To start, there's the lack of good software. The PS1 and PS2 were famous for their great third-party exclusives and great library. Basically every top video game franchise dominated the PS1 and PS2. Franchises like Madden NFL, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Kingdom Hearts, and other great series made Sony a lot of money for both of their systems. Playstation 3 only has two exclusive franchises now, both being Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid. Every other big franchise that help sell Playstation systems is available on both the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 now.
The PS3 has been hurt by inconsistency. Both introductory models have been discontinued; a new model has taken over to sell the PS3 which has brought controversy. The PS3 is now sold through a $599 80GB HDD model which comes with the best-selling PS3 title, Motorstorm. The $499 price drop of the 60 GB HDD helped sales of the PS3 sore, but will not help with its discontinuation. At the end of September 2007, ten months since its launch, the PS3 has only sold 4.5 million units. Those numbers are not good compared to Xbox 360's 11.6 million and Wii's 11 million. After Ken Kutagari retired, the new PS3 head honcho Kaz Hirai is trying to fix the PS3's image.
Kaz Hirai is now starting to call the PS3 a game machine first, Blu-Ray player later. Kaz has made a new effort to advertise the PS3 as game system after Kutagari's efforts to be a home entertainment Blu-Ray player. Rumors point to a 80GB SKU price drop to $499 and the introduction of a $399 40GB HDD SKU by April 2008. If a $399 PS3 is launched, the system will do much better in many people's eyes and appeal more to the middle class market.
The Playstation 3, whether it makes a comeback or not, will be Sony's biggest failure. The system is now plagued as a system only for the rich crowd. Its inclusion of Blu-Ray is still criticized to this day and the crazy comments from its top people have made it a complete PR disaster. The PS3 is no doubt, the biggest failure in the Playstation brand name and will be a tough spot for Sony to get out of.
