The failure of the PS3.

Now calm down Sony fanboys and let me explain...

I loved the PS1. I played the thing daily until virtual exhaustion. Great games, great graphics, a revolutionary controller, and a truly incredible game library. I truly thought I would be a PlayStation fan for life. Then came the PS2. It became a massive success due to excellent press management (hype) and several exclusive third party titles, specifically Grand Theft Auto (GTA). The Nintendo Gamecube, although graphically superior, just couldn't keep up with only a hand full of quality first party titles. Microsoft came late to the party with the Xbox. The Xbox was graphically the superior system of the generation with a strong Xbox Live service, but struggled to put a dent in Sony's dominance. Sony was the king of third party titles and had a library and fanbase that could not be touched.

So coming into this generation, Sony was the safe bet to win again. Although the PS2 was not so graphically advanced versus the field due to a key design flaw limiting data transfer between the processor and the memory, I chalked that up to a one time mistake. I figured Sony would learn their lesson and remove any potential such bottlenecks in the next generation. After all, the PlayStation brand really buoyed the company during the late 90s and early 00s. It was Sony's cash cow and I would sure it would be treated with the respect it deserved. Boy was I wrong.

Sony, a company with a history of failed proprietary media formats (beta, minidisc, memorystick, PSP disc) made what I believe was the fatal mistake very early in the console design cycle. Sony corporate forced the PS3 designers to put a BlueRay dvd drive in the PS3. BlueRay dvd was Sony's new high definition disk format. BlueRay disks hold more data than their rival format the HD DVD. However, even though both hold enough data for HD movies, BlueRay players and disks cost far more to produce. Putting a BlueRay dvd drive in the PS3 was a not-so-veiled attempt to force the market to adopt Sony's HD format. I strongly believe this decision killed the system and will explain why.

As the costs and delays of the new BlueRay technology became apparent, Sony was forced to make some tough choices. Due to delays and the prices of BlueRay player production, it caused Sony to delay the system a full year after Microsoft was to release their next gen system, the Xbox360. This gave Microsoft a year head start to build a game library and a customer base.

On the eve of E3 2006, Sony announced a $600 price point for the system. This was $200 more than the comparably equipped Xbox360 and more than twice the cost of the Nintendo Wii system. The bulk of the cost was due to, you guessed it, the BlueRay. Over the following days, at E3 2006, it was apparent that Sony was in trouble. The ridiculousness of the $600 price point was the talk of the show. But I was optimistic, not for the system's quality, but for it's success. After all this was Sony, the hype machine of all hype machines. They had the inferior system in the previous generation and dominated none-the-less. They had a year more design time and that is an eternity in the technology field. Sony promised the price difference and extra development time would make the system the best the world had ever seen. Sony promised to be the only system with 1080P resolution, slightly superior to the 1080i supported by the Xbox360. So despite the initial bad signs, I was sure Sony would weather the storm.

As the November 2006 PS3 release date approached, the bad news for Sony mounted. Developer Rockstar announced that the next version of GTA would be released for the PS3 and 360 simultaneously. Production problems would limit the number of PS3 systems available at launch to less than a quarter of what the Xbox360 launched with, which was in itself a historical shortage. Sony promised that the PS3 would have unrivaled internet gaming features (always Microsoft's strong point) but showed no demos or cohesive strategy. Rumors of overheating systems and design bugs swirled. Developer Ubisoft announced that its previously PS3 exclusive title Assassin's Creed would no longer be exclusive and would be released on the 360 as well. Overall, the industry was showing major signs that the PS3 was in trouble.

Finally, launch day arrived and the PS3 was unleashed on the world. But the talk of the gaming world was not of the PS3's superior graphics (which don't exist) or the terrific games (of which there is really only one). The talk was instead of how many people simply bought the systems to sell for a profit on Ebay. Most polls taken of the people waiting in line for the PS3 indicated that close to three out of four had no intention of keeping the system. And with the $1200 to $2000 selling price on the auction block, who could blame them? Many were adopting the "Wii60" approach, opting to buy an Xbox360 and Wii for the same price ($50 more) as one PS3.

So how did the system turn out? Quite frankly, a disaster. The PS3 is an 11 pound camel (a horse built by committee) and it shows. It is capable of everything and good at nothing. SOny tried to give us a machine for movies, video, pictures, games, online shopping, and the internet. A cluttered user interface, difficult to use online store, user-unfriendly HD movie player, buggy downloads that take hours, and most importantly gaming titles that play and look the same or worse than the Xbox360 versions. Oh and as for reverse compatibility, there was a bug with that too and most titles for PS2 are unplayable. That's okay, because if you wanted to continue a game you saved on PS2 you need a memory card adapter, that won't be available until 07.

Although Sony had corrected the bizarre boomerang controllers they had first shown in 2005, the "new" controller looks exactly like the PS2 controller, which was pretty much identical to the dual shock controller from the PS1. Sure they are wireless and include a gyroscope capability (a blatant attempt to steal thunder from Nintendo's Wiimote), but the gyroscopes are so far a mess described by reviewers as very buggie and disastrous for use during games. Sony also removed any rumble feature, likely so Sony could avoid paying licensing fees to the company that had successfully sued them for $90 million for stealing the feature in the first place. Overall, the controllers feel too light, cheaply made, and come across as thrown together.

And remember the superior 1080P gaming Sony had promised? During the system design, Sony made a crucial decision to control costs, it cut back on the RAM for the PS3. RAM is critical for HD gaming, especially to support really high resolutions. One way to make up for a smaller amount of RAM is with fast transfer speed between the disk and the RAM, but apparently Sony didn't account that BlueRay has a slower data transfer rate than even current generation dvds. All of this resulted in a big embarrassment. Resistance:Fall of Man, the best and arguable only worthwhile title out for the PS3 at launch, couldn't support more than 720P. 720P resolution is far less than the 1080I resolution supported by the vast majority of 360 games. To make matters worse, there was a bug in the PS3 firmware that didn't allow any games in 780P, so gamers would have to settle for 720I at launch, far less than the 1080P they promised.

Although the resolution firmware will likely be fixed and the interface may be upgraded in the future, the fact is the PS3, as released, is an inferior product at a bloated price. It feels forced and incomplete, as if it is a beta product out for testing. The release library is dismal. The RAM shortage problems will get worse as games push the graphical envelope. The online component is a mess. One can only ask, what were they thinking? The only reason I can see to purchase this system is if you want a BlueRay dvd player. Although I question why you would buy a BlueRay player at this point given Sony's track record with the formats they support.

The flack at Sony for this failure is already being felt. The head of Sony Computer Entertainment was replaced (fired) today. Some analysts are already saying the PS3 will be the last PlayStation version. I sincerely hope this is not true and that Sony rebounds in the next generation. Yes, the PS3 is a disappointment, but my greatest hope is that Sony and others in the industry learn from their mistakes. Please don't try to force us to buy an experimental format. Please don't give use a multimedia machine when we just want to play games. Please test your product thoroughly before release. Please give us a controller that is at least as good as the previous generation. And please don't ever try to charge us $600 for an 11 pound camel again.