Falling Behind

Sony's struggles in this current console generation have been well documented. The company limped out of the gate with PS3 at $599 and is still struggling to hit a price point more palatable for consumers. Recently, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai also admitted that the simultaneous global launch was a mistake. Now, here we are a few years later and the PS3 trails the Xbox 360 in worldwide installed base by 8 million and the Wii by 28 million. We'd be surprised to see Sony ever leave third place (we disagree with Mr. Pachter), even with Sony's much touted 10-year plan. And at some point as a company you have to consider cutting your losses. Perhaps it's just time for Sony to exit hardware, much like Sega, and go the route of software publisher? 

IndustryGamers  recently spoke to ngmoco founder Neil Young, who also seemed to think Sony's days in hardware could be numbered.  “It seems to me that if you're competing for the living room, and there are three companies competing for it, then one of them is going to have to be on the ropes. In the last generation, it was Nintendo on the ropes, but they were able to rebound with the Wii. I'm not sure that Sony has the same caliber of creative thinkers inside their organization to be able to rebound... I don't know if Sony thinks of themselves as a hardware company or software company, but I bet Nintendo thinks of themselves as a games company,” he said. “So if you're competing in the games space and you need to rebound, then you're going to have to come up with something cool. I don't think it can just be faster, more powerful hardware. As we move through the life cycle of our industry, there are always going to be players that come and go – it happens in publishing and development all the time. I don't see why it wouldn't happen with hardware manufacturers from time to time – it happened to Sega. I think Sony's getting hurt on two fronts as well; they're losing in the living room and on the handset side, and they're a big global company so they're hurting from the recession.” 

Please keep in mind, we're not saying this is necessarily going to happen, nor should this be viewed as “Sony bashing.” We happen to think the PS3 is a fantastic machine with some great horsepower and an increasingly solid software lineup. That said, here are six reasons for Sony to exit hardware.