Five things Sony got right with the Playstation 3

Over the past couple of years, Sony has gotten a really bad rap.  Between the numerous hacks, promotional gaffes, and some bad design decisions, the Playstation 3 is not the powerhouse that Sony was expecting.  Even so, there's a lot that Sony did right by their console, despite the many shortcomings.  So today, I'm taking a look at the bright side of the device that "only does everything."

1: Playstation Plus (Free Games!!!)
Right off the bat, Sony struck gold with their subscription service.  For less than the cost of an Xbox Live Gold membership, subscribers to Playstation Plus (PS+) get a wealth of games, right at their fingertips.  Factor in the beta invites(God of War: Ascension is the current one), discounts on game purchases, cloud backups of game saves, and this becomes a winning offer no matter what way you slice it.

2: Easily Upgraded Hard Drive
The folks at Microsoft really need to take note of this.  Sony may have opened themselves up to hacking by making this available, but nothing says "bummer" like having to delete games from your hard drive to make room for new ones.  With the xbox 360, you're capped at a 320GB hard drive.  They don't make anything bigger.  And while Sony's not much better, their console still lets gamers buy any 2.5" SATA drive and throw it in the PS3.  I've heard of people managing to fit hard drives as big as 1TB in a PS3.  Talk about storage space!

3: Blu-Ray
Sony may have taken a gamble in the media wars of 2006, but they ultimately won out over HD DVD.  Even back in 2006, the PS3 was the cheapest and best Blu-Ray player on the market.  By and large, it still is.  There's a reason why Sony said "it only does everything."

4: Advertising genius
Okay, so this isn't necessarily the best one out there.  But Sony's marketing department has put out some real gems.  Like this:

Or this:

But when you stop and think about it, these ads have a strangely artistic quality to them.  They have a sense of brilliance, even through the corporate rhetoric. 

5: PS1 Software Emulation & Backwards Compatibility
This one, right here, this is the big one for me.  I still have a wealth of original Playstation games.  Even though Sony more or less wrecked their backwards compatibility of PS2 games, the inclusion of PS1 emulation was a brilliant move on their part.  And by including a whole store of PS1 classics on the virtual store for sale, they've made it much easier for people to play the classic games they love on their huge HD televisions.  It's a really well thought out strategy on Sony's part.

Now, to be fair, I own all three of the major consoles.  I plan on buying a Wii U in the near future.  Expect reviews of Wii U games in the coming months.  I wrote this because I noticed a trend of bashing Sony's console.  To an extent, I agree.  Sony made a lot of mistakes of the past years.  I've jumped on that bandwagon, I admit it.  However, Sony has really done a lot to improve their system.  And I really think they've finally come into their own.  It's time to give credit where credit is due.