With a mammoth market share in their control, Sony was emboldened to embark on a risky venture with their new machine. On May 16th, 2005 they officially unveiled the Playstation 3. You might recall a strangely shaped controller shown off next to the console for the first time, a clear departure from the previous Dualshock controllers. Dubbed the "boomerang" by the media and consumers, Sony was quick to adjust to feedback and alter their controller design much closer to their previous iterations.
Video footage of the predicted PS3 specs was shown at E3 2005, notably a Final Fantasy VII tech demo (fans got hard). The initial prototype shown at the conference was different to what would become the final product. It featured 2 HDMI ports, 3 Ethernet ports and 6 USB ports. These were later reduced to 1 HDMI port, 1 Ethernet port, and 4 USB ports, which was assumed to cut costs.
Even so, Sony dropped a bomb at the show with the coveted:
Many things factored into the high price tag of the console. One example was blu-ray playback was featured in the console, and was a relatively infant technology at the time, with blu-ray players belonging to a niche market. A typical blu-ray player at the time could run you up to a few hundred dollars. It was reported that each system was costing Sony roughly $800-900, each sold at a massive loss.
Nevertheless, the 20Gb model would be launched at $499, with the 60Gb model setting you back a whopping $599. A devastating meme would emerge from the ashes of the announcement, the first of many. Another wrench was thrown into the mix, as an unfortunate delay of the European launch spelled misery for EU customers. A 6 month delay was no joke, as prospective European customers waited until March of 2007 before being able to get their hands on the first taste Sony's next gen. The console was first launched in Japan on November 11th, 2006. Within 24 hours, it had sold almost 82,000 units. A United States release was followed shortly after on the 17th of November. Reports of violence surrounded the release. One incident actually involved a customer getting shot, campers being robbed at gunpoint, some being shot in drive-by BB gun shooting, and one location where 60 campers fought over 10 systems.
While delayed in Europe, Sony enjoyed a successful launch there. Around 600,000 units were sold within the first 48 hours. Though garnering initial success through name and marketing alone, Sony soon found itself in an uphill battle. Supplies were running low, many consumers were opting out of a purchase due to the astronomical price tag, and slow releases of new games led to countless memes and internet jokes.
A new addition came in the software of the console, called the 'XrossMediaBar' or XMB. It included 9 categories of options: Users, Settings, Photo, Music, Video, Game, Network, PlayStation Network and Friends (similar to the PlayStation Portable media bar). By default, the What's New section of PlayStation Network is displayed when the system starts up. The PS3 included the ability to store various master and secondary user profiles, manage and explore photos with or without a musical slide show, play music and copy audio CD tracks to an attached data storage device, play movies and video files from the hard disk drive, an optical disc (Blu-ray Disc or DVD-Video) or an optional USB mass storage or Flash card.
The Friends menu allowed mail with emoticons and attached picture features and video chat which required an optional PlayStation Eye or EyeToy webcam. The Network menu allowed online shopping through the PlayStation Store and connectivity to the PlayStation Portable via Remote Play. [An image of the UI below]
Sony was losing ground fast in the United States to Microsoft's newest addition to the console industry, the Xbox 360. A 1 year headstart, stronger marketing campaign coupled with a cheaper entry point guaranteed success for Microsoft. Sony was tasked to find a solution and fast. On
August 18th, 2009 Sony introduced the newly designed Playstation 3 'Slim'. A new form factor, additional harddrive storage, and price drop to $299 made it competitive again.
On September 17th, 2010 (date differs per region), Sony made a bid to enter the motion control realm by introducing its take on motion gaming: The Playstation Move. Based around a handheld motion controller wand, PlayStation Move uses inertial sensors in the wand to detect its motion, and the wand's position is tracked using a PlayStation webcam. Hardware available at launch included the main PlayStation Move motion controller, a supplementary PlayStation Move navigation controller, and an optional PlayStation Move charging station. It competed with the Wii Remote Plus and Kinect motion controllers introduced with the Wii and Xbox 360 home consoles, respectively.
Although PlayStation Move was introduced on the pre-existing PlayStation 3 console, Sony stated prior to release that it was treating Move's debut as its own major "platform launch", with an aggressive marketing campaign to support it. The tagline for PlayStation Move from E3 2010 was "
This Changes Everything", including partnerships with Coca-Cola, as part of the
"It Only Does Everything" marketing campaign which debuted with the redesigned "Slim" PlayStation 3.
The brand was given a new image, and new life was breathed into the console. Sony continued the momentum by announcing Playstation Plus at E3 2010. The service allowed additional features to be utilized to the growing Playstation Network. Features such as: Demos, game and system software updates download automatically, early or exclusive access to some beta, demos or other premium content, and online game save storage were some of the benefits of the service. However, like with all good things, a hiccup surfaced as the PSN was brought down for 3 weeks, with PS3 gamers left in the dark. On April 23rd, 2011, Sony revealed the outage was due to "an external intrusion on our system". Later they revealed that the personal information of 77 million users might have been taken, including: names; addresses; countries; email addresses; birthdates; PSN/Qriocity logins, passwords and handles/PSN online IDs.
