Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately

[BlackNMild2k1]

just look at the price difference on these tv's
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=3608112411929788580&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=ledtv&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960

[nickmitch]

They've no where to go but down.

[BlackNMild2k1]

true, but adoption at those prices are gonna be very very slow.

and the prices only really come down when people really start buying them.You could wait for a clearance, but that's not good for support of the product. Clearance usually means that something better is about to take it's spot on the shelf, clearanced items will see less support going forward.

[Chozo Ghost]

Nintendo was smart to skip over the HD generation and go for the gold by focusing on 3D instead. That's just like how they skipped right past the 32-bit era and released the 54-bit N64 instead.

[Mop it up]

released the 54-bit N64 instead.

Hee hee hee

[KDR_11k]

Man I couldn't disagree more.  The latest trend is that multiplatform games are better on PS3.

You're one of the three people who regularly read Digital Foundry and take notes, eh?

[Spak-Spang]

Tj Spyke, I was talking about future.  Yes they are just coming out now.  But really it doesn't cost much more to make a 3D television, they can charge more because it is viewed as special.  But in a year or 2 when standards are finalized and there isn't a "3D format war" then we will see prices drop and will be similar to just buying a regular HDTVs, while I don't believe HDTVs will become cheaper, but will just not be on the market.  I think the television companies learned their lessons from the last generation.  If you want to move forward, stop providing the other product...and make prices more reasonable quicker.

[TJ Spyke]

I don't expect their to be 3D standards anytime soon (if ever). Even if they do drop in price quickly, which I have my doubts on, I don't think it's reasonable to expect most people to replace the HDTV they just bought in the last couple of years just to get one with a gimmicky feature used by a couple of movies/games.

[ThePerm]

We know once 3d is fully available and widespread, then everyone will be pushing 3D holograms

[KDR_11k]

I think computer CRTs can do 120Hz at low resolutions so you could run one at 120Hz, get a pair of shutter glasses and play your games in 3D. It's not a big screen but it's not 3000$ either.

[Deguello]

I saw some stuff from a few pages ago about whether or not the PS3 was a disaster or not, and saw some surprising defenses of it, mainly talking about how the PS3 is on an upward curve with sales it's gonna knock out the 360 to grab 2nd place or whatever.

But this is basically the objective truth of the matter:


And if that's not enough of a visual aid, here are the raw numbers:



You see how Sony's at -$2 billion even going back as far as before the PS2?  All that PS2 dominance? Pfft.  Gone.  Like it never happened.  Now it's eating into their PS1 profits, so much so that one more year of these sorts of losses might actually put them back to into the red for video games, period.

The PS3 is an unmitigated disaster, period.  In this light, the comparisons to N64 or GameCube are ridiculous, because during those years, Nintendo made profit off of them, despite taking their licks in the market.

In fact, one begins to wonder if Sony is seriously thinking about becoming a third party, because their hardware is such dead weight to them and they are bleeding money like nobody's business.

EDIT: Changed pic addresses.

[Chozo Ghost]

The PS3 isn't dead weight to Sony. That was the single biggest factor which lead to them winning the Format war with HD-DVD. Of course, with that having been accomplished it now may be dead weight... I'm just saying it did accomplish something for them in terms of monopolizing a format industry, but now? Sony might look at the PS4 as a vehicle to get them to shove their next proprietary format down our throats. They tried pulling that crap with the PSP, but no one bought into that UMD crap because Sony just didn't have the clout in the handheld market as they do/did in consoles. I think its important to them that the PS3 succeeds in some level, if nothing else so that the PS4 can be taken seriously and for them its not about gaming at all. They have Alterior motives.

[KDR_11k]

Considering the company as a whole made a loss because of the PS3 I'm not sure sacrificing it for the success of BRD worked out as a net gain.

[Deguello]

More dangerous is what Sony will do if this stuff keeps up.  Sony as a whole lost about $450 million last year and, as you can see, their gaming division lost $890 million.  Meaning that were it not for their gaming division, Sony would have been able to post a profit.  Which they desperately need to show.

Meaning that, if they even decide to stay in games at all, you'll see a lot of fat-cutting going on, and it's not going to be pretty.  Hell, Sega had more money when they left consoles than Sony's game division does now.

And this horrible place to be in (dead last and almost broke) puts them in a TERRIBLE position to field new products.  They aren't gong to sink the same amount of money into a PS4 or a PSP2, because  they simply can't afford it.  Nor can they afford all those third party incentives either.  And it's all because of the PS3.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Proprietary formats is a big reason that I avoid lots of Sony products when it comes to consumer electronics.

I don't want to invest in Memory Sticks when everything else I use from multiple manufacturers use SD cards & SD cards are cheaper for that reason. I didn't want a PSP because I din't want movies on UMD that couldn't even be played on the big screen when I was at home (would it seriously have killed hem to make a home UMD player?) I stayed far away from MiniDisc casue everyone smelled the fail on that from miles away regardless of how nice it might have been. I was waaay too young to care about BetaMax as some of you here may be too young to know what it is. I'm sure I forgot a few and I don't blame Sony for trying, but they need to know when they've been beat and conform on certain set standards.

