Summary
- Former SIE president Shuhei Yoshida says the PS3 era almost destroyed PlayStation.
- Despite selling 87 million units, the PS3 lost the company over $1 billion.
- Sony was able to bounce back with subsequent hardware releases.
After thirty years with the company, former Sony Interactive Entertainment president Shuhei Yoshida retired last month. Since departing Sony, Yoshida has been regaling the media with anecdotes about the inner workings of the gaming giant.
In a recent interview with Games Beat, Yoshida was candid about the most difficult moments in his decades-long career at Sony.
The PS3 Almost Ended PlayStation
“The second year of the original PlayStation was very hard. I was very concerned,” Yoshida began. “PS3 was another hard time. At the time I was part of management, so I could see the financials. We were losing a billion dollars. I thought PlayStation was finished. But luckily, at that time Sony’s flatscreen TVs were hugely popular. The TV group was making enough money to cover the losses from the PS3, and we were able to survive. But that was the most difficult time.”
Yoshida describes the situation as a near-fatal catastrophe for PlayStation, which is somewhat surprising. The PlayStation 3 was a low point for the company in terms of how culturally relevant it was during its life cycle. This was the only period of the so-called “console wars” where Xbox was a legitimate competitor to PlayStation commercially and in the zeitgeist. However, the PlayStation 3 still reportedly sold 87 million units, surpassing even the Xbox 360 according to Sony’s numbers.
Sony was always going to consider the PlayStation 3 a failure compared to its predecessor because the PlayStation 2 sold an unbelievable 160 million units. However, it’s still surprising to hear that Sony lost over a billion on a system that was selling reasonably well. To date, the PlayStation 5 has sold fewer units than the PlayStation 3, for instance.
Regardless, PlayStation survived the disappointing PS3 era and bounced back with the hugely successful PlayStation 4 in 2013. The PlayStation 5 has also proved a strong seller, especially in comparison to its direct competitor the Xbox Series X/S. With Xbox now porting first-party titles to the PlayStation 5, Sony appears to have emerged victorious from its decades-long rivalry with Microsoft.
PlayStation 3
- Brand
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Sony
- Operating System
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CellOS
- Storage
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20-500 GB
- VR Support
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No