Five years of the PlayStation 3

Join Michael Spada in this two-part series as two of the three current generation consoles celebrate their fifth birthday.

Five years…

It’s been five long, wild years since Sony’s PlayStation 3 was released in the United States. While the console’s launch was delayed by four months in Europe, the PS3 has been available in my neck of the woods for half a decade as of this very moment. And if one console has had an insane rollercoaster ride this generation, it’s certainly Sony’s slick black baby.

The Third Beginning

The 2005 Electronics Entertainment Expo saw the big reveal of the PS3 – a sleek, silver version of the launch model with a truly bizarre boomerang style controller. Before it was even launched, the PS3 was in the center of controversy amid accusations of pre-rendered tech demos and a controller more suited for the Australian outback than a comfortable living room.

"I'd throw it away if I could..."

Sony had built a massive legacy up to that point – the original PlayStation was a revolution in gaming, being the first truly successful console using compact discs as a medium for game storage, ushering in a whole new style of storytelling in games. And the PlayStation 2 made DVDs mainstream, selling an ungodly amount of units over the course of its ten year lifespan. Sony had broken into the gaming world and dominated for two generations, but it looked like the third might be their last.

As time went on, the PS3 received its biggest backlash yet with its price point. A whopping $499/£299 was announced as the cost for the cheapest SKU, considerably higher than its direct competition, the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. People were simply not ready to pay that kind of money for a game console, regardless of brand loyalty. It looked like the PS3 was dead on arrival.

However, it launched, and the very people that complained about its price point were front and centre in lines across the world, particularly in the United Kingdom where it was immediately the second fastest selling console of all time, just behind Sony’s PlayStation Portable. But with a weak launch lineup, a spotty online system, and the Xbox 360 already having a year to its advantage, the PS3 was off to a horrendous start.

The Games

Oh my God, Metal Gear Solid 4

The library slowly built up over the course of 2007, with exclusive hits like MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, and of course, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune entering the consoles of PS3 owners worldwide. It took over a year before the library became respectable and worth owning a PS3 for, with Uncharted in particular showing off just what the PS3 could do that the 360 couldn’t. As the years went on, Sony introduced new IPs like Heavenly Sword and created a new mascot with LittleBigPlanet’s SackBoy, while it continued building on its legacy of storied franchises with new additions to franchises such as God of War and Killzone.

The moment when the PS3 became an absolute must-own was June 12, 2008 – the worldwide release date of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. A game packed with so much it barely fit on a dual-layered Blu-ray disc, MGS4 showed off what the PS3 was capable of while simultaneously delivering an absolutely flawless end to one of the most celebrated franchises in videogame history. It was the reason I (and many others) picked up a PS3, and justified the system’s high cost without a shred of doubt.

It may have felt like ages, but five years later, the PlayStation 3 has an incredibly robust lineup, with great exclusives, wonderful third party titles, and arguably more variety than the Xbox 360’s lineup.

In Stores

While the library was growing, the PS3 as a console was hitting some rough patches. Sales were not meeting expectations, production costs were too high, and the PS3 was beginning to get a reputation as difficult to develop for. Multiplatform games were frequently given the edge on the Xbox 360, as PS3 versions of games were known to be buggier and less appealing visually, despite the console’s superior horsepower. With software sales adding salt to the wounds of poor hardware sales, Sony decided to change up just what it was they sent to stores.

Then came the era that hasn’t quite ended – that of eight billion different SKUs for the PS3. The first thing to go was the backwards compatibility. Post-launch SKUs began to come with limited to no PS2 backwards compatibility, while retaining backwards compatibility for PSOne games. Different hard drive sizes began coming out as well, as did various bundles which would include anything from games to Blu-ray movies. Retailers had no clue what they were even selling anymore, as new and increasingly more confusing models of the PS3 continued to hit store shelves, and not for a much lower price.

