Author Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately (Read 665484 times)

Ceric · « **on:** July 03, 2006, 06:55:34 AM »

This is an IGN article quoting another article about an analyst saying Sony is going to fall.

The best part of the whole thing is:

Quote
"The glaring weakness of the PlayStation 3 is price, especially when compared to the competition," said the report. "Sony has done very little to justify why the system is worth a premium price for consumers that don't care about raw hardware performance and are not hard-core audio/visual consumers. Unfortunately we believe that represents over 90% of the consumers in the marketplace."

Those last two sentences.

They are also being hit on Taxes:
Sony et al. Hit on taxes.

and press like this:
Negative Japanese Press

I wouldn't want to be Sony or there Spin Machine right now.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #1 on:** July 03, 2006, 11:29:03 AM »

They've brought this upon themselves.

They should have kept Ken "Child Molester" Kutaragi on a much tighter leash than this and the price is just insane.

mantidor · « **Reply #2 on:** July 03, 2006, 02:23:07 PM »

Sony's attitude is perfectly understandable. They aren't game designers and don't care about games, their main priority right now is to get blue-ray to be the dominant media in the future, and if this is achievable by putting the playstation at risk by adding to the price tag so be it. Even if all this decisions are really dumb I don't see how sony could be doing anything differently, unless they'd completly change the direction and objective of the company.

Flames_of_chaos · « **Reply #3 on:** July 03, 2006, 03:26:53 PM »

Funny thing is Microsoft and Nintendo has been making a lot of smart moves and have been "playing nice" while Sony is trying to pick fights but gets backfired badly.

ThePerm · « **Reply #4 on:** July 03, 2006, 03:53:45 PM »

i see blueray as dead alread, microsoft supports hd-dvd on PCs, the PC is and always will be moe widespread than anything else, unless apple has blueray in the future(since apples are now PCs)

Guitar Smasher · « **Reply #5 on:** July 03, 2006, 05:37:08 PM »

Can Blu-ray read normal DVD's/CD's, etc.? If not, then I don't see how it could be used in a PC, or a Mac.

capamerica · « **Reply #6 on:** July 03, 2006, 05:40:18 PM »

Quote
A news story on financial website Bloomberg.com indicated that last week Sony took out an ¥80 billion ($698 million) three-year floating-rate bank loan, as PlayStation 3 production expenses loom.

The report noted that Sony confirmed that the loan, which came from more than 20 Japanese lenders, was made “to diversify funding sources”, and represented the company's first bank borrowing in 10 years.

According to the report, Sony “tapped the country's expanding syndicated loan market as it offered a cheaper source of cash at a time when investors in corporate debt are demanding higher yields before an expected rise in Japanese interest rates this year.” The company is ramping up production on multiple products this year, with its PlayStation 3 next-gen console, including the company's Blu-ray disc format, perhaps key.

Not a good sign..

capamerica · « **Reply #7 on:** July 03, 2006, 05:41:24 PM »

Blu-Ray can read DVD based media but they can't read CD based media.

Ages · « **Reply #8 on:** July 03, 2006, 06:13:34 PM »

" Blu-Ray can read DVD based media but they can't read CD based media. "

Wouldnt that all but negate backwards compatibility to the PSOne? Also, since DVD is BC with CD, I'd imagine that BRD, being BC with DVD would also be BC with CD. (arent acronym's great?)

Kairon · « **Reply #9 on:** July 03, 2006, 06:21:33 PM »

They're just including PS2 hardware in each PS3.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

Ceric · « **Reply #10 on:** July 03, 2006, 06:57:47 PM »

Actually. Sony has to include an additional laser to read a regular DVD, different light frequency. I heard that lately they've gottend DVD players to have and adjustable laser but it use to be to have a DVD that read CD it would also need 2 different lasers. So that means Blu-ray may need an 3 to read from CD to BluRay. I thought they already stated that it wouldn't be background compitable that far anyways.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #11 on:** July 04, 2006, 02:15:17 AM »

Sony tried to have one laser for CDs and DVDs in the PS2, that's the reason for the large numbers of drive failures.

couchmonkey · « **Reply #12 on:** July 06, 2006, 06:42:48 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: mantidor
Sony's attitude is perfectly understandable. They aren't game designers and don't care about games, their main priority right now is to get blue-ray to be the dominant media in the future, and if this is achievable by putting the playstation at risk by adding to the price tag so be it. Even if all this decisions are really dumb I don't see how sony could be doing anything differently, unless they'd completly change the direction and objective of the company.

