Today marks the third anniversary of the PlayStation 3’s launch in North America. Over the course of those three years, the system has gone from being overpriced and poorly advertised to a competitively priced console with one of the best ad campaigns ever seen in the gaming industry. More importantly, the PS3 has found its way into the homes of millions of gamers, and has had some of the best exclusive games of this gaming generation. Without the PS3, we wouldn’t have the Uncharted series, or gems like Valkyria Chronicles and LittleBigPlanet. Many of us might not have Blu-ray players in our homes, and without a competitive edge, perhaps the 360 would have suffered as well. Of course, that’s all just speculation, but here is what we do know: this generation just wouldn’t be the same without the PS3. That’s why today, on November 17, 2009, we celebrate three years of the PlayStation 3 by sharing some memories.

I’m not going to lie: when the PS3 launched, I was immensely disappointed. I had been a huge PlayStation supporter since the day the PS1 launched in 1995, and in the generation that followed, I initially only had interest in the PS2, not the Xbox or Gamecube. However, in 2006, it seemed like Sony had nearly abandoned its followers with a $600 price point ($500 if you wanted a 20GB hard drive and no built-in WiFi) and a condescending, pretentious ad campaign. I had absolutely no desire to own a PS3, and not just because it cost more than a month’s rent. The launch line-up of games was average at best, with Resistance: Fall of Man being the highlight of the bunch. The other games with decent Metacritic averages were Madden NFL 07, which had been out since August; NBA 2K7, which was two months old at the time of launch; Call of Duty 3, widely regarded as the weakest entry in the series; and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, another multiplatform sports game that had been out on other systems for a month. Other than Resistance, the only other exclusives were the forgettable Ridge Racer 7, disastrous Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, and Genji: Days of the Blade, which was also poorly received. Overall, the games available three years ago for the PS3 did little to persuade me that I needed to have the system.



Since I worked at GameStop at the time of the PS3 launch, I got to see just how the system faltered in its first month. Many of the customers who pre-ordered the system made it clear that they were intending to sell it on eBay, hoping to make the kind of cash that eBay-ed Xbox 360s had brought in the year before. However, unlike the 360, which was nearly impossible to get until four or five months after launching, we had PS3s in stock regularly throughout the holiday season, something I never thought possible. True, we were never overstocked, and we did sell out, but the consoles were usually replenished with two or four more in a week or so. We even saw a few from launch get returned within weeks after the buyer was unable to move them on eBay. Multiplatform next-gen games often came out on the PS3 weeks after the 360, and would be plagued with glitches, reportedly due to developers not knowing how to work with the PS3. Honestly, in the weeks after launch, it seemed like Sony was going to be in a lot of trouble, and I didn’t know if the PS3 would survive the generation.

Around the summer of 2007, things started to change. There were some promising new titles on the horizon, games exclusive to the PS3. Lair was a bust, but Heavenly Sword was pretty decent, and followed in the fall by the fantastic Uncharted. Around this time, LittleBigPlanet was starting to make waves, and even though the game was a year away, it was looking pretty damn good. It was in October 2007, less than a year after launch, that I broke down and bought a PS3. The system had already seen a drop in price by then, and on the day I gave my two weeks’ notice to GameStop, I purchased a refurbished PS3 in order to take advantage of my employee discount one last time. It was something of a spontaneous decision, and as I saw the total and swiped my debit card I said “Oh God! What have I done?!”



It turned out to be a solid decision. Two years later, I still have that refurbished PS3, and a good amount of games for it. I bought a PS3 just weeks before Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune came out, and that game alone made me more confident in my pricey purchase. The following spring, HD-DVD folded and Blu-ray emerged the winner of the high definition movie war, and the response from Sony was something along the lines of “Told you so!” Suddenly, buying a PS3 just to get the lowest-priced Blu-ray player on the market was a great idea. The rest of 2008 was good for the PS3 as well, with exclusives like Valkyria Chronicles, LittleBigPlanet, Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds, and Resistance 2 helping to define the system. Until recently, the price was still too high for many gamers, but the release of the PS3 Slim and new low price of $300 may give the system a huge sales boost this holiday season.

When I first bought it, I was the first of my gamer friends to own a PlayStation 3, but that’s no longer the case. Two years later, I still have that refurbished PS3, and I can’t imagine not having it. Some of my favorite games this generation have been exclusive to the PS3, and being able to connect the system to my PSP and download PS1 games is just an added bonus. It definitely had a rocky launch, but the PS3 has become a welcome addition in the home of every gamer. I didn’t know if it would even make it to its third birthday on November 17, 2006, but it did, and is poised to last for years to come. Happy birthday, PS3, and I can’t wait to see what you have in store.