Price drops were an issue from the beginning, considering its controversial asking amount. Sony refused to drop the price for a long while, finally dropping it down more and more before coming to the reasonable $249/£189 it stands at today. This came as a result of dropping features and changing the console’s makeup, including a full on slim redesign à la the PS2. This console was cheaper to produce, thereby doing significantly less financial damage to Sony. Things have calmed down on that front for now, but as the generation shows no sign of ending, we could still have thousands of SKUs left before Sony finishes up.

Online

Of course, one massive positive Sony always had was its online service, the PlayStation Network. Similar to Xbox 360’s Xbox Live service, the PSN had one major difference – it was free to use. With XBL costing gamers the price of a full game for a year’s subscription, PS3 owners were treated to free online play without a financial cost. I say financial, of course, because many argue that the PS3’s online experience is significantly laggier and less reliable than that of XBL, which can be true on a game-to-game basis. Ultimately, however, it seems only people who exclusively own Xbox 360s are the ones complaining.

Like Xbox Live, the PSN also had a library of downloadable titles. Like its on-disc library, the PSN library was barren at first, borderline embarrassing. Titles came out on a “when we feel like it” basis, with no set release schedule and sometimes weeks in a row without a release. When Xbox Live started aggressively promoting its digital library in 2008 with hits like Braid and Castle Crashers, the PSN quickly rushed to get some digital hits of its own. It took a while, but eventually, they started to pour in, giving Xbox Live Arcade a respectable – but not wholly successful – run for its money. Games like Flower, the PixelJunk series, and Noby Noby Boy gave the PSN an identity all its own, finally making it competitive in the digital marketplace.

And of course, PSN ended up with a delicious advantage over Xbox Live Arcade in that it started featuring downloadable games from Sony’s past. A vast PSOne lineup, including never-before-released Japanese imports, flooded the PSN marketplace and, later on, so did games from both the PS2 and PS3. Portable gamers were given the additional luxury of being able to transfer PSOne games to their PSP for on-the-go play at no extra charge – certainly something Microsoft couldn’t offer. The PSN slowly became a force to be reckoned with and is currently doing quite well for itself.

But that wasn’t enough. Realising, “Hey, Microsoft makes money off this stuff, we should too!” Sony decided to offer a pay service for THEIR online as well. Fortunately for them, it was significantly more of an optional thing than what Microsoft had to offer. PlayStation Plus was launched in June of 2010, and acted merely as something for the diehard PS3 owner. Like XBL, PlayStation Plus cost about the price of a retail title annually, and offered great discounts and exclusive features that regular PSN members could not have access to. Features that, surprisingly, were kind of good. PlayStation Plus currently offers discounts on digital titles, some even for free, as well as early access and premium content that certainly make the price tag sort of worth it. Granted, it was definitely for people who spent a LOT of time on their consoles, but for those with the time and money, PS3 owners were given plenty to brag about.

 A Home Entertainment Mecca

The PS3 was also notable from the get-go as being one of the driving forces behind Blu-ray becoming a popular medium. The PS3 did for Blu-ray what the PS2 did for DVDs – it gave people an excuse to try it out and then fall in love. I owned and was fine with a VCR before the PS2 came out, but once I had one, I figured, “Hey, let me try this DVD thing out.” Before you knew it, my DVD library was (and still is) massive. The same thing happened with PS3 owners. They figured they paid a lot of money for the console, it was probably worth it to try out every feature. Then the Blu-ray addiction began. People with a PS3 have no reason not to own at least a few Blu-ray movies, simply because they can. Its jump started the collection of many people I know, people who otherwise may not be bothered making the leap.

Blu-ray aside, though, the PS3 continued Sony’s tradition of releasing consoles with other home entertainment value. The PS3 included a somewhat competent internet browser, music playback capabilities, and later on, the PlayStation Store became home to digital video downloads and rentals. PS3 owners suddenly had a massive video library to choose from at a respectable price, working as a great alternative to those without cable. And let’s not forget Netflix. While Xbox 360 owners need an Xbox Live Gold Account (as well as a Netflix account) to access Netflix on their consoles, PS3 owners could use Netflix without subscribing to PlayStation Plus. Not a bad deal. With this much video content available at PS3 owners’ fingertips, the system soon became the only piece of home entertainment people needed.

