Sony did better than you might think

Here’s where you’re probably expecting the celebration to end, but if so, then you’d be wrong. Despite a lot of problems, the PlayStation 3 has done some very good and important things for gaming this year. It’s been a slow start and things certainly have not gone Sony’s way anywhere near as much as it might have liked, but as a developmental year, 2007 has potentially set a lot of good things up for the company’s future. Additionally, the PSP has been far from the lame duck many would claim it to be, selling well and providing us with games of the quality of Ratchet And Clank, Burnout: Dominator and MGS: Portable Ops.

Whether you believe that Sony’s mantra of the PS3 being about the marathon rather than the sprint was always part of the plan, having been forced into that position seems to be doing it a lot of good. Sony now looks to be taking a step back, learning from what its rivals are doing right, and putting its own spin on those ideas to create some genuinely exciting concepts for next year and beyond.

PlayStation Home, while clearly Sony’s equivalent of Xbox Live and Nintendo’s Miis, has got a lot of potential. Some criticised it as a “Me too!” idea when it was first announced, but it now looks like it might have a good chance of adding a whole new dimension to using the PS3, and also bring a much-needed human community element to the system. Looking almost like a game in itself, with enough content Home could serve to really bring people together around Sony’s console and create a similarly individual culture for the platform to those of its rivals. The fact that the the system’s delay has been cited by Kaz Hirai as necessary to improve its quality bodes well not only for Home, but for SCE as a company from this point on. Humility and attention to quality is a combination that should bring great things for the PS3.