How did PlayStation survive the impossible odds in the Seventh generation?

[Yugioh21]

With all the success of PS4, recently hitting 7 million units sold. And now out pacing Microsoft’s Xbox One, who just reach 5 million, within the same time period. But things weren't always positive for PlayStation, last generation things looked a lot different, PlayStation 3 was on the ropes. Rumors were even going around that PS3 might be Sony's last console. With it's back against the wall, the gap PlayStation enjoyed over the Xbox brand, during PS2 days practically disappeared. The Xbox brand over took PlayStation. Of course there are different variables that contribute to this. (late release date, price, lack of games, e.t.c.) But one thing was clear the PlayStation brand was not the invincible God like name as the PS2 sales made it's seem. PlayStation 3 was struck down from the top, bleeding and bleeding heavy.

In the confusion the merciless, an ambitious Xbox 360, applied the pressure to the former and fallen king. With big AAA tiles like Halo 3, and Gears of War. Along with releasing it own warriors, on the battlefield. Microsoft also started taking PlayStation's loyal exclusive names away from it. Like Devil may cry, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid, and even Grand Theft Auto started to playing both sides of the fence.

Going multi platform was an obvious smart move for, third party developers, to sell more games. But a crushing, blow to Sony's already injured PS3. But amidst the darkness, faced with certain defeat. The PlayStation 3, would not die there. With everything against it, the PlayStation 3 refused to stay down. Sony would not allow Microsoft to take the throne without a fight.

The Sony PlayStation 3 fire back with a vengeance! Pulling out the stops, summoning all of it's resources, to hold it's ground, against the unstoppable Wii, and the even stronger 360. Sony still had more developers than Microsoft and Nintendo, and they used that to their advantage. Warhawk, a game Sony hadn't touched since PlayStation 1, was brought back alive. Sony's strategy must have been overwhelm the enemy with their numbers. Because PlayStation 3 started pushing out lots of games in response to Xbox 360's challenge.

Along with Warhawk, Sony released new IP's which ultimately defined the PS3 brand in its lifetime. Heavily Sword, Uncharted Drake’s Fortune, and Infamous. They were all brought to the front-lines to defend the PlayStation brand. In a time of skepticism, the PlayStation brand was determined not to die in that generation.

It must have been a success, because despite all of it's trails the PlayStation 3 made it threw those dark days alive. All thanks to those early four games Warhawk, Heavily Sword, Uncharted Drake Fortune, and infamous. As time went on the price of PS3 dropped, and even more new games came out. Making it easy for PS3 to keep up with 360. But those months will be forever remembered as the closest we ever came to losing the PlayStation name forever. Today the lifetime sales of PS3 and 360 are almost neck and neck with PS3 having a slight lead.

In some ways, you could ague the only reason PS3 survived it's struggle with 360 is because, PS2 was so successful before it. If a new company had came out with a new console, that suffered from all the same disadvantages the PS3 had. It almost goes without saying, that they would have had a different out come. In addition to that the PS4 today is doing well, selling even faster than PS2. Possibly in some ways the injured PS3 was helped by its older and younger bothers PS2 and PS4. To survive 360's onslaught on PS3, which would have broken a weaker brand.

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[Zinc]

Pretty much this!

Playstation is such a stronger brand then Xbox amongst gamers. And it's not like the PS3 was a bad product, people did want it; the price was just too high.

I see a real problem with the biggest gaming outlets being strictly American, they tend not to acknowledge the rest of the world. Which is kinda crazy, Europe is a bigger market than the US now. Vita being a prime example, it got abysmal selling performance in the US but fare much better in the other markets, US outlets doesn't care.

Anyway, PS brand and the fact that PS3 after all was a good product albeit an expensive one made it possible for PS3 to eventually overtake the 360. Xbox One certainly doesn't have that luxury, and its sales in Europe is pathetic in comparison, PS3 still sells much better, even the Vita some weeks lol.

[GLogic]

Playstation was the first one setting high quality gaming standard to the large public and therefore enjoyed some kind off monopoly benefits for a long time. However, with the rise of the Xbox these benefits became less as Xbox did a very good job in offering a large variety of games and making it affordable to the large public. I think that strategy helped Xbox capture a large part of the playstation gaming market and thus causing Playstation to suffer. Nowadays, Playstation is coming back with good marketed values/benefits. I still do think their pricings are a bit on the high side, but that is my humble opinion ^_^ .

[sickmyduck]

Pesonally i prefer my desktop over any other console. Yes there are exclusive titles for consoles but i'm not even that big of a gamer nowadays so i don't really have a need for a console ;)

[korkyman]

I really like PS but didn't get a new one since PS2 because it's too expensive.

Games are also not cheap.

[Anomandaris]

The PS4 gives great performance for the price, better than the Xbox One. This made it more attractive ($100 cheaper in the US market, or 20% cheaper, is huge). Furthermore, both consoles lacked compelling and numerous exclusives, so people could mostly make the decision based on price and theoretical stats (not that most people do the latter well, mostly they just look at the numbers and go with the bigger ones). Nintendo, as always, has its own market corner and mostly stays there (not that that corner is small or anything!).

The problems with the PS3 were its price, both for customers and for Sony, and relative lack of exclusives. Sony was selling at a loss throughout most of the life of the console, even more than Microsoft was (which also sold at a loss, although not such a huge one). This ate a lot of profits and still the console was too expensive for the end user. Also, in the console market, which sadly is very driven by the desire to be able to play games that other people cannot (i.e. exclusives) and having games on your platform that are consciously and maliciously denied to other platforms is viewed as something positive. Xbox 360 had better exclusives and the Halo franchise, as always, was its saving grace.