Author Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately (Read 832856 times)

KDR_11k · « **Reply #1850 on:** April 23, 2007, 07:07:58 AM »

One has to wonder what the $299 Blu-ray player means for the cost of Blu-ray manufacturing in general, too. Maybe Sony isn't losing as much money as everyone thinks.

Keep in mind that Sony is selling a 600$ system that has a part others sell for 300$ alone. If a BRD player cost 200$ to make Pioneer would make big profit while Sony would suffer.

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #1851 on:** April 23, 2007, 07:27:26 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
One has to wonder what the $299 Blu-ray player means for the cost of Blu-ray manufacturing in general, too. Maybe Sony isn't losing as much money as everyone thinks.

Keep in mind that Sony is selling a 600$ system that has a part others sell for 300$ alone. If a BRD player cost 200$ to make Pioneer would make big profit while Sony would suffer.

If the cost of the BRD drive has actually come down that low, how long before MS decided to add an external one to the Xbox360 peripheral list, therefore making the 360 a HDDVD/BluRay player while the PS3 just remains a hefty financial investment thats not quite as flexible(HD player-wise).

I remember MS saying that they weren't against a BRD add-on, but didn't have any plans for one at that point in time. Granted, it would make the 360 more expensive, but you don't have to put all that money down upfront.

Mikintosh · « **Reply #1852 on:** April 23, 2007, 09:27:19 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: BlackNMild2k1
Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
One has to wonder what the $299 Blu-ray player means for the cost of Blu-ray manufacturing in general, too. Maybe Sony isn't losing as much money as everyone thinks.

Keep in mind that Sony is selling a 600$ system that has a part others sell for 300$ alone. If a BRD player cost 200$ to make Pioneer would make big profit while Sony would suffer.
If the cost of the BRD drive has actually come down that low, how long before MS decided to add an external one to the Xbox360 peripheral list, therefore making the 360 a HDDVD/BluRay player while the PS3 just remains a hefty financial investment thats not quite as flexible(HD player-wise).

I remember MS saying that they weren't against a BRD add-on, but didn't have any plans for one at that point in time. Granted, it would make the 360 more expensive, but you don't have to put all that money down upfront.

They're never going to endorse a direct competitor's propreitary format unless they absolutely have to, and it's definately not at that point.

couchmonkey · « **Reply #1853 on:** April 23, 2007, 09:39:12 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
One has to wonder what the $299 Blu-ray player means for the cost of Blu-ray manufacturing in general, too. Maybe Sony isn't losing as much money as everyone thinks.

Keep in mind that Sony is selling a 600$ system that has a part others sell for 300$ alone. If a BRD player cost 200$ to make Pioneer would make big profit while Sony would suffer.

Quite true, but my recollection was that PS3 was the cheapest BR player on the market at launch time. Point is, costs must be coming down, though I agree that PS3 could still easily be losing money.

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #1854 on:** April 23, 2007, 11:23:14 AM »

Costs aren't really going down. They just found out that people won't pay that much money for a BRD player.

The fact is this is a simple supply and demand equation. If the players were selling, then they would keep the higher prices and make a buttload of money.

Arbok · « **Reply #1855 on:** April 23, 2007, 12:20:09 PM »

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Originally posted by: Spak-Spang
Costs aren't really going down. They just found out that people won't pay that much money for a BRD player.

The fact is this is a simple supply and demand equation. If the players were selling, then they would keep the higher prices and make a buttload of money.

Costs are going down, but I think you hit on the bigger reason here. Sony was recently beating their own chest in triumph over the milestone of Casino Royale at 100,000 units... however, in the typically Sony fashion, those are shipped and not sold figures. Rumor has it that, in fact, a lot of those copies have not sold. If demand is that low, and you factor in that a lot of the players on the market are currently PS3s, you are probably getting a little worried if you are producing the stand alone players. So it's really not a surprise that they have began to slash prices so drastically. I wouldn't be surprised even if they are now turning hardly any profit at all in hopes that it just might accelerate the growth of the format for more sales later on.

Let's face it too, if they don't start selling, then stores will start to slash the space they have for the format until that sends the discs and players into a death spiral (ala UMDs).

