Can you remember when Sony announced the absurdly high price tag for the PS3? Sony’s current President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida can, and has called the $599 price tag “horrifying” Shuhei Yoshida’s comments come from Develop: Brighton which is taking place today.
Alex Avard who is a staff writer for GamesRadar wrote on Twitter, that Yoshida describes the $599 price tag at E3 2006 as “horrifying”. The high price tag for the PS3 came as a surprise to most consumers at the time. Sony was slowly transitioning away from the PS2, a console that sold incredibly well and had generated a bunch of goodwill towards Sony. However, many people saw the PS4 price as arrogance and over-confidence from Sony and as such people jumped ship.
Sony was playing catch-up for most of the last generation. Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 at a lower price point and it had some strong releases within its first two years on market. The Nintendo Wii was a commercial hit and broke into the mainstream. The Xbox 360 also played a big part in revolutionizing online gaming. During the seventh gen, the Xbox 360 was at the forefront of online gaming whereas Sony was lagging behind.
The PS3 did eventually catch up to the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. It took the PS3 several years but it was thanks to strong exclusives like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time, God of War 3 and The Last of Us. Strong first party exclusives are something Sony has carried on doing throughout the current generation. Infamous: Second Son, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Bloodborne, Horizon: Zero Dawn and the recent God of War are good examples of strong first party titles.
However, it looks as if history may be repeating itself. As mentioned in our recent feature, Sony is in danger of losing its audience after becoming complacent, with the lack of crossplay and the Fortnite account controversy being examples of this. The company has acknowledged the criticisms of its stance on crossplay, with Sony America CEO Shawn Layden telling Eurogamer that he’s “looking at a lot of the possibilities.” No progress in this department has been made as of yet, but Sony will hopefully sort something out soon.
