25 Things You DIDN'T Know About the PS3

25 Things You Didn’t Know About the PS3

Welcome to MojoPlays and the fact that the PlayStation 3 is already turning 20 years old is almost as interesting as everything that went into creating one of the defining consoles of the mid-2000s.

Forward Thinking

Fresh off the success of their first PlayStation and hot on the heels of their recently released and soon to be blockbuster console the PS2, Sony was already looking forward to the future. Sony began the planning stages of the PS3 all the way back in 2001, barely a year after the launch of the PS2. This continued their trend to think ahead starting all the way back with plans for the PS2 beginning shortly after the release of the PS1. This is even more impressive when you consider much of the technology that went into the PS3 hadn’t even been invented or constructed yet back in 2001. Technology moves fast but PlayStation moves faster.

Cryptic Marketing

The PS3’s marketing campaign was nothing if not memorable. Sony’s first major ad for the PS3 featured a baby doll in a stark white room with a PS3 console going through a series of emotions which aired during the World Series. The ad was undeniably weird, but this was actually by design. Sony purposely created an ad campaign which would get people talking and to their credit, it worked. Sony would continue releasing cryptic and completely unhinged ads for the PS3 until adopting a far more conventional marketing strategy after the console’s launch. However, even two decades later, people are STILL talking about the crying baby ad which proves their marketing strategy was successful.

The Vertical Slice

These days publishers use all manner of deceptive marketing for their upcoming games, but back before the release of the PS3, gamers were quite a bit naiver. To demonstrate the power of their upcoming console, Sony debuted several game trailers to show off what the PS3 was capable of. However, most of these trailers were nothing more than conceptual trailers or “vertical slices” of what the devs either hoped to accomplish, with their game created specifically as a demo reel for internal use within the publisher. One of these vertical slice demos became infamous when Sony showed off Guerilla Games in development Killzone 2 internal demo as actual gameplay onstage during a PS3 presentation. These exaggerations rightfully blew up in Sony’s face and gamers have been much more skeptical about supposed “in-game” footage ever since.

Demand Overload

Just like the launch of any new console, demand far outpaced the available stock. However, after the universal success of the PS2, itself an extremely in demand console at launch, hype for the PS3 was hitting a fever pitch. Gamers camped outside of retail stores for days before the launch and hundreds of customers would show up before opening hours for stores that only had less than 50 consoles in stock. However, this shortage also led to quite a few unfortunate instances in which some campers outside stores were held up at gunpoint, others were robbed in the parking lot attempting to leave with their new PS3, some were trampled by mobs rushing electronic stores, and someone was even shot for simply trying to purchase the latest PlayStation. Unfortunately, this is a trend that still continues even today, although the increase of online shopping has at least mitigated many of these instances.

Lackluster Launch

Launched at the tail end of 2006, Sony’s PS3 was one of the most anticipated console releases of all time, but those who managed to secure a console on release day might have been extremely disappointed by the lack of console exclusive titles in the early days of the PS3. While there were standouts such as Insomniac’s Resistance: Fall of Man, many of the PS3’s best “launch titles” which released in the following months weren’t available on Day 1 and players were stuck with a handful of lackluster games or third-party releases that were also multi-platform. 2007 proved to be a great year for the PS3 with titles like Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune a year after the PS3’s release, but for those first few months, the options were pretty sparse.

Non-Developer Friendly

These days the PS3’ Cell Processor is widely regarded as one of the most powerful console engines even by today’s standards, but it was also a nightmare for game designers to develop for. The Cell Processor’s complex architecture meant that utilizing its many features and unlocking its full potential as developers had with the PS2’s architecture early in its lifecycle was much more difficult this time around. Over time studios managed to understand the hardware and create some of the most stunning game such as Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series and The Last of Us or Santa Monica’s God of War 3, but the difficulty in developing for this overpowered system led to many multi-platform games running better on the Xbox 360 than the PS3 early on.