You know, this is an interesting way of looking at it. However, the opposite side of the coin, which Sony probably should have looked at at some point, is that video games have become one of the company's bigget money makers. I don't know the situation right now, but according to a CNN Money episode I saw several years ago, video games were responsible for almost 1/3 of Sony's earnings. That's a big chunk of business to gamble on becoming king of a media format.

Requiem · « **Reply #13 on:** July 06, 2006, 06:51:06 AM »

Especially since Sony has failed to launch a media format 3 times in a row! (beta, minidisc, UMD)

capamerica · « **Reply #14 on:** July 06, 2006, 07:03:12 AM »

I recently found out Sony has had alot more then 3 Failed media formats. SACD, MicroMV, HiFD, and Elcaset are also failed Sony media formats and on top of that you also have the unpopular video formats like Video8, Hi-8 and Digital8 that also didn't take off that well.

Requiem · « **Reply #15 on:** July 06, 2006, 07:36:24 AM »

So do you think this is the last chance Sony can redeem themselves?

Is this the last format they will ever create?

If BRD fails, will Sony file for bancruptcy?

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #16 on:** July 06, 2006, 08:43:50 AM »

Does all this mean that Sony is going to have to actually make money on the PS3...is the high price placed in effect because they are going to actually try to make money on each unit sold?

I just can't see Sony taking out a loan to start production of the PS3 and sell them at a lose. There would be no means of recovering from that...UNLESS Sony did achieve market dominance with the Blue Ray Discs.

If that happens, then Sony will be fine.

If Sony files for bankruptcy will some other company buy them out? Or would they sell part of the company and split the business up? It would be interesting if Nintendo absorbed the gaming departments of Sony.

HA!!!

Jin-X · « **Reply #17 on:** July 06, 2006, 09:07:23 AM »

SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-A (A for Audio) were part of the failed movement toward higher quality audio, instead we have compressed lower quality audio (boooooo, hissss).

capamerica · « **Reply #18 on:** July 06, 2006, 09:17:51 AM »

As it stands right now I think Sony is in some deep Sh*t.
Sony is putting their life on the line in hopes that the Playstation name can keep them in the #1 spot. I don't see it happening.

Blu-Ray is off to a bad start. Right now a Blu-Ray player is double the price of a HD-DVD player and on top of that the quality of the first batch of Blu-Ray movies are pretty poor. When you compare HD-DVD next to Blu-Ray, HD-DVD looks 10x better and its very notesable which is very surprising since Blu-Ray has more storage space and Sony kept promoting that it was better quality.

vudu · « **Reply #19 on:** July 06, 2006, 10:17:48 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: capamerica
I recently found out Sony has had alot more then 3 Failed media formats. SACD, MicroMV, HiFD, and Elcaset are also failed Sony media formats and on top of that you also have the unpopular video formats like Video8, Hi-8 and Digital8 that also didn't take off that well.

Out of curiosity, does Sony have any successful formats? Did they make cassette tapes or DVD's or anything like that?

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #20 on:** July 06, 2006, 11:04:11 AM »

They had the Hi-8 and Digital 8 lines of camcorder tapes which.... you'll find was made to work pretty much only on Sony camcorders, evidenced by most other makers NOT supporting Hi-8 and Digital 8.

Sony Memory Sticks continue the "i'll do things my way (on my products)" mentality tradition. Higher prices for bearing the Sony brand name ensue.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #21 on:** July 06, 2006, 11:18:55 AM »

When you compare HD-DVD next to Blu-Ray, HD-DVD looks 10x better and its very notesable which is very surprising since Blu-Ray has more storage space and Sony kept promoting that it was better quality.

I seem to recall that being because of a bad player, they both use the same codecs and everything.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #22 on:** July 06, 2006, 12:03:44 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Requiem
Especially since Sony has failed to launch a media format 3 times in a row! (beta, minidisc, UMD)

My thoughts precisely.

This is what should be known in the business world as a "Hail Mary": they're betting the house on this one and if it fails (which as history shows us, it WILL), it's game over.

Can anyone name a time when the most expensive console, facing stiff competition, ever succeeded?

GoldenPhoenix · « **Reply #23 on:** July 06, 2006, 07:52:26 PM »

Any news on how both the Blu Ray and HD DVD are selling?

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #24 on:** July 07, 2006, 12:41:06 PM »

I'd like to hear that one as well.

News:

Author Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately (Read 665484 times)