Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately

[SixthAngel]

lol how long have you lived in Beijing SixthAngel?

Around 2 years.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Looks like Sony is still losing money on every PS3 sold, but not nearly as much as they used to. The good new though is that Sony hopes to be breaking even/turning a profit by March 2011 on PS3 sales. (that's almost 5 years after launch for those not wanting to do the math)

Loss per PS3 cut to $18, says WSJ

Sony has reduced the amount it loses on each PS3 sold to $18, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Sony has again significantly reduced the amount it costs to make a PS3, bringing the loss-per-console down to $18 from an estimated $37 per unit in December last year.

The company is now estimating it will actually turn a profit on the hardware in 2011.

“We think we’ve bottomed out and we can do fairly well going forward,” said Sony Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda.

Sony’s drive for the black appears to be working, with the firm’s three months ending December 31 showing 146.1 billion yen group operating profit.

PS3 sales are on the up, and closing on 360’s: the Sony console now stands at 33.5 million worldwide, compared to Xbox 360’s 39 million.

Sony still losing on every PlayStation 3 it sells

Although PlayStation 3 sales have been on the rise and Sony has a rosy outlook for the console's future, it turns out that the company is still losing money on every PlayStation 3 unit it sells.
[...]
Admittedly, losing money on console sales is typical in the gaming industry. But Sony's losses have been slightly out of the ordinary. Not only has it been going on since launch, but when the console was released, iSuppli estimated that it cost Sony a whopping $805 to build the PS3.

For its part, Sony isn't focusing on the past. Sony Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda told the Journal that it plans to cut PS3 production costs by "15 percent in the fiscal year ending March 2011." He said that alone would help the company generate "tens of billions of yen."

At least Sony is moving in the right direction.[...]

Regardless, Sony's console has enjoyed a resurgence of sorts over the past few months as the device's more affordable price tag has prompted some to pick one up. But once each of those sales turns a profit for Sony, you can bet the company will finally breathe a sigh of relief.

[D_Average]

Perhaps Heavy Rain will be the surprise savior and resurrect the fallen giant.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Seeing how on average the PS3 is losing $18 per system sold, I wonder what the profit per unit is for Nintendo and MS.

[broodwars]

Perhaps Heavy Rain will be the surprise savior and resurrect the fallen giant.

I doubt it.  I downloaded the demo last night, and this game has niche written all over it.  It's very good, but it has no mass appeal (mainly due to how it controls).

[Chozo Ghost]

Well, Nintendo has been turning a profit on the Wii since day one of its launch. That wouldn't have been possible if Nintendo had created an HD system with the horsepower of its competitors. So Nintendo was really wise to have released "last gen" hardware.

But my concern about Sony bringing production costs down is that they might be cutting things out and cutting corners in order to do that. One painful example if the removal of the emotion chip which destroyed compatibility with PS2 games. What other cuts has Sony made, or will make in the future? Will we see a console with a higher failure rate because flimsier components were used?

[mac<censored>]

Perhaps Heavy Rain will be the surprise savior and resurrect the fallen giant.

By depressing everybody who plays it so much that they snap and go on a huge game-buying spree...?

[KDR_11k]

I hear the opening of Heavy Rain is just going through a morning routine with quicktime events thrown in.

[ShyGuy]

I'm conflicted Heavy Rain as a story centric adventure games sounds great, but I hate quicktime events.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Sony stops OLED TV production in Japan
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1592118/sayonara-sony-oled-tvs

[mac<censored>]

I'm conflicted Heavy Rain as a story centric adventure games sounds great, but I hate quicktime events.

Yeah I agree, "quicktime events" suck.  Who's the bozo that came up with those anyway?

[KDR_11k]

Dunno. I liked them in RE4 (because it's still supposed to be somewhat about horror and you can't have horror when cutscenes mean you are out of danger) but in most games they are fucking retarded. I'd blame Dragon's Lair.

[Rize]

I'm conflicted Heavy Rain as a story centric adventure games sounds great, but I hate quicktime events.

In HR it looks like the game goes beyond mere quick time events.  It sounds like it makes a greater effort to associate the QTE with what is going on on the screen....    just something I read.  I'm ultimately just as conflicted as you are.

