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Ouch damn! Sony Q3 profit down 50% b/c of PS3
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How would you describe a Blu-Ray drive as "slow"? Drive speed? We've already had graphsabunch in the various PS3 threads comparing it to HD-DVD's transfer speed.
But how would having a "slow drive" affect movie playback? It doesn't take much to keep up with a streaming HD movie.
So... All next-gen players are "slow" and "low quality" because they're new units using a brand new technology. I would assume that the PS3's BD movie playback will be just as "low quality" as the PS2's DVD playback, which is to say that (assuming the hardware doesn't shit the bed) it will have more features than your average standalone player.
And even though the PS3 isn't selling as well as SCE would like, they're still making a metric shitload of money. Doomsayers are retarded. Giant companies like Sony don't just "lose" and go out of business. They've got their hand in so many different markets with so many different products that they would be just fine even if no more PS3s were sold, and every person who already had one packed it up and sent it back.
Steam / Bus Blog / Goozex Referral
So I'll be looking for a faster BD player! The PS3 just won't cut it!
The gaming software industry is doing fairly well, but the hardware side of things is anything but thriving. Only one of the three major players is making money from consoles. Sony and Microsoft are slitting each others' throats. The winner will be the one who lasts longest without bleeding themselves dry.
Investors are willing to let them gamble with the profits from other divisions if it means a long-term gain in the gaming hardware industry. But if Microsoft and Sony's gaming divisions keep posting losses (or actually lose market-share), then investors are going to eventually get sick of it.
Microsoft just released new versions of Windows and Office and is coining money hand over fist.
Sony, on the other hand, has had most of its income come from the PS2 over the past few years.
But wait, I thought Nintendo liked to make money?
What will be more interesting is Sony's profits 2 years from now.
A very good burn, sir.
Exactly.
It's a risky strategy for both companies... but really, Microsoft can afford to lose all the money they want. Their losses on the XBox are really a drop in the bucket. Sony's losses, on the other hand, have an adverse impact on the entire company's bottom line.
Microsoft could cut the cost of the XBox 360 by $100 if they wanted to, and it wouldn't hurt them much. But they don't need to do so right now, since the PS3 hasn't gained traction yet.
Microsoft really are masters of the "loss leader" strategy, and have used it in the past many times to drive their competitors to the brink of bankruptcy. Sony will survive, but I think that investors will start to get nervous if manufacturing costs for the PS3 don't come down quickly.
I'll tell you what, Sony's PS3 ARG has been ballsier and had much better story telling that ILBs. Then again, the $599 thing was kind of a stretch, but they really made you BELIEVE it.
Also, none of this can be true. I mean, hell, I know someone who has THREE PS3s. Sure, most people don't even has one... but this guy has THREE!
Also a cake.
For those that don't want to leave and absolutely must have some kind of "bias quota" met for themselves, here's an image for you. Props to whoever made it, because I can't remember.
I WILL NOT BE DOING 3DS FOR NWC THREAD. SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE TO TAKE OVER.
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Mario Kart Wii: 3136-6982-0286 Tetris Party: 2364 1569 4310
Guitar Hero: Metallica: 1032 7229 7191
TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM: 1935-2070-9123
Nintendo DS:
Worms: Open Warfare 2: 1418-7870-1606 Space Bust-a-Move: 017398 403043
Scribblenauts: 1290-7509-5558
Marlor: Since when is SCE posting losses? From my understanding, they still made profits but just not as much as they previously did. People seem to be forgetting how much of a huge cushion the PS2 is for SCE and it's not going to go away anytime soon. I'd say by the time the PS2 starts to fall, Sony will be making profits from the PS3 hardware (unless they agressively lower the price as the PS3 gets cheaper to manufacture).
I think the failing PS3 is going to hurt them more. The PS2 was their cash cow and not all their divisions have been doing well. For the PS3 to end up anything but first place by a large margin will be disasterous.
Probably the greatest damage is to their brand image though. Sony has ridden out the past couple years by selling sub par products just because people bought into the Sony name. All the negative press surrounding it's products has brought to light that their quality isn't all it once was.
