Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately

[Deguello]

Unfortunately, broodwars, your personal preference is a separate issue to that of Sony losing a lot of money and just the raw financial risk that is making PS3 exclusives. 

To limit yourself to one platform is actually a smart move.  It allows intense focus and doesn't fall prey to lowest-common-denominator problems.  A lot of companies best work and most beloved (and highest selling) came from a time of their exclusivity or at least hard focus on one platform, with little dalliance in anything else.  This is all well and good, provided that platform has a large userbase.  But without one, focusing on that particular console is retarded, no matter how loud those fanboys are, and this was even true of Nintendo fans back int he day.

The PS3, obviously, does not have one.  So making exclusives for it is stupid.  I'd say it should be lucky to get what it has got, as some third parties would rather risk financial collapse than not make PS3 games, even beyond all rationality, whereas other companies in a similar position would have been dropped at the first sign of slight sales momentum loss.

[broodwars]

The PS3, obviously, does not have one.  So making exclusives for it is stupid.  I'd say it should be lucky to get what it has got, as some third parties would rather risk financial collapse than not make PS3 games, even beyond all rationality, whereas other companies in a similar position would have been dropped at the first sign of slight sales momentum loss.

The thing is, I think the PS3 does have that audience in those people who bought the PS2.  The problem is that Sony shot themselves in the foot when they removed backwards compatibility and put out such an expensive system, and the 360 has benefited from this monumental screw-up.  That's why I think the PS3 needs a price drop one way or another, be it a drop in the price of games or in the hardware itself.  We'll have to see what E3 brings, but I don't think the PS3 is dead yet.  It's certainly headed that way, so that's why I've been talking about things Sony can do to potentially save it.

[broodwars]

Unfortunately, broodwars, your personal preference is a separate issue to that of Sony losing a lot of money and just the raw financial risk that is making PS3 exclusives.

I don't believe I ever said my gaming preferences were connected to the PS3's fortunes.  I was just refuting GoldenPhoenix's claim that I thought the Wii's library was "worthless."  I don't find it worthless, just largely unsatisfying and not really my cup of tea.

[NWR_insanolord]

The people who bought the PS2 aren't the PS3 audience, those people (at least the ones that aren't Sony fanboys) already bought a 360 or a Wii or both (or, looking at the Wii sales figures, 2 Wiis or possibly 7 DSs). And I just looked through my Wii games, about half of the 39 I own can be played in the fashion you talked about.

[KDR_11k]

2.  Work out a deal with developers for the PS3 that will relax the licensing fees for developing games on the platform.  I think Sony could make some real headway if they could undercut Microsoft with $50-$55 games, especially since the two have a lot of multiplatform releases as it is.  The higher sales of those games would counterbalance the lost revenue from the licensing fees.

I don't think the 60$ price comes from license fees, just publishers figuring they can up the price because now games are OMG HD!!! so people will pay more for them.

[mac<censored>]

The PS3, obviously, does not have one.  So making exclusives for it is stupid.  I'd say it should be lucky to get what it has got, as some third parties would rather risk financial collapse than not make PS3 games, even beyond all rationality, whereas other companies in a similar position would have been dropped at the first sign of slight sales momentum loss.

I agree, but I'll bet a lot of developers made long-term plans and investments back when ps2 was king, before it became clear that the ps3 would be in distant 3rd place for this generation.

I presume that it's not particularly easy to change course in midstream, so perhaps some of them just decided to stick it out, hoping desperately that the ps3 would suddenly start selling.  Not such a great plan as it turns out, but maybe this wasn't so clear a while back?

[Chozo Ghost]

With the worldwide economy the way it is, convincing anyone to do major HD games exclusively for PS3 is almost a pipe dream. Few are going to want to jump on a sinking ship which PS3 is.

Well, I don't know about that.  The 360's days are numbered now, with nothing really of interest left that's exclusive to it.  Meanwhile, the PS3's powerful enough to have legs for quite a few more years yet, so it has longeavity.  Besides, if the Wii could sell the way it has with the library it has, I'll believe anything's possible.

The PS3 isn't noticeably more powerful than the 360. The Cell processor certainly is, but its power is bottlenecked because of the limitations of the other components, so it can't really make the most of it. The Cell processor has, however, succeeded in making developing for the system more difficult and expensive due to it being a very complicated architecture to work with. The 360 on the other hand isn't far removed from a PC, so you're likely to see a lot of PC --> 360 ports that Sony's console just isn't going to get.

