10 Biggest PlayStation Risks (That Totally Backfired)

10. The PS3 Launch Price

As a rule of thumb in business, it tends to be "wait for the competition to launch, then undercut the price a bit to sell more". Sell at less, but sell more in the long run.

However, it seems someone in Sony's marketing didn't get the memo when the company was launching the PS3.

Already lagging behind the Xbox 360's launch, Sony had to do something to catch up. However, offering the 60gb model at £425, nearly £150 more than the Xbox, was not the way.

Even at that price, Sony were reportedly working at a loss per unit.

Eventually they balked, and the price was lowered to something more consistent with the competition. But for a time, the PS3 was considered too expensive compared to the relatively manageable Xbox 360 price.

It took a few years, with Sony finally starting to see profit on their third console in 2009. Lessons were learnt with the PS4, which managed to sell a whopping 110m units over its lifetime.

But had Sony stuck to their expensive guns, they may have pushed themselves out of the market in 2006.