I was under the assumption the PSP followed the same loss-leader strategy as every other piece of hardware in the Sony lineup and that software sales were lagging something fierce.
Maybe that's why SE got some UE3 licenses ... if they build FFXIII (or newer games) on UE3 they can at least port them easily to other platforms in case of collapse.
Yeah you're righ... Oh Wait! The SP is much more successful! It is still printing money.[/i]
That's kind of a bad example, because Nintendo's hardware is always sold at a profit, from launch day. Currently, at Sony... it's not, and may not for a while.
Aaaaaanyway, looking at the article, it's looking like all of Sony's other divisions are improving at exactly the right time. TVs, computers, cell phones, movies, they're all up. With that, Sony will be able to soften, if not completely counter, the losses from the games division. Even if things continue as they are now, Sony's not going anywhere.
Still, I wonder...what kind of scenario will help Sony's game division make a profit? True, the costs of the PS3 will come down, but will it come fast enough? Sony must must MUST drop the price of the PS3 by this Christmas in order to have a shot at taking the market, but will component costs have dropped as quickly by then? If the estimated $900 manufacturing cost goes down to, say, $400, they're fine, they can lower the price to something comparable to the 360, and they can regain marketshare without sacrificing their finances. But what if manufacturing costs only drop to $600? Will Sony drop the price to $400 to compete but lose money, or will Sony keep the price at $600 to try to make money?
Given the company's goofy decisions in the past, I can't rule out the second scenario.
You forget the PS2 is still selling like crazy.
Not as crazy as the DS, though.
Not as crazy as Heinz Baked Beans though.
I'm more of a Bush's guy myself. Mmm. . . tasty.
My Collection
Also this cake.
Steam / Bus Blog / Goozex Referral
Supposedly, as of last year they had cash reserves of $3 billion.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
How stupid are you? You didn't rebutt any of my comments about the worst development cycle of all of the current systems out there. 17% is hardly mainstream. Sony won't be making consoles in 2010 at the rate they are going.
Sony has set themselves up to fail since they and the blu-ray consortium want to do this whole format war in the first place. I spit on blu-ray and I spit on HD-DVD because the whole format war is bullshit.
This is a snippet from a brief article discussing Sony in 2000, when, in the third quarter, profits were roughly half of what they had been a year prior.
Just like they are now.
Because of, you know, a console launch.
There was no hope of Sony's game division being profitable in the third quarter of FY2006. It was not going to happen. It was never intended to happen. The fact that it didn't happen means squat, because you don't make profits when you launch a console. You lose shittons of money. And then you plan to make it back in the future.
If FY2007 looks similarly bleak, then we can LOL SONY.
OLLO Nintendo to buy Microsoft in 5 years.
But see, people were excited for the PS2.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Yes. And if people aren't excited about the PS3, then the financial picture a year from now will be very poor. But trying to extract relevance from this story is sort of like marveling that after taking out a loan for a new house, suddenly your debt:income ratio skyrocketed. The only message here is that "launching a console is very expensive".
Loss is the new profit!
Sony to buy Microsoft in five years. Paid in bizarro dollars.
I agree with you except for the small part in that quote that says "selling faster than Sony can ship." That is far from the case here. Sony forgot to change their strategy to compensate for a market where they have one company doing something completely different (and stealing almost ALL of the good media) and another company who has already had a year head start and a console producing similar graphics.
Before, on their own for a year, before the Cube and Xbox, I could see why the units were flying off of shelves. But already by new years this year, they were clearly not. Everyday we see more and more bad news for Sony's exclusives and upcoming schedule for 2007. I'm going to assume that it will only get worse in the near future (meaning this year).
Despite my rambling, I think Sony will pull through, though not with much dignity intact in the gaming industry. They are seen as pretty much fucking up the entire process, mainly on the fulfilling promises to the consumer, and in turn, the developers. If third-party companies could, do you think they would go back and change how they supported the system? I think would, no doubt about it.
I never asked for this!