Rescuing the PlayStation Brand in the USA
It really wasn’t that long ago that the PlayStation brand wasn’t the juggernaut that it is now. It was hardly failing, but the race between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for who got the honor of being behind the Wii was a lot closer than what is going on in this generation. The two were neck and neck overall, and by most accounts, in the U.S. the Xbox 360 ended up on top over the PlayStation 3.
Sony didn’t repeat the same mistakes they made with the launch of the PlayStation 3 in the USA. They kept their hardware focused on playing video games which allowed them to price the PS4 $100 lower than the Xbox One which featured TV and Kinect functionality. Launching with a competitive piece of hardware spec wise at a lower price point allowed the PS4 to burst out of the gates and take an early, sizable, and now seemingly insurmountable sales lead. Sure, Microsoft helped a bit by botching the reveal of the Xbox One, but Sony also helped itself and is now reaping the rewards.