How Sony Became the Underdog of the Gaming Industry

Sony used to be the top dog of the gaming industry. Consumers were buying their systems while major publishers are constantly putting games on it. For about 10 years, they ruled the gaming world with the Playstation and Playstation 2. However, they have quickly fell from grace. Both of Sony's latest systems, the PSP and Playstation 3, are in last place. Furthermore, all the profits that they have made before are pretty much gone. So how did Sony went from being the top dog to the underdog of the gaming industry? Let's take a look at several factors.

The Fall
Sony debuted in the gaming industry on top with the Playstation and Playstation 2. However, their video game systems were never known to be the most powerful in their era. So, with extra money in their pockets, Sony decided to be ambitious with the PSP and Playstation 3. As a result, both systems became huge financial sinkholes, especially the high-tech Playstation 3.

The situation only got worse when both systems underperformed at the marketplace. While the PSP is doing great in terms of hardware sales with 50 million units on the hands of consumers, software sales (which are the main revenue generators for Sony) are non-existent. The Playstation 3 is simply a financial mess with expensive hardware. Thus, Sony went from the top dog to struggling to stay afloat.

The Rise
Of course, in order to be an underdog, Sony needs plenty of fans. Throughout their more triumphant periods, Sony has sold more than a hundred million units each for the Playstation and Playstation 2. Therefore, the fan base has always been there for Sony in the video games industry. However, Playstation fans haven't been as thunderous as it is now.

This is because of the continued improvement of the first-party development studios from Sony. While first-party support has always been solid on the Playstation platforms, third-party software usually dominated on the Playstation and Playstation 2.

Due to low hardware sales, however, third-party companies no longer developed exclusively for the Playstation platforms. As a result, Sony needed first-party support on the PSP and Playstation 3. So they beefed up their development efforts in order to make up for the lack of third-party exclusives.

Because of the improved quality and popularity of Sony-published titles, the Playstation brand has never been stronger even though it isn't nearly as popular as before. So while the PSP and Playstation 3 may be trailing their respective competitors, the legions of rapid fans still support the underdog Sony.