Sold At a Loss

Given the Cell Processor tech Sony was utilizing in the PS3 was new and untested, along with the inclusion of the included Blu-Ray player and Sony’s Emotion engine, it was also very expensive. At launch every PS3 cost Sony $800 to put together but to keep the cost at least somewhat consumer friendly, Sony sold the PS3 for at most $600 at launch which was still staggering for the time. This led to a loss in profit for Sony every single time a PS3 was purchased. This also didn’t help Sony in their competition with Microsoft's Xbox 360 which was already $200 less at launch. Two years into the PS3’s lifecycle, Sony managed to trim the cost of manufacturing the PS3 and even eventually cut the price of the PS3 itself down to $300, finally making the PS3 profitable for Sony over the PS3’s entire console cycle.

Budget Blu-Ray

Sony’s decision to include a Blu-Ray player might have led to development costs of the PS3 being higher, but for consumers, the PS3 was the best option for getting into Blu-Ray. Much like with the PS2, Sony was the cheapest option in town for the then new home media format with dedicated Blu-Ray players starting at roughly $1000 at launch. With Microsoft betting on HD-DVD being the next media market, Sony’s decision to back Blu-Ray for media and their game discs likely led to the format’s dominance with non-gamer’s bringing the console into their homes and eventually leading to game sales as customers realized their new PS3 Blu-Ray player also played games.

Free PSN

It’s hard to imagine now, but in the early days of online gaming, the service was completely free. Crazy, I know. With both Sony and Microsoft taking their first steps into online gaming with the PS2 and OG Xbox respectively, the PS3 era is when home console online gaming exploded and in the early days of this new frontier, entry was completely free. While Microsoft would charge for Xbox Live, Sony’s PSN on PS3 didn’t charge a single cent for players to play online with their friends, likely leading to more players choosing the PS3 for their online gaming. Sadly, and like all good things, Sony eventually jumped ship and began charging for their online services, but for a time, we had no idea how good we had it.

Familiar Font

One of the most immediately noticeable things about the PS3 is the familiar font Sony chose for their logo for the PlayStation 3. Designed before the rest of the console, Sony owns the specific font that was made famous by its use in the Sam Raimi trilogy of Spider-Man films also produced by Sony. The design of the font influenced the design of the console resulting in smoother rounded edges compared to the PS2. Interestingly, Sony would drop the familiar and famous font in the later years of the PS3’s production, but it still remains just as synonymous with the PlayStation 3 as it does with Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man.

Boomerang Banana

Just like with any console, the design went through a number of iterations before the final design was decided upon and the same is true for the controller. However, few controller design concepts have been as infamous as the initial Boomerang design for the PlayStation 3’s controller. Although never planned for release with the console, the Boomerang remains one of the most bizarre designs for a controller outside of the N64’s. This wasn’t the only major hurdle the PS3’s release controller suffered through, however. The initial release was missing the much beloved rumble feature during Sony’s ongoing litigation for patent infringement on the technology and tried to gaslight gamers into thinking that rumble was “so last gen” and Six-Axis was the future before settling their legal disputes and eventually releasing the fully equipped Dualshock 3.

PS3 SSD

The PS5 technically wasn’t the first Sony console to allow you to add an SSD for a boost in performance. While fairly common these days, SSDs would likely cost you an arm, a leg and a kidney back in the mid-2000s, but for anyone dedicated enough, it was entirely possible to install an SSD into your PS3 for faster load times and smoother textures. Granted it was nowhere near as easy to swap in as it is now on the PS5, but with the advancements in tech and tools making it easier than it was during the PS3 days, it’s still an unadvertised feature only the most dedicated PS3 aficionados are even aware of.