Louieturkey · « **Reply #1856 on:** April 23, 2007, 01:46:09 PM »

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Originally posted by: ArbokLet's face it too, if they don't start selling, then stores will start to slash the space they have for the format until that sends the discs and players into a death spiral (ala UMDs).

No need to reference UMDs. That format was only ever planned for the PSP and never had any other UMD movie-only players on the market. Bluray was seen first as a movie based media and has had partners to make dedicated movie players for a long time. They are two different situations and should not be compared.

In May or June, Sony is coming out with a $699 bluray player that does more than what their current $999 player does. The funny thing about this is that the PS3 is still considered the best Bluray player on the market. The only point for these other bluray players from sony is to try to cover the costs of the PS3 at this point.

Mikintosh · « **Reply #1857 on:** April 23, 2007, 06:38:21 PM »

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Originally posted by: Louieturkey
Quote
Originally posted by: ArbokLet's face it too, if they don't start selling, then stores will start to slash the space they have for the format until that sends the discs and players into a death spiral (ala UMDs).

No need to reference UMDs. That format was only ever planned for the PSP and never had any other UMD movie-only players on the market. Bluray was seen first as a movie based media and has had partners to make dedicated movie players for a long time. They are two different situations and should not be compared.

Ooh, I'm not too sure on that. I have no facts, per se, to back me up, but I have a feeling that if UMDs had been a huge hit, they would've made them home-compatible in some way. And then other companies would have gotten in on it. So what if Sony's Blu-Ray players have a little competition? It's their format, so having other companies endorse it by making players for BD disks is just helping them. Not to mention that Blu-Ray's seen as partially a game-based media since they launched it alongside the PS3 and advertised the hell out of the fact that the games were in that format.

Louieturkey's right (not a phrase I thought I'd be saying in my lifetime); Blu-Ray as well as HD-DVD are in a tenuous position, as they don't even have the shelfspace that the UMDs had at their peak. If the sales don't pick up, they'll lose what they have left.

Arbok · « **Reply #1858 on:** April 24, 2007, 07:10:09 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Louieturkey
No need to reference UMDs. That format was only ever planned for the PSP and never had any other UMD movie-only players on the market. Bluray was seen first as a movie based media and has had partners to make dedicated movie players for a long time. They are two different situations and should not be compared.

My comparison was of the retail/consumer relationship, not the format itself, which is why I placed it after the "death spiral" comment. Simply put: if sales aren't there, then retailers will slash the shelf space for the item. The lack of shelf, which includes decreased variety in this case, then begins to impact sales causing them to lower further, often sending the product into a "death spiral".

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #1859 on:** April 24, 2007, 08:16:18 AM »

If the UMD format would have taken off. Sony would have marketed it as the standard for portable movies. I mean they are smaller than DVDs and provide better protection and are more durable for traveling.

I think Sony was probably hoping UMDs would have taken off.

Ceric · « **Reply #1860 on:** April 24, 2007, 09:19:09 AM »

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Originally posted by: Spak-Spang
If the UMD format would have taken off. Sony would have marketed it as the standard for portable movies. I mean they are smaller than DVDs and provide better protection and are more durable for traveling.

I think Sony was probably hoping UMDs would have taken off.

It was like hoping that a deer in a bear trap would escape a hunter. It could happen but the odds are fairly stacked against it.

Sony released the PSP, UMD/DVD home combo system, and Portable UMD standalone player. Then I would have thought they wanted it to succeed by more then luck.

Ceric · « **Reply #1861 on:** April 25, 2007, 03:49:17 AM »

I found this article funny. It's a review for the first air cooling solution for the PS3. Ho-Hum you say. Well I went on to read about it and the device is really well done. Anyways, why I think it's funny is because the PS3 isn't having any overheat problems with games instead it's having problems with playing Blu-Ray movies. Your read right.

It takes more processing for the PS3 to play a movie then a game... No wonder Blu-Ray players are expensive. They need a "Mini-Supercomputer" to run them.

couchmonkey · « **Reply #1862 on:** April 25, 2007, 04:41:50 AM »

It must have something to do with the constant use of the drive rather than the processor...it couldn't possibly need that much computing power to play a movie. Still ROFLilicious though.

