Once upon a time, the Roman Empire ruled all of Europe, including England, Wales and parts of North Africa and the Middle East. As mighty as Rome was, all great empires must fall and fall it did. We dear play chums could be witnesses to the fall of our very own empire and what a dramatic state of affairs it promises to be.

Remember the might that was Sega and oh how it fell? It was a sad day when the Dreamcast sounded the death knell for its parent company's console dabblings, but we lived to play another game and be early adopters of other consoles. Nintendo has shrugged off the nay sayers for many a year now as each new console is dubbed its last – Wii being no exception.

Today we live in the reign of the Sony Empire and for 11 strong years we've enjoyed what it's had to offer. But for the first time ever, I feel that Sony may be skating on thin ice and that the cracks are beginning to show.

For the first time, Sony seems to be on the back foot. Xbox 360 is charging ahead of the pack and Nintendo is unnervingly unconcerned with anything the competition does – either that or it's just mad.

Of course, we've seen this situation before. Sega was first to market with the Dreamcast. Sega was also first to market with online gaming via a console, but they got ‘pwned' by PlayStation 2 and gaming's worst marketing strategy (I use the word lightly) sealed their fate.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Sony don't need to be ahead of the game and you'd be forgiven for using the demise of Sega and the failure of the Dreamcast as a case in point. But Sega was a games company trying to make a strong comeback after the success of PlayStation and the unmitigated failure of its own consoles. Microsoft is a games company riding high on the success of its first entry into the console market and swiftly following it up with more of the same, except new and improved.

Now, I could possibly be swayed round to your way of thinking if – and it's a big if – IF Sony hadn't taken the right royal p**s when it announced the price of PS3. Yes, I know, we've all heard Kutaragi's speel about great bottles of wine costing big bucks, gourmet food versus burger bars, escort agencies versus two bit hookers and it still doesn't justify £425!

In the UK, lucky lot that we are, we don't get a basic model; we just get the premium PS3, which goes for a round £425 – that's around $800 just in case you're interested. Oh yes dear play chums, I kid ye not. That's of course if you manage to find a standalone machine that isn't ensconced in some rip-off Britain style bundle.

Play.com is already advertising its PS3 bundle which goes for a stomach-churning £549. Oh and you get three thoroughly uninspiring games with that, so that you can poke your eyes out with a stick to stop the tears and ready yourself to play Singstar, Formula One 06 and Warhawk. A Formula One game – when's the last time one of those was any good!? For Christ's sake! Whatever happened to the days when Gran Turismo was used to sell machines?

Then there's old Ken bleating on about how everyone keeps copying all their ideas. I don't know about you, but I didn't realise that time travel technology had actually been successfully created. Gosh, Sony must be kicking themselves that Microsoft and Nintendo built their own time travel machines before they even got a look in. Because, surely that's the only frigging way that any of Kutaragi's arguments would stand up at all.

Kutaragi-san has recently been quoted complaining about Microsoft shadowing their every move. Huh!? And that would be how, when they're the first to market with a next-gen console? And isn't Sony the one with an online games service that's not as good as Live? Not sure how that one's working Ken.

Only with proof of some kind of Terminator 2-style time travel paradox would anyone believe that Nintendo really got the idea for their innovative Wii, motion sensor controller from Sony. Ninty unveiled their controller eons ago and all of a sudden Sony completely backtracks on their ridiculous and unnecessary re-working of their great controller, only to give us a not-unlike-the-old-controller-controller. And suddenly it has a motion sensor, which was in the pipeline all along.

Uh-huh"of course it was.

The latest fiasco from Sony concerns a billboard ad for the new ceramic white PSP. The ad in question was made for Holland and features a statuesque white woman with her hand clamped aggressively around the jaw of a slightly smaller black woman. The accompanying slogan reads "PlayStation Portable White is coming". The advert has been met with protests of racism, which have since led to the campaign being dropped.

Now, having lived in Holland, I know that it has a dubiously naïve approach to racial stereotypes, which crops up in advertising campaigns from time to time. To call the ad offensive, I think gives it far too much credit. Racist undertones? Yes. Literal and uncreative? Certainly. Ill-advised? Most definitely.

A Sony spokesperson made this statement in the midst of the furor, "The marketing campaign for the launch of the White PlayStation Portable in the Benelux focuses on the contrast between the Black model PlayStation Portable and the new ceramic White PlayStation Portable model."

Do you see? So they got a black model and then they got a white model and took photos and"yes, it is like ‘My First Ad Campaign'.

Sony spokesperson continues, "All of the 100 or so images created for the campaign have been designed to show the contrast in the colours of the PlayStation Portables and have no other message or purpose."

Sony has since apologised for any offence the advert may have caused. A marketing blunder or clumsy attempt at notoriety and subsequent column inches? Maybe it's hailed as a success at Sony offices, but from a company that's always handled its marketing impeccably, I think it errs on the side of desperation and seems a little amateurish.

This is just another crack in the mortar of the Sony empire if you ask me. The lofty heights of the Sony pedestal is obviously clouding their judgement, as they can't even see they're flocking minions anymore, let alone know what they want., But if they think that we're all just going to bend over and pay the price for whatever glorified piece of plastic they churn out, they've got another thing coming – especially with that pitiful launch line-up.

Maybe I'll eat my words, or maybe I'll just buy a Wii to sit beside my 360 and still have money left over from what would have been the cost of my PS3. Be warned dear play chums, we might yet live to see the day Kutaragi fiddles while all around him burns.

Most played: Prey demo

Most wanted: The Witcher