Digital Home Thoughts: Can the PS3 Save Sony?

"... Early this year, Sony dropped a bombshell: The PS3 release would be pushed back until November. So when E3 came around again this spring, everyone trooped out to the retro Hollywood lotusland of the Sony Pictures lot – only to view the same console they'd been promised the year before. Not great. Delays are nothing new in tech, but Sony seemed intent on making the worst of it. The crowd was kept waiting nearly an hour. Then Kaz Hirai, who heads PlayStation in North America, took the stage to declare, "The next generation doesn't start until we say it does!" He meant it as a dig at Microsoft, but to gamers who'd been salivating for a year, his words were like a bitch slap. The demos that followed were no more impressive than those the year before. Finally, PlayStation chief Ken Kutaragi came forward to make the one announcement everyone wanted to hear: the price. $600 for the high-end model? The room gasped, then fell silent. Almost immediately, the blogosphere lit up with denunciations: Sony has turned its back on gamers. The PS3 will be a failure. Kutaragi and Hirai are idiots."

So completely true. I have been waiting for the PS3 for months, nay years, now, mainly because of the promise of the 1080p. But that announcement regarding it costing a whopping $600 is absolutely nutty. There is no question that the PS3 is extremely advanced and has a number of features that will be unparalleled. However, I am not convinced that Sony will be rescued by the PS3. I remember this kind of hype for the PSP as well and we have all seen what happened there. Well, time will tell, I guess.