[KDR_11k]

I hear the main draw of HR, the story, is garbage with more holes than swiss cheese and plot threads that just get completely dropped.

[Adrock]

Who's the bozo that came up with those anyway?

Rick Dyer, creator of Dragon's Lair. I give him a pass because that game came out in 1983. I blame David Jaffe for bringing back and popularizing QTE with God of War because he should have known better.

[NWR_insanolord]

I think the name "quick time events" was coined by Yu Suzuki, or one of the people on his team, because the first time I ever heard it was in regard to Shenmue.

[broodwars]

Who's the bozo that came up with those anyway?

Rick Dyer, creator of Dragon's Lair. I give him a pass because that game came out in 1983. I blame David Jaffe for bringing back and popularizing QTE with God of War because he should have known better.

Let's not forget Shinji Mikami for his lovely decision to implement the damn things in Resident Evil 4 (including the famous Knife Fight I hate so very much because it is a QTE).

[Halbred]

I've always called them "reflex saves."

[KDR_11k]

Let's not forget Shinji Mikami for his lovely decision to implement the damn things in Resident Evil 4 (including the famous Knife Fight I hate so very much because it is a QTE).

I found 'em appropriate in RE4 since it's still a horror series and the QTEs kept the tension up during cutscenes instead of letting you relax until regular gameplay resumes.

[broodwars]

Well, I'll give Nintendo one thing: when their crappy online service goes down, I can still play my games.  The PSN apparently went down today, and as a result none of my PS3 games will play because they all want to synch their trophy data first and there's nothing to synch with.  I just got Star Ocean: the Last Hope last night and I was really getting into it (I just picked up the guide and everything).  Then, when I loaded up my game to continue the adventure, not only did I get told I can't play until the magic internet God in the sky says I can, but my all my trophy data for this game vanished into thin air.  **** you, Sony.  This is a Single-player game, and I can't play it because your online service doesn't work right now.

Sorry, but this seemed a good place to do a little venting, because I'm very pissed right now.

*goes back to listening to RFN 185.*

[broodwars]

UPDATE: http://www.destructoid.com/psn-is-down-for-many-sony-on-the-case-165345.phtml

Whatever Sony's doing with the PSN, it's effectively bricked non-Slim PS3 models like mine since we can't access any PS3 games.  I'm not personally screwed so badly since I can still play PS2 and PS1 games on the thing (in fact, I'm playing Grandia for the first time as I type this), but this really angers me.  Did they really not bother to test this server update with the older PS3 models, and what does this mean for the day the Playstation Network eventually goes down for good?

[Kairon]

Actually, I'm hearing that it's not PSN related, and that even offline older non-slim model PS3's are experiencing the problems.

[broodwars]

Actually, I'm hearing that it's not PSN related, and that even offline older non-slim model PS3's are experiencing the problems.

Whatever the problem is, I wasn't having it yesterday when I brought Star Ocean home and started playing it.  Sony today decided to do a major overhaul on the PSN, and suddenly you see reports of players not being able to play their trophy-enabled games.  From all I've seen, this has something to do with the PSN, but it's only affecting older-model PS3s (like mine...sadly).

[mac<censored>]

... when I brought Star Ocean home and started playing it.

What do you think of Star Ocean btw?  The store here has massive displays pushing it, and the trailer looks kinda cool, but it's always hard to tell...

(I wanted to buy Heavy Rain, but all sold out!!)

[broodwars]

... when I brought Star Ocean home and started playing it.

What do you think of Star Ocean btw?  The store here has massive displays pushing it, and the trailer looks kinda cool, but it's always hard to tell...

(I wanted to buy Heavy Rain, but all sold out!!)

It's definitely one of those "buy the guide" kind of RPGs, because the game's pretty massive.  So far, I have somewhat mixed feelings on it, but I do like it overall.  I have issues with things like the inability to scroll the map when you pull it up; a massive amount of world to explore; the somewhat crushing difficulty during the game's first world due to the inability to buy healing items and scarce save points; kind of simplistic battle system (this game makes the Tales battle system look deep); and the simply ludicrous difficulty of the game's trophies, but overall I like it.  Suffice to say, though, that if JRPG tropes bother you you're going to hate this game because it is long-winded in the cutscenes; kind of quirky with the characters; and tends to fall back on RPG conventions at times.