There was no evidence that any credit card data had been taken, but the possibility could not be ruled out, and Sony advised customers that their credit card data may have been obtained. Additionally, the credit card numbers were encrypted and Sony never collected the three digit CVC or CSC number from the back of the credit cards which is required for authenticating some transactions. In response to the incident, Sony announced a "Welcome Back" program, 30 days free membership of PlayStation Plus for all PSN members, two free downloadable PS3 games, and a free one-year enrollment in an identity theft protection program. Jack Tretton later addressed the issue at E3 2011 with a
public apology
Moving on, the next year brought a nice change to PS Plus. On June 4, 2012, at E3, PlayStation CEO Jack Tretton announced the Instant Game Collection. Members of PlayStation Plus would receive 12 games instantly as part of their membership, with a new game rotating in and out of the collection. Members would be able to keep the games in their collection as long as they are a member of PlayStation Plus. If their membership lapses, the games will become locked and unplayable. However, once the membership is renewed, the games will become unlocked again. The longer a user is a member, the larger their game collection will become.
Sony was enjoying increasing sales success each successive year, beating out Microsoft across Europe and Japan, while still remaining the underdog in the US. On September 19th, 2012, Sony
introduced yet another cousin in the PS3 family. Nicknamed the 'Super Slim'. It was 20% smaller and 25% lighter than the original Slim. Two models, a 250Gb and 500Gb were given as options, with a later 12Gb released.
Back through time, what were some of the highlights of the PS3's years?
*Click for video*
This was it. Sony's first foray into high definition, and the PS3 brought with it a number of launch games, some better than others. Notable among them were:
Resistance: Fall of Man, Ridge Racer 7, NBA 2K7, Call of Duty 3, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 8.
Year 2 of the Playstation 3. Developers were beginning to get better acquainted with the console's powerful but complicated architecture. Games were beginning to improve technically and visually, with quite a few standouts that year. Some big hitters included:
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, MotorStorm, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Darkness, MLB 07: The Show, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Warhawk, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Heavenly Sword, Skate, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, COD4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed and The Orange Box.
Another year, another downpour of great titles to choose from. A
monstrous one at that. PS3 owners were again in for a treat with two bangs right out the gate in
Burnout Paradise and
Devil May Cry 4. Take a look at the others:
MLB 08: The Show, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Grand Theft Auto IV, Haze
, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Battlefield: Bad Company, Soulcalibur IV, Dead Space, Saints Row 2, Eternal Sonata, BioShock, Far Cry 2, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Resistance 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Call of Duty: World at War, Mirror's Edge, Prince of Persia.
If you thought 2008 was a killer year, there was no let up. Goddamnit Sony wanted to top it:
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Street Fighter IV, Killzone 2, Resident Evil 5, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, inFamous, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Prototype, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Need for Speed: Shift, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Demon's Souls, Brütal Legend, Borderlands, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, Tekken 6, Dragon Age: Origins, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed II, God of War HD Collection, and The Saboteur.
Another year, another barrage of games. With Sony's immense first party portfolio and great third party support, they ensured another great year for gamers with hits like:
Bayonetta, Darksiders, BioShock 2, Heavy Rain, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, MLB 10: The Show, Final Fantasy XIII, God of War 3, Just Cause 2, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Red Dead Redemption, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Dead Rising 2, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Fallout: New Vegas, Vanquish, Call of Duty: Black Ops, The Sly Collection, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and last but certainly not least,
Gran Turismo 5.
Phew, 2010 was nuts. Now I don't know about topping it, but this year brought on just as many gems as the previous:
DC Universe Online, LittleBigPlanet 2, Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, Crysis 2, Bulletstorm, Killzone 3, MLB 11: The Show, Homefront, Shift 2: Unleashed, Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, L.A. Noire, Dirt 3, Infamous 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dead Island, Resistance 3, God of War: Origins HD Collection, Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection, Rage, Dark Souls, Batman: Arkham City, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Battlefield 3, Sonic Generations, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and Saints Row: The Third
I can't keep up with all these games lol. Let's continue. Twenty-twelve, here we go, some big ones:
Final Fantasy XIII-2, Soul Calibur V, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, The Darkness II, Twisted Metal, Mass Effect 3, MLB 12: The Show, Max Payne 3, Dragon's Dogma, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Spec Ops: The Line, Starhawk, Darksiders II, Far Cry 3, Borderlands 2, Dishonored, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Assassin's Creed 3, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
Here we are in 2013. The merging of two generations, yet the Playstation 3 is continuing to receive stunning support both from its maker and third party publishers. Arguably bigger than any of the preceding few years, it's a joy that even in its 7th year, remarkable titles have hit (and are hitting) the system. The big ones:
Devil May Cry, Dead Space 3, BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider, God of War: Ascension, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, Metro: Last Light, The Last of Us, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix, Puppeteer, Beyond: Two Souls, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Gran Turismo 6, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, and, oh yea,
Grand Theft Auto V.
As we approach the end of this year, the Playstation 3 has changed its destiny from launch. From disastrous beginnings to a respectable late life, it's given tens of millions of fans enjoyment worthy of their time. It has solidified itself as a member of the Playstation family. As with its previous consoles, Sony has reassured that the PS3 will continue getting support. That much is evident, as even bigger games will land on the system in the near future from titles like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Destiny, Dragon Age Inquisition, and obviously sports titles, the next COD, Assassin's Creed, etc. At this point in its life, it's sold over 75 million consoles. It's a far cry from the Playstation 2, but respectable by any standard. Support for the next few years will ensure more sales and who knows, maybe even hit the 100 million mark.
That'll do pig. That'll do.
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