Sony has admitted that it hit a rough patch with the PS3‘s launch, starting with the console’s price and difficult architecture. In a video interview with CNBC, outgoing PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst, and former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden briefly discussed what went wrong.
Sony acknowledges that the PS3’s price tag was too high
Ryan said that if he had to “encapsulate the PlayStation 3 generation” he’d conclude that Sony got “a bit carried away with the success that we’d been enjoying on PlayStation 2.” “We kind of stumbled a little bit at the start of that generation,” Ryan added, admitting that the early days of the PS3 were “difficult.”
At the time of the PS3’s release, Hulst had only been part of the PlayStation family for a year. He led Killzone studio Guerrilla Games at the time, which Sony acquired in 2005. According to him, the PS3 was a powerful machine, but one that was very difficult to develop games for. He added that Sony had to work very hard with some “amazing franchises” to bring games to the PS3.
Layden is of the view that Sony’s PS3 era missteps led to the creation of some amazing first-party games that ended up defining PlayStation. Realizing its hardware and price fumbles, the company focused on software and won in that department.