Black Hole Simulator

The PS3 was one of the most powerful consoles of its time and more than just gamers took notice. Scientists took a bunch of PS3’s and by linking them together, created a supercomputer to study black holes and its effects on gravity. Around the same time, the US military purchased 2200 PS3s to build their own supercomputer, the Condor Cluster, which also happened to be one of the most powerful super computers at the time. This experiment ended up costing them well over $600K but was still cheaper than a supercomputer at the time. However, unlike the NASA scientists, the military forgot to turn off the auto-update for their PS3s and when Sony patched out the ability for the PS3 to run Linux, the military was left with roughly 2000 base PS3s. I’d hate to be the one who had to explain that their supercomputer was suddenly inoperable.

Delayed

These days both Sony and Microsoft release their consoles not only in the same year, but often within the same month, but back in 2005, Microsoft got a yearlong head start on Sony and the PS3. Releasing a full year after the Xbox 360, the PS3 was originally planned to release alongside the Xbox 360 but due to a single laser component for the Blu-Ray drive. Sony would eventually change manufacturers of the part, finally ramping up production for the 2006 release, but Microsoft getting a head start in the console wars played a significant role in the PS3’s struggles early on in its lifecycle.

Missing Ports

Sony was incredibly ambitious with the PS3, and much like the controller, the console itself went through a number of changes before its final release. The original concept console shown off to the public has a ridiculous 2 HDMI ports, 6 USB ports, and most bizarrely 3 ethernet ports. However, by the time the PS3 released in 2006, these numbers were scaled back to a more reasonable single ethernet port, one HDMI port and four USB ports. Likely Sony was attempting to boast about the PS3’s capabilities before analyzing the actual cost of production, leading to the much more modest port situation in the final PS3.

PSN Down

In 2011, one of the most significant events in Sony’s history with PlayStation unfolded. The PlayStation network was hacked resulting in a massive data breach of Sony’s servers, with hackers accessing and stealing thousands of players personal information. The hack led to the PlaySation Network shutting down for weeks, and what’s worse, is the hackers used an exploit Sony was fully aware of, forcing Sony to admit their fault and publicly apologize in an unprecedented press conference. After relaunching PSN, Sony offered players their choice of a number of PS3 and PSP games for free as compensation for the outage, and the hackers were never discovered.

Successful Ending

There’s no denying the PlayStation 3 stumbled out of the gate at launch. Released a year after the Xbox 360, difficult hardware for developers, a lackluster lineup of games during its crucial release window, and the PSN Outage of 2011 no doubt made the PS3 Sony’s first major stumble in the console market. However, by the end of its lifecycle, the PS3 managed to sell a modest 87 million units worldwide. While nowhere near the projected 150 million Sony hoped for or even the 140 million PS2s sold, the PlayStation 3 still managed to barely outsell Microsoft’s Xbox 360’s 84 million units even with a yearlong head start. It might have been a rocky start but came down to a photo finish at the end.

World Record Holder

Nowadays large multiplayer games like Fortnite and PUBG are fairly common, routinely bringing in a hundred players per match, but even these juggernauts pale in comparison to MAG on the PS3. With a title that quite literally translates to “Massive Action Game”, MAG has the distinct honor of holding a Guinness World Record for “Most Players in a Console FPS” with a staggering 256 players possible in a single match. This isn’t the only Guinness World Record a PS3 game holds either. At the time of its release, Grid 2 set a world record as the most expensive commercially available video game at $175,000 in the US. For this absurd price players would get a PS3, a racing jump suit, and a customized BAC Mono Supercar. This record has since been broken by even more outlandish Collector’s Editions, but this was still unprecedented for the time.

PS3 Dualsense

Backwards compatibility will always be a major talking point for gamers, but one aspect of the PS3 that is almost completely overlooked is the console’s forward capability. While PS4 controllers can still work on the PS5, both PS4 and the PS5 Dualsense can also be used on the PlayStation 3. By simply connecting one of the modern controllers to the PS3 via USB cable, you can use the much sturdier PS4 or PS5 controller on your aging PS3 and as long as you’re okay with some features being unavailable due to the difference in controller layout, can finally replay some of the PS3’s most frustrating games without worrying you’ll snap the flimsy PS3 controller in frustration.

