It also ended up netting Sony a lot of goodwill, that they then successfully managed to leverage for the PS4 launch.
Speaking to IGN in an interview, former Sony Computer Entertainment America head Jack Tretton discussed the PS3 launch, admitting that everyone at Sony knew the console was horribly overpriced, but that Sony couldn’t possibly price the overengineered console any lower, since they were still losing money at that price.
“That period of PS2 to PS3 was the most intense period of my career, at least at Sony,” Tretton said.
Amazingly, that was losing a lot of money for Sony, even at that price.”