Oh, and, if you like social interaction, the PS3 also offered Home. Essentially a poor man’s Second Life, PlayStation Home was an online social playground, allowing PS3 owners to interact with others of their kind. Featuring mini-games, customisable homes, and unnecessarily expensive clothing for your avatars, PlayStation Home was a fun little thing to try once and forget about entirely. But it was definitely there.

Motion

The Wii started the motion control revolution. While there’s much to be argued about the merits in motion-controlled gaming (don’t worry, part two will talk all about this), there’s no denying that Nintendo started a trend. Motion gaming became mainstream very quickly, and after years, Sony didn’t want to sit by and let Nintendo bring in all the money. They figured shoddily implementing basic motion controls into their controller simply wasn’t enough, so out came the PlayStation Move in 2010. Billed as, basically, a Wii Remote but accurate, the PlayStation Move was an expensive and, ultimately, not-that-great way to bring motion gaming to the PS3.

Sure, it did what the Wii Remote did and technically better, but there was not that much support even at launch. Very few games were even considered enjoyable, and the hardcore crowd (the bulk of the PS3’s install base) found little to no use for it. With Nintendo already cornering the market with their cheaper and more accessible Wii, Sony targeted something they simply could not have and sort of floated in limbo because of it. The Move was expensive, required a pricier console to use compared to the Wii, and honestly, nothing matched the sheer simplicity and fun of Wii Sports, a game many casual Wii owners just never took out of the system. A nice try, but this is one time where Sony just could not take Nintendo down.

Hacked!

The most recent and unfortunate chapter of the PlayStation 3 saga occurred earlier this year, when the PlayStation Network was HACKED. Ooh, scary! In April 2011, nearly 80 million PSN accounts were made vulnerable to hackers, blocking players from access to the entirety of the PlayStation Network for around a month. This was especially unfortunate for people who had picked up new releases around the same time, games like Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat which featured heavy online components. But what was worse, of course, was the threat of the hackers gaining access to credit card information.

After what seemed like an eternity, the problem was finally solved and gamers could get back to life as usual. But not before an absolutely massive negative backlash to Sony’s handling of the situation. Sony was giving out lots of “We have no idea what’s going on” type of responses during the crisis, which naturally, is not a good thing for an INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS. The end result was, thankfully, zero recorded credit card frauds as a result of the hacking, and a PSN “Welcome Back” package, offering free downloadable titles and a month long trial of PlayStation Plus to everyone affected by the outage. Not a terrible deal, but surely many people would have just preferred that everything be okay during that time.

What’s Left?

Five long years have gone by, and the PlayStation 3 has had one long journey. Starting with controversy and never truly escaping it, it’s a miracle so many great things have happened in between. Through all the issues with prices, SKUs, game libraries, and potential identity theft, we have been treated to a system that ended up meeting the quality expected of a Sony console. It may be in third place as far as sales go, but the PlayStation 3 has a loyal fanbase who will be there until the system’s last breath.

We’ve been given some of the best games of this generation thanks to the PlayStation 3, millions were introduced to Blu-ray, and millions more were brought together through free online gaming. Sony seems to believe the PS3 has five good years left in it before moving onto a new console, but I think we all know that’s a lie. There’s a good chance the PS3’s best years are behind it, but the future is looking bright still. There’s no real shortage of planned games for the next year or two, and the rumor mill is relatively empty in regards to a PlayStation 4 hitting shelves any time soon. It may not be another full five years, but the console is still kicking.

So with half a decade gone and many hours of tremendous games played, here’s to whatever the future holds with the PlayStation 3. Just don’t make me use a Move controller to do a mock-toast.