In terms of easiness to develop for, I think it would go like this:

Wii --> 360 --> PS3

The Wii is by far the easiest to develop for. Nintendo has done an excellent job of that, and the lack of HD also helps a lot too. The 360 is harder because of it being HD and stuff, but still a lot easier than the rat's nest that is PS3.

[MikeHrusecky]

As bad as the loss seems, I think it's also important to keep it in perspective. Hitachi reported losses of $8 billion. Panasonic lost $4B, NEC lost $3B, and so on. So "only" $1.7B suggests they did better than many of their peers in a really crappy global market.

If the comparison is strictly to Nintendo, then sure it looks pretty bad. But Sony does a lot more stuff. I don't know how their game business did specifically and how it factored into the $1.7B, but the PS3 isn't the sole reason or the sole answer to pull them back out. There are things they can improve across the board, but mainly the economy needs to percolate again too.

[TJ Spyke]

Sony has been losing money for awhile though, even before the recession started. Tech companies have quickly rebounded while Sony continues to languish.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I think they haven't posted a loss in 14years because the Games division (specifically PlayStation) was the only profitable portion of Sony for a while. Its why they put a non-Japanese man as head of Sony, changes needed to be made.

There were other departments at Sony that were profitable(or broke even) from time to time, but now even the PlayStation dept. is losing money, so you know that they are hurting.

[Chozo Ghost]

Sony should either pull out of the video gaming market or revert into a 3rd party developer like Sega.

[Stogi]

That's what people said about Nintendo last gen.....


Just saying...

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Sony's no Nintendo.

Just sayin

[TJ Spyke]

That's what people said about Nintendo last gen.....


Just saying...

Except the difference is that Nintendo never lost money last gen, Sony has yet to profit with their video game division this gen and now the company itself is losing money. Even  when Nintendo was in third they were still making a profit.

[mac<censored>]

Sony's no Nintendo.

Hell, for the last decade or so, Sony's no Sony!

[Hard to say when the rot began, but it seems to curiously coincide with the introduction of the playstation...]

Akio Morita would be so ashamed...

[Chozo Ghost]

Sony's no Nintendo.

Just sayin

Exactly. The Gamecube did hold an important advantage that the PS3 has yet to achieve: it was a money-maker. It may have been in third place, but it was always profitable. The PS3 is in 3rd place but is not yet profitable, and its uncertain whether it will ever be profitable.

[Chozo Ghost]

Hell, for the last decade or so, Sony's no Sony!

[Hard to say when the rot began, but it seems to curiously coincide with the introduction of the playstation...]

Akio Morita would be so ashamed...

Probably has something to do with the insanity of Ken Kutaragi. If that man hasn't been committed to a mental hospital yet he definitely should be...

[KDR_11k]

That and Nintendo can drive a console alone. They had to make the Wii alone, they had to make a system with killer apps and had to have both go together perfectly.

[mac<censored>]

Probably has something to do with the insanity of Ken Kutaragi. If that man hasn't been committed to a mental hospital yet he definitely should be...

That seems to be pretty much how he was thought of inside Sony too...

According to a friend that worked at SCE Japan (on PS3 development), basically Kutaragi ran SCE quite independently from the rest of Sony, with a very different style -- more glitter and less sweat (even physically, SCE was in a seperate building, in the expensive and fashionable Aoyama section of Tokyo) -- and the old-school Sony guys hated Kutaragi's guts.  Sadly, SCE was (at the time at least) simply bringing in too much money to ignore, and apparently Sony bet just a bit too much of the company on it...

[Chozo Ghost]

Son Krazy Ken is alot like King Louis and Marie Antoinette living their life of extravagance while things quietly fell apart all around them.

I'm not going to complain, though, because as a Nintendo fan its good to see Sony at the bottom and Nintendo back on top. Kinda makes you wonder if Kutaragi wasn't actually a Nintendo agent, or something.

[Luigi Dude]

[BlackNMild2k1]

Yahoo front page



& the story
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/ps3-bested-by-older-brother/1315218

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

This is a 30-yr strategy.

[BlackNMild2k1]

This is a 30-yr strategy.

tortoise & the hare.

Wii exploded out the gate, they will burn bright, but burn out early.
PS3 shall stick to the plan. Easy does it, slow & steady. its a marathon & not a sprint.

[Chozo Ghost]

Well, at least now the PS3 isn't being outsold by the GBA like it was back in the first year of its life...