The PlayStation 3 had a notoriously difficult first few years.
I think its well known that the PS3 from 2006-2008 was seen as kind of a joke, basically the Wii U or Sega Saturn of the Seventh Generation. But starting in 2009, something happened.
While Microsoft still had an advantage with Xbox Live still being an overall better service (especially with the great PSN outage of 2011), it's safe to say that PlayStation 3 from 2009 to 2013 was just an overall better console that offered more value than both it or the Wii. Especially in 2011 where Microsoft was in full-on Kinect-mode with 360 and Nintendo seemed hell bent on keeping some of the Wii's best games away from America (Operation Rainfall anyone).
- Its innovative, but insanely complex and hard to learn Cell processor made it very difficult to develop for.
- Had mediocre third party support which led to games being Xbox 360/PC exclusive, or releasing on PS3 late/considerably worse
- Had an embarrassingly lackluster online platform considering its hype, lacking the features and polish of Xbox Live
- Was $599 US dollars!
- Had bizarre, and confusing marketing that didn't make it clear what the hell it even was
- Suffered constant software droughts due to first party delays and ho-hum third party support
- Had superfluous SIXAXIS controller gimmicks shoved into seemingly every game
- Said controller didn't even have rumble at launch
- Was getting its ass handed to it in sales by the under-powered Wii
I think its well known that the PS3 from 2006-2008 was seen as kind of a joke, basically the Wii U or Sega Saturn of the Seventh Generation. But starting in 2009, something happened.
- The console was gradually getting feature parity with Xbox, with online play even being free
- Sony's improved development tools and support for PS3 devs lead to improved third party support, with games generally being much more comparable to 360, arriving day and date more frequently, and even having exclusive content
- Sony's first party started to get aggressive with an endless stream of AAA and PSN titles that were light-years ahead of what Microsoft could develop (especially since they had just sold off Bungie)
- DualShock 3 re-instated rumble
- It had a far superior Motion Control platform with PlayStation Move compared to Kinect, that even lured a lot of Wii fans over to the system
- Had crashed down in price to $299
- Had a full on rebrand with an iconic ad-campaign and a new logo reminiscent of the PS2
- Was an affordable, and kick ass Blu-Ray player and media deck
- Had some of the exclusive greatest games of the generation with Uncharted trilogy, MGS4, Last of Us, Killzone 2 & 3, inFamous, Little Big Plannet, and more that finally showed what was possible on the hardware
While Microsoft still had an advantage with Xbox Live still being an overall better service (especially with the great PSN outage of 2011), it's safe to say that PlayStation 3 from 2009 to 2013 was just an overall better console that offered more value than both it or the Wii. Especially in 2011 where Microsoft was in full-on Kinect-mode with 360 and Nintendo seemed hell bent on keeping some of the Wii's best games away from America (Operation Rainfall anyone).