February 29th, 2010

Some of you might be too young to even know what the Y2K bug even is, but there was another bug that affected launch PS3’s that Sony never anticipated. When the PS3’s console calendar switched over to February 29th, 2010, any base fat PS3 couldn’t comprehend the 29th as a real date and for some reason refused to connect to the PlayStation network leading to widespread connection issues for many early adopters of the console. Some offline games even ran into issues and refused to play despite not needing any online services whatsoever. The issue was resolved within a couple of days, but it was still an interesting oversight that strangely no one prepared for.

Gran Turismo Trainer

Gran Turismo has always been one of the most realistic sim racer series ever, but one would never expect these skills in Gran Turismo to be transferable to the real world. That is however, until Nissan created the Gran Turismo Academy in 2011 and out of 90,000 applicants, Jann Mardenborough won the competition and ended up competing for Nissan in 2013 24 Hours of LeMans in which he ended up placing third in his debut year. This is even more impressive considering Mardenborough had never raced in real life before and even professional racers who have trained for years struggle to finish the 24-hour endurance race. Mardenborough’s story would even later be adapted into a live action film released in 2023 by Sony Pictures.

Electric Boogaloo

Gaming isn’t exactly an inexpensive hobby, but the PS3 could have potentially been costing players more than they realized. A study found that a PS3 used the same amount of electricity as five refrigerators. Now while this sounds like a lot, it really isn’t, especially compared to what typical household appliances use these days, your Roomba uses more electricity for example. However, every time your PS3 sounded like a jet engine about to take off, it likely wasn’t doing your electric bills any favors. And definitely don’t tell your parents it was really your PS3 adding to your monthly bill, not you forgetting to turn off the hallway light.

PS3D

It might be difficult to remember these days, but Sony went in hard on 3D being the next gaming evolution back on the PS3. Alongside some games being playable in 3D, promoted proudly on the game’s cover art, Sony also developed their own television dedicated to 3D gaming on the PS3. The PS3D TV not only allowed you to play your games in 3D, it also had the incredibly innovative feature dubbed SimulView. With SimulView, two players could play on the same screen and through the 3D glasses, have their own full screen experience playing couch co-op. Naturally, interest in 3D fad faded just as quickly as it began, but the idea of SimulView is still incredibly innovative and it's a shame it hasn’t been re-implemented outside of Sony’s one off PS3 3D TV.

True Backwards Compatibility

Those who managed to secure one of the launch or “Fat” PS3s benefitted from Sony’s inclusion of backwards compatibility all the way back to the PS1 right out of the box, greatly expanding the PS3’s catalog by literal generations. However, this is one feature that Sony unfortunately removed in subsequent updates to the PS3 model. Although PS1 and PS2 titles were still available for purchase through PSN, anyone who bought a late gen PS3 and no longer had their PS2 were stuck with glorified coasters. That’s not to say backwards compatibility was removed entirely from the later PS3s, however. In fact, even the newest model PS3 can still play PS1 discs, even though this feature was never advertised. Just a shame they removed arguably their most popular console from the PS3’s backwards compatibility. And now the feature is virtually non-existent on current PlayStations.

VP of Everything

After leaving their original confusing marketing trailers behind, Sony adopted what is arguably their most popular run of advertisements in all of PlayStation’s history. Kevin Butler, the unofficial VP of nearly everything PlayStation 3 instantly became a fan favorite character whose humorous takes on everything PlayStation appealed to both gamers and non-gamers alike. However, after a string of wildly popular ads featuring Kevin Butler, after the actor Jerry Lambert appeared in another ad for Bridgestone Tires in which Nintendo Wii was being played, even though Jerry wasn’t even the one holding the controller, Sony made the idiotic decision to fire Jerry and even sue him for “Creating Confusion” over which console he represented. Naturally this didn’t go over well with fans, but Sony has yet to revive Kevin Butler despite the PlayStation brand being in more dire need of his services than ever before.

What was your favorite game and memory of the PS3? Share your trips down memory lane in the comments.