Doom-and-Gloom PS3 Days Forgotten?

Do you recall the weeks and months following the extremely rough PlayStation 3 launch?  Do you remember them well enough to compare to the response for the PlayStation 4?

…quite the difference, huh?

Gamers often have short memories.

At this time of year, almost exactly 7 years ago, the headlines were absolutely brutal.  Not only were they lambasting Sony and the new system, some were implying that the PS3 wouldn’t last through 2007.  Others saw the rough start as the “end of PlayStation.”  Blu-Ray hadn’t yet won the HD format war (HD-DVD was still a competitor), the Network was still in its infancy stages, the games – with the exception of the stellar Resistance: Fall of Man – weren’t there, and the prohibitive price was just way too high for many.  Toss in an appalling lack of availability and you had a recipe for disaster.

And yet, here we sit, with the PS3 apparently slightly ahead of the Xbox 360 in terms of a worldwide tally.  Even if they’re tied (perhaps 80 million apiece), this means the PS3 sold as many 360 consoles in one year less time, as the 360 launched in 2005.  And despite that abysmal start, the PS3 seems to have done just fine.

And here’s the PS4…a complete 180?

Sony learned their lessons and created a very different system this time around, and most journalists, analysts and gamers have praised it all year.  Despite a little “blue light of death” snafu that hasn’t really grown into anything severe, and an admittedly lacking launch lineup, the PS4 is in a much better place when compared to the PS3 after launch.

But are we at least appreciating this turnaround?  And did we learn anything?  The reactionary headlines from the PS3 launch were a little disturbing.  I’m just wondering if gamers have either forgotten what happened, or they’re just trying to forget it;  yeah, many overreacted, and few want to remember embarrassing periods of rashness.

Yeah, maybe that’s it.