commercials emphasising the family 360 package.The PS3 alone is just $400 with no game. Sony just needs to drop the price even if it is at a fair price as of now. Even if they start losing money again. It's obvious the consumer wants things cheaper, so that is what they have to do. Sony could offer like Little Big Planet, and Hot ShotsGolf Out of Bounds with 2 dual shock controllers plus link cables for $400 or take a bigger hit on games that have already sold well and put in MGS 4, Killzone 2, Motorstorm 2, andLittle Big Planetwith two controllers and link cables for $400. Basically the consumer is saying the PS3 still isn't worth it.The PS3 isn't ina dangerous situation but they were only about 4 and halfto 5 million units behind MS and now they are approaching 9 million units behind. MSis even beating Sony in Europe now.That has never happened.

Sony can sell toe to toe with MS they were doing and maybe outselling 360 a small bit halfway through 2008 but ever since the 360 dropped another $50 they pulled ahead again.

There was no advertisment for Hot Shots Golf 5, Valkyria Chronicles, and very little advertisment for Little Big Planet, Resistance 2, and Motorstorm 2. The commercials didn't really show the game at all.

Sony better drop the Price soon or hope that God of War 3 and Gran Turismo 5 are enough to get North America to buy the system. Killzone 2 sold well but it didn't move hardware at all. Even MGS4 only moved hardware during the first month it was out. Sony has a guaranteed sales spike with having FF 13 still exclusive in the Japan territory and a guarateed sales spike in Europe with the full release of GT 5. I mean GT 5 Prologue sold over a million in Europe alone. Even though Uncharted 2 will be great, I don't think people are going to buy PS3's for that game. Nobody cared for the other Ratchet on PS3, there not going to care for the sequel. No one knows about Demon Souls except for people who look at gaming sites like these. The PS3 lacks the appeal to the mainstream market. GTA 4, Halo 3, Forza 2, Gears of War, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter 4, Final Fantasy are all games either exclusive to or also available on 360. The Wii has it's new market plus Metroid, Mario, and Zelda, so they have the hardcore gamers right there.

The PS3 is equal to both of those systems, but no one knows about the games that are on it except for people who read sites.

Two things really the price was to high when they launched. And marketing since it's launch the PS3's whole ad campaign has been crap.

its basicaly the price. i bet if the ps3 was in the same price range as the 360 then alot more people would be buying them.

They didn't give me a yellow PS3.

1. They made too little units at the beginning, they only had like a couple hundred thousand for launch if they had more their starting base would have been bigger.

2. Their software (PSN and the version first shipped) was pretty basic nothing really good that came out of the gate

3. Obviously the price was high, but it delivered to consummers I just think the advertising wasn't really done well to make consummers see why they sould spend $600 on the system.

They need to get their marketing down....NOW! How do they even expect to sell the exclusives they have when I see no advertisements for ANY exclusives. I did see an advertisement for inFamous......two months after the game's release.:roll:

Shot themselves in the foot trying to play "catch-up" with Microsoft. The launch was rough and rushed *pretty much* to the last minute. Not giving most devs kits until Summer of '06.

But I'm glad it has picked up though. We're seeing games. More classics are coming.

Well for starters, launching a system tied for the lastest this gen andhaving it cost the most money is not good. And then having no signature game to go with it for a way too long is part of the reason why they are in a hole right now.

Then little mistakes like telling us we dont need rumble, having trophies come out later than they should have. And then it seemed like they had a different kind of PS3 coming out each month and that got a bit silly. From day 1 I thought there should have been a cheaper non BC PS3, and then the one with BC for people that want to spend more.

I think sony has learned some hard lessons this gen and it will give us a better product in the long run, but right now at best they are going to finish 2nd this gen imo.

Losing exclusives and allowing Microsoft to have a year head start on them. Their marketing strategies were/still is pretty poor as well IMO.