This article about Sony and Microsoft losing the war over multimedia one-upmanship is pretty interesting. I particularly liked the parts about the PSX - not the original Playstation, but the expensive TV recording version of the Playstation 2. I completely forgot it existed, and the article explains why - it failed miserably.

Ceric · « **Reply #1863 on:** April 25, 2007, 09:52:54 AM »

You know after reading that I want one of those. I could use the features and I need a PS2 replacement... I wonder if I could find one cheap...
Found one at $200 right now but then I got to thinking that it is probably regionned for Japan and I have to find a way to crack it to play US games.

couchmonkey · « **Reply #1864 on:** April 25, 2007, 12:12:54 PM »

Yeah, I think it was only released in Japan. At $200, it sounds like an interesting proposition for hardware nuts.

Louieturkey · « **Reply #1865 on:** April 25, 2007, 12:48:52 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: couchmonkey
Yeah, I think it was only released in Japan. At $200, it sounds like an interesting proposition for hardware nuts.

Yeah, I remember those went on the market for about the equivalent of $1000 or something like that. $200 is a pretty good deal at this point.

Ceric · « **Reply #1866 on:** April 26, 2007, 02:42:10 AM »

I can't find anywhere if it's region free on the PS2 games or not. It is on the DVDs though.

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #1867 on:** April 27, 2007, 11:41:17 PM »

Just making sure that the thread dedicated to the man that made this thread possible never gets lost.

Other than that, you can forget all about his post.

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #1868 on:** May 14, 2007, 07:53:15 AM »

thought this was funny enough to post in here

DuelingAnalogs.com

couchmonkey · « **Reply #1869 on:** May 15, 2007, 03:29:16 AM »

Ah ha ha ha. The logical half of my brain can't help but point out that cutting the PS3's price by the cost of a Wii would probably have the same effect, but this would definitely work.

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #1870 on:** May 15, 2007, 11:57:50 PM »

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TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Sony reported a 68 percent fall in annual operating profit on Wednesday due to losses in its game unit and costs to recall PC batteries, but it forecast steep growth this year that beats market expectations.

lol

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/05/16/sony.slump.reut/index.html

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #1871 on:** May 16, 2007, 07:35:59 AM »

more funny, this time from UKResistance

I don't know the European sales figures, but if they are anything like this weeks Famitsu (see DS sales thread) then this shirt is very appropriate <sp>

Shift Key · « **Reply #1872 on:** May 16, 2007, 10:19:28 PM »

I want that shirt

Luigi Dude · « **Reply #1873 on:** May 17, 2007, 02:21:20 PM »

After the recent NPD data that shirt speaks the truth.

capamerica · « **Reply #1874 on:** May 17, 2007, 02:36:13 PM »

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The NPD group has released US video game sales data for April, a month which left Nintendo laughing and others playing the fool. Industry sales are up by 20% over last month, generating a grand total of $838.6 million. Software sales dropped by 1% to $389.8 million, though a 54% increase in hardware revenue to $338.4 million lessened the impact.

GameDaily Biz reports that Nintendo's hardware took the top two spots (for real this time), with the Wii showing an increase in sales for the first time in several months. The system's shortage situation has enjoyed some improvement, though unfortunately the same can't be said for Sony. Despite the PSP trumping Microsoft's elite offering, it seems the crippling "shortage" from March has only tightened its grip on the PlayStation 3.

* Nintendo DS: 471K (10.9 million total)
* Nintendo Wii: 360K (2.5 million total)
* Sony PlayStation 2: 194K (38.2 million total)
* Sony PSP: 183K (7.4 million total)
* Microsoft Xbox 360: 174K (5.4 million total)
* Nintendo Game Boy Advance: 84K (35.7 million total)
* Sony PlayStation 3: 82K (1.3 million total)
* Nintendo Gamecube: 13K (11.7 million total)
* Microsoft Xbox: N/A

News:

Author Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately (Read 832856 times)