this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Wow, people here were in high school or not born back then, huh? Crap.
No, the PS3 wasn't that bad. It dominated pretty quickly in EU and Japanese territories where people weren't as keen on Xbox Live, and once they dropped backwards compatibility and the price (still hate that, I've re-bought a fat PS3 later in life), they actually caught up and ended up narrowly outselling the 360.
It's one of those consoles that performed differently in different regions, like the OG Xbox and the N64, which did way worse than people think. It ended up being a pretty even split, so Americans in particular remember the launch as being disastrous and it has become a bit of a trope. It wasn't a good launch, but definitely not one of the top three worst console launches in history, even among the mainstream players.
The main reason people call it a disastrous launch is because it was Sony, right after the best selling console on the world, the PS2.
If it was any other company, the launch would be considered a huge success despite the controversy but for it to go toe to toe to the successor of OG Xbox, which in your own words didn't do that great is a pretty big fall.
Sure, and I did say it wasn't a good launch.
It was far from a disaster in context, though. The 360 had a whole year's head start (almost two in Europe), and it was already a massive hit, particularly in the US, by the time Sony hit the market.
People were (rightfully) disappointed by the spec and the launch lineup and (not so rightfully) bummed out by the price, but it was far from a disaster and it fully turned around by the end of the generation.