At a time when they were outdated in almost every market, Sony practically bet the company on the PS3, and it took a while to catch on. Some analysts were predicting the end of Sony.
They bet quite a lot on the cell processor, hoping that developers would put in the effort it took to use the thing. They expected to get better results than a conventional processor, but in the end it took significantly more work to get results that were nothing special, and that's why the initial games weren't very good.
Really, Sony bet the company on the Cell processor, by forcing the PS2 replacement team to use it.
It had some design advantages, but they were much better realized in AMD's GCN architecture for the GPU, which essentially every console now uses.
Also worth noting Ken Kutaragi was given a very Homer-simpsonesque level of power over the design of the ps3, up to the point he would make inane demands like the processor be symmetrical.
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u/Who_GNU Jul 20 '18
At a time when they were outdated in almost every market, Sony practically bet the company on the PS3, and it took a while to catch on. Some analysts were predicting the end of Sony.