Sony, Analysts React To PS3 Launch 247
cdneng2 writes "Sony may be aware that something is just not right. There's a reshuffling of management occurring within Sony. Kazuo Hirai is set to head their videogame unit, as Ken Kutaragi has been bumped to the Sony board. Jack Tretton, former COO for SCEA, is now the president and CEO of that arm of the company. There's no word on the reasoning behind these position shifts. On the same day, Namco announced that they must sell 500,000 games to begin making profit on PS3 games. A Financial Times article confirms speculation on how hard it will be for Sony to make money, as analysts with UBS predict that 30 games must be sold per PS3 for them to break even." To add insult to injury, EA CEO Larry Probst has said PS3 numbers were lower than expected. Current thinking is that Sony managed to ship roughly half of the 400,000 units they were promising.
What is going on here? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony Can Sell Blu-Ray Movies Not Just Games (Score:4, Insightful)
As much as I would like to poke fun at Sony for this seemingly high mark, they can also make a profit by selling a combination of PS3 games and Blu-Ray movies. It is much more reasonable for someone to have lots of movies than lots of games. Assuming of course the purchase is made at a retail store so Sony gets the profit, rather than a used dealer.
Re:Let's Googlewhack! (Score:3, Insightful)
What is particularly mind-boggling about Sony is that they continue to spend money advertising on Television to sell a console you cannot buy and a console that will require no advertising-induced desires to be able to sell any that Sony can manage to get on the shelves.
Plus, a 30 game attach rate to break even? That is mind-boggling and cannot be possible. Sony could not be that stupid.
PROMOTED??? (Score:5, Insightful)
People are too eager to decide. (Score:5, Insightful)
Because this generation requires such a huge investment, people want a decision to be made in the console war quickly enough that they can avoid buying a 'losing' console and wasting their money.
If you can find a way to solve this, let us know.
Re:30 Games (Score:4, Insightful)
Here is a link to a cost analysis of the PS3 ( http://www.isuppli.com/news/default.asp?id=6919 [isuppli.com] )
The question I would have is whether Sony can bring the cost of manufacturing down at a rate greater than the rate they're going to be forced to reduce the price of the system?
Sometime in 2007 Microsoft will reduce the price of the XBox 360 so that the XBox 360 Bundle is $299 (as a guess), at this point in time Sony will be left with the decision to reduce the price of the PS3 or to reduce their loss on the PS3. If Sony allows Microsoft to Bully them into reducing the price of the PS3 it is likely that Sony will not start turning a profit on hardware throughout the entire generation (similar to what happened with the XBox), on the other hand if Sony doesn't reduce the price of the system they will likely bleed marketshare to Microsoft.
Honestly I hate Microsoft but the more I think about it the more I believe that Sony has lobbed the ball right into Microsofts court and ran off to get a drink while the ball is still in play; if Microsoft converts on this it will be really ugly for Sony.
Re:What is going on here? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope they crash and burn (Score:4, Insightful)
Sadly, way too many people have short memories and don't care that computers were scrambled by willfully malicious sony music CDs.
Or the fact that they love to sue music cust^H^H^H^Hpirates into submission. "Don't even have a computer? Give us money anyway cause we KNOW you've been pirating!"
Hell, the last sony laptop I got my hands on, had so much advertising crap on it that it actually *slowed down* the machine significantly, until I uninstalled all of it.
I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of examples of Sony's heinous, arrogant behaviour.
Re:Meanwhile In Reality (Score:1, Insightful)
The same can be said for Xbox 360's and Wii's, except they shipped 2 and 3 times as many consoles respectively. The fact that you can't find a PS3 anywhere isn't necessarily indicative of the console's success in this case, it's indicative of the fact that Sony is having too many production problems. Meanwhile all that money that would have gone to Sony if they had managed to produce the numbers they promised is instead going elsewhere (likely Nintendo and Microsoft) during the biggest shopping season of the year. The PS3 may well turn out to be a fantastic system, but they failed their launch miserably.
Why do these pixels cost more (Score:3, Insightful)
What does this even mean? We have a blu-ray disc that holds lots of data, sure, and accordingly scaled up textures; but in any sort of process like this you are continually downscaling from practically any 'artistic' original source to begin with. Why does this cost more to downscale less than you were originally? Is it just harddrive space? That seems historically low.
And this doesn't even seem to take into account the idea that some games have different budgets? Why can he not make a game for both the Wii and PS3 that uses basic motion sensing? I think its a good idea if multiplatform games look as uniform as possible, and after all, "its not about the graphics anymore", right? Seriously, I'm asking, if any one can credibly enlighten me as to why Namco would say this? (I am a graphic designer by trade but I do not work in the game sector.)
Re:Let's Googlewhack! (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Sony Can Sell Blu-Ray Movies Not Just Games (Score:4, Insightful)
They said the same thing about the PSP and UMD. Lets hope for Sony's sake it works out better this time!
Re:What is going on here? (Score:1, Insightful)
Tried that (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not like people are not submitting these things.
