Sony's 3 Biggest Mistakes

Sony entered the console market in 1994 with the Playstation, and they have been a major player ever since. But they didn't get there without a few bumps in the road. Let's go over Sony's three biggest mistakes!

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
02:16 - #3: Proprietary Memory
04:08 - #2: The PS3 Launch
10:23 - #1: The PSN Hack

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[GamingHistorian]

Today is not only a new episode day, it's my first day of graduate school! I'll have more details soon, but for now, enjoy Sony's Three Biggest Mistakes! This was a fun episode to make, since it got me nostalgic for my college days, working at GameStop. Enjoy!

[Humbird]

I remember people joking about getting a "Wii60" because they could buy both a Nintendo Wii AND an Xbox 360 for less than the price of the PS3... and still afford a game as well.

[fratercontenduntocculta]

I'm so glad Sony lost the memory war. I totally forgot how much they used their own formats to extract more cash. Even worse, their proprietary formats were often underperformers compared to the standard SD's. I think this channel does the best documentaries I've seen so far on this platform. Norm is confident and speaks clearly, and all the videos have their intended content rather than apologizing for errors in the description. Great job!

[muticere]

Yeah, the Vita was a huge bummer. It could have been a serious contender, especially since Nintendo would prove a few years later with the Switch how much people value a powerful portable handheld. If Sony hadn't been so headass with the Vita, it could have continued the PSP product line into the Switch era and served as a decent competition.

[MiddleSpoon]

I was getting my start in Network Security when this happened, it was a really big deal. Not just due to the outage incurred, but it caused alot of major financial institutes and enterprise level companies to rethink their Cyber-security standards and begin actively looking for vulnerabilities. It was actually really good wakeup call for all industries.

[CyberDragonK]

This stuff feels like a PBS Show but dealing with topics I'm really _interested_ in. Always a treat when Gaming Historian uploads!

[bennbutters]

“Based on Japanese history” “So here’s this giant crab” 😂😂

[colosussofbaine]

I worked for Sony Online during this time; there used to be a cage in the same datacenter we used for our services. For weeks if not months, we would see many people in their cage with a table and a box full of hard drives labeled "Evidence". Those were wild times.

[GeddyRC]

I'll never not get annoyed by the topic of the Vita. They should have had a banger of a console on their hands (particularly in the west), with one of the best launch line-ups _ever_ and an incredibly powerful system with dual-joysticks, but nope - the executives won, the memory issue killed it, and then they had the nerve to blame smartphones and claim that portable game consoles just no longer had a market.

Uhm, Sony, did you see how the Nintendo DS and 3DS sales went? The Switch launched in 2017 and was basically a giant Vita and uh, did you see how well the Switch did? Doesn't seem like Nintendo fans are clinging to their SMARTPHONES now, does it?

Classic case of suits making the rules, then blaming the consumer for their own failures. I'm not bitter or anything. Still love my Vita.

[swerpee]

We've tackled Nintendo
we've tackled Sega
Heck we even looked at the Gaming Historian's mistakes

[awesomeferret]

The irony with the whole memory stick thing is that in the later years, once the MicroSD to memory stick adapters were cheap, it was almost PREFERABLE since you could use two older smaller cheaper cards (EG 32GB+32GB).

[Fox]

First Nintendo, then SEGA, and now Sony. Now we need one from Microsoft and maybe if it's possible Atari

[kodemasterx]

Phil Harrison's resume is a roller coaster... Works for SONY during the PS3 launch, turns out to be a disaster. Works for Microsoft during the XBOX ONE launch, another disaster... Works for GOOGLE during STADIA launch... we all know how that turned out LOL...

Phil Harrison is the curse of the industry. DO NOT I repeat DO NOT hire that guy if you want to succeed.

[IWillScoop]

The memory cards definitely killed the Vita. Some of my friends would not pick it up simply because the cost of entry was way too high.

[reptiliansamurai]

Just to correct the historical record, as an "Ambassador" 3DS owner, the Nintendo 3DS cost $250 at the time. (Sony initially tried to sell the Vita by announcing it was the same price; of course ignoring the expensive proprietary memory cards). It took the massive 3DS price cut a few months later to salvage the system.

[ronaldomanzoli]

I love your english. It's just so fluid and easy to understand. As a fan of this language (I'm Brazilian) and of video games i really love your channel and content, really good quality.

[TheSektorz]

I remember buying a PSP with God of War, and replaying the same first levels countless times because I couldn't save my game. Not even a few megabytes were available to save my game! What a dick move. I barely had enough money to buy the PSP back then, now I had to spend a significant amount of more money for a proprietary sd card. It's still frustrating to remember, because otherwise the PSP was legendarily good for its time, I loved it. Still have my original one and it still (kinda) works.

[MrMegaManFan]

“It’s funny how a proprietary format to prevent piracy and hacking ... caused piracy and hacking.” ZING!!

[genwunnergreen]

2010 PSN: * exists *

Hackers: Free real estate!!

[RealValensco]

Question: how is Sony's data security nowadays? Didi Sony learn something about being diligent with customer's data and about transparency, and applied this knowledge?