[Chozo Ghost]

On what I guess is a more positive note, has anyone else noticed Sony has been ramping up their advertising? They hired some new kid named Marcus to be the Spokesperson for their PSP in the same way that Kevin Butler is for the PS3. So now the PSP is finally getting advertised at a level I for one haven't seen since way back when it first came out. Of course, the lack of games for it isn't going to help it much, but a crappy system that gets promoted has more of a shot than a crappy system that doesn't, I guess...

And has anyone else noticed that the game used in the PSP ad is a rip-off of Mario Kart?

ETA: I think having a kid be the Spokesperson for the PSP and targeting the ads directly at kids is only going to make people look at the PSP as a "Kiddie" piece of hardware. On the other hand, look at Nintendo and how they are marketing the NDS to all markets, including adults very aggressively. Nintendo was once seen as the "kiddie" system, and the GB/GBA was the most kiddie thing of all, but now with the NDS you have grownups using it in their kitchen to help them cook meals, and you have Lisa Kudrow playng it. Can the PSP say that? No, it can't.

[Ian Sane]

Sony might look at the PS4 as a vehicle to get them to shove their next proprietary format down our throats. They tried pulling that crap with the PSP, but no one bought into that UMD crap because Sony just didn't have the clout in the handheld market as they do/did in consoles. I think its important to them that the PS3 succeeds in some level, if nothing else so that the PS4 can be taken seriously and for them its not about gaming at all.

What could Sony possibly do for a PS4?  The PS3 just became affordable.  How do you top it without, again, having insanely expensive hardware which was the whole problem with the PS3 in the first place?  I'm not sure they could do anything but ride it out or give up entirely.  If they want to be a console maker they have to stand behind the PS3 because there is nothing else.
 
Unless they pull a Nintendo and release a new console with a miniscule hardware update but with some unique hardware feature to set it apart.  But I don't think Sony can come up with such a feature and I don't think their target audience would be too accepting of such an "upgrade".
 
Sony would probably do pretty good as a third party actually since they have built up a pretty good lineup of first party games.

[vudu]

Deg, it looks like you're hotlinking those images from a website that I'm assuming you don't own.  Unless the site specifically allows this, please update the post with links to your own site.

[TJ Spyke]

Deg, you should always upload a image to a image-hosting site like Photobucket first (especially since some sites block hotlinking, like VG Museum, but making them show up as a warning saying that they don't allow hotlinking).

I would be shocked if the PS4 doesn't use Blu-ray Disc too. BD-ROM's are more than large enough in size, and Sony wants to continue helping the format.

[Caterkiller]

Oh my god! People actually speaking about a company going 3rd party and it isn't Nintendo? I forget how the times have changed.

[Sarail]

Oh my god! People actually speaking about a company going 3rd party and it isn't Nintendo? I forget how the times have changed.

Exciting, isn't it?

[KDR_11k]

So if Sony were to go 3rd party again, what could they offer?

[ThePerm]

Sony might look at the PS4 as a vehicle to get them to shove their next proprietary format down our throats. They tried pulling that crap with the PSP, but no one bought into that UMD crap because Sony just didn't have the clout in the handheld market as they do/did in consoles. I think its important to them that the PS3 succeeds in some level, if nothing else so that the PS4 can be taken seriously and for them its not about gaming at all.

What could Sony possibly do for a PS4?  The PS3 just became affordable.  How do you top it without, again, having insanely expensive hardware which was the whole problem with the PS3 in the first place?  I'm not sure they could do anything but ride it out or give up entirely.  If they want to be a console maker they have to stand behind the PS3 because there is nothing else.
 
Unless they pull a Nintendo and release a new console with a miniscule hardware update but with some unique hardware feature to set it apart.  But I don't think Sony can come up with such a feature and I don't think their target audience would be too accepting of such an "upgrade".
 

Thats what Move is essentially. For the price of a what the 71 million payed for the wii and will pay for the next console, its going to be what players pay for ps3 next year with move. Instead of releasing a new powerful console like Nintendo is probably going to do they are just going to hold out with their current one and release the move as an upgrade.

Its kinda funny that both companies are employing really long term strategies that seem to compliment each other. The only difference is Nintendo isn't dangerously losing money in the process. Ultimately, as part of a 12 year plan, Sony should be out of the red. That is the differences in the companies. Nintendo never ever ever likes to lose profit, they never lose any, but they do lose potential profit. Sony will have huge successes, but will also have huge losses, ultimately they stay afloat.

[KDR_11k]

Sony keeps blabbing about long term stuff but honestly, I don't buy it. The reason the PS1 and 2 outlasted the competition was their installed base.

[ThePerm]

im pretty sure they thought they were hot **** coming in this generation, only to get pimp slapped by the OG on the block. Ultimately, they are like a new pimp trying to grab territory, only getting taken out by the real deal. They are still the sophomores though.