Re:Let's see (Score:4, Insightful)
Just how do you win something like this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft have had a full year selling the Xbox 360, which overall has undeniably been very succesful. It's online service is highly regarded, and we're now starting to get games which are pushing the console. In all those respects, it's a winner. However, they're still losing money on each unit sold, and they're backing one of two Hi-Def standards, and it may be the loser, but at least they've made it optional, so if it fails it's not going to taint the machine as a games console. If I was a serious gamer, I'd already have an Xbox 360. People know exactly what it can do, and whether they want one or not. Very few people will buy an Xbox 360 and be disappointed, it's already relatively mature and lack of novel user interfaces aside, the others are going to be playing catch-up for the next two years.
No matter what anyone says, Sony have made a phenominal number of mistakes with the PS3. However, many simply boil down to marketing goofs, and a "they'll want what we tell them" attitude which has certainly made them no friends. They're using the console to push other technologies of their own, and that is by far their biggest risk, and also the thing that's likely to keep the component price of the console high for longer. All that said, once the less than stellar launch is forgotten (that'll be around January), there's stock on the shelves, and we start seeing well written games which make use of the phenominally powerful hardware (probably in around a years time), and after whichever price drop brings the high-end console down to around half of its launch price, I'll probably get one. However, I suspect there'll be many people who are disappointed with what the machine achieves within its first 12 months of public life. It's the sort of console that if you owned one you'd want to show it off and shout about. It's a nice looking piece of consumer electronics and there are going to be some impressive looking games, but it's very much like the flash cars you see at shows (you know? The ones that cost more than your house) that you want to just stare at. You'd try and encourage a friend to buy one, so you could go for a spin in it every now and again, but you'd never consider buying it yourself, even if you could afford it.
I'll openly admit however, that my personal enthusiasm is for Nintendo's Wii. But then I'm not a hardcore gamer, and what excites me may well not excite the next man in line. I think the technology is easily good enough to give me games which are visually stunning, that sound good, are innovative (which is something I've come to appreciate more as I get older) and are fun to play. When I get around to buying a Wii in the New Year, I think it's also very likely I'll start getting Virtual Console games on a regular basis, as I'm of an age that I remember them the first time around, and there are a good handful of full games which I'll be looking to pick up when they launch. Nintendo have a good business plan, which all but ignores the other two players. It's practical, manageable, and it also means that they make money every step of the way, instead of losing a lot now, and trying to claw it back over time. The Wii does not set itself against the competition, simply alongside. It doesn't promise the earth, and then struggle to deliver, because all along Nintendo have played down what the machine is capable of and re-itterated that it's all about the games. Until the DS showed how effective that strategy can be, I doubt anyone believed them.
What it should really boil down to is which consoles are of interest to us personally, and that will ultimately depend on which game genres and series appeal to us, and how strongly they are represented on each platform. Let's not forget that the PC is now a very strong gaming platform, much more so than when the last generation of consoles launched, and that will divert some
Re:30 Games (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: Bricked or Semi-Bricked ? (Score:3, Insightful)
So far I haven't seen an article that anyone got a fully bricked Wii through the update. All the 'Bricked systems' reported have only affected the online function, but you can still play games until Nintendo Support sends you a new system (since the Firmware according to Nintendo, exposed a hardware problem that needs fixing.) Now I'm not saying it isn't possible, I just haven't seen it. All the 'Bricked' articles I read were still offline functional, if you have a link of a completely bricked system (in all seriousness) I'd be interested in reading it.
Thanks.
Re:Let's Googlewhack! (Score:3, Insightful)
> (Should imagine they're are quite a number of people with 30+ ps2
> games), and don't forget Sony get money on Blu-ray discs too.
I don't know... "quite a number" I will grant you. But more than half? More importantly, all things considered, does the mean work out to 30 or more? I would seriously doubt that.
You have a point on Blu-ray, but it may be a catch-22: Sony intended for the PS3 to rocket Blu-ray to the top as the new standard. If the PS3 fails, though, Blu-ray may not end up meaning much more than UMD.
Re:Let's see (Score:3, Insightful)
That's not hard if you only have one to sell. [vgcats.com]
The thing that's really hurting is that, depite all the hype and the astronomical price, it's not substantially different or better than what the XBox 360 is offering. At least the Wii can claim lower price + novel controller; all Sony has is their brand, and the market is showing that there are some $600+ pills it won't swallow.
Re:Loses? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sony gets substantially less than the retail price, too.
I have no reason to believe that Sony has ever made money selling a console; it's always been game licensing.
When people say that only the Xbox has been a loss, they mean the WHOLE BUSINESS is a loss -- Microsoft lost money even taking licensing into account. Without licensing income, nearly all consoles are losses.
Re:Who are "they"? (Score:2, Insightful)
And as to the rest, they're all Sony. If you care enough to have the rootkits and various other sins upset you, you care enough to boycott the company as a whole. Period.
And yea, I mean, who would blame the average SS rank and file for the holocaust, right?