Time's Online magazine ranks Sony's PlayStation 3 as one of the top five over hyped failures...
Time says that PlayStation 3 wasn't nearly as awesome as the hype suggested:
"The big story in computer games this year was HOW TO BLOW A HUGE LEAD, by Sony. Its PlayStation 2 was the champ in the last round of the console wars. This time Sony bet on a chip called the Cell and a disc format called Blu-ray. They're probably awesome, but how would anybody know? The PS3 is hideously expensive--it goes for up to $600--and Sony manufactured only a piddling few hundred thousand for the U.S., fewer for Japan. Plus it's hard to write games for; the launch titles were lame. You know you're in trouble when you get beat by something called a Wii."
The PlayStation 3 was referenced with four other over-hyped products:
- Snakes On A Plane - A movie that looked good...ok, it looked really bad.
- If I Did It - A book and TV interview about how O.J Simpson would have killed his wife and her friend.
- Studio 60 - A NBC TV show.
- Bode Miller - Expected to win a bunch of Olympic metals, fails to gain any.
Does the PlayStation 3 really fit with a failed TV show and a canceled TV interview/book? Perhaps the closest PlayStation 3 comparison would be Snakes On A Plane. A product that launched poorly and didn't bring in nearly the revenue people would have initially expected.
Many of us were waiting to see Sony recover from all the negative press associated with the PlayStation 3 but the negative attention continues today. Maybe 2007 will be the year Sony says "I told you so" - if the Wii runs out of steam.
Source: www.time.com
