Why Sony Should Ditch Everything But the PlayStation 188
An anonymous reader writes: A couple weeks ago, we were surprised by news that Sony was spinning off its game development studio. More recently, the company has been thinking about exiting both the mobile phone market and the TV market. An opinion piece suggests Sony shouldn't stop there, focusing more on the its PlayStation division and a few other areas — and giving up on the rest. "Continuing to concentrate on phones and other products actually makes the PlayStation experience worse for most people. Take the PS4's ability to stream games to mobile devices — a killer feature needlessly limited to the PS Vita and Sony's Xperia Android line. Why can't I play Destiny on my iPad when the TV's occupied? The iOS PlayStation app, meanwhile, is a confusing mess that hasn't even been updated for the iPhone 6. These sound like minor points, but imagine what Sony could do if everyone at the company were focused on making its most important product as good as possible. As Microsoft is learning with its recent iOS and Android experiments, you have to serve the customers where they already are."
Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off (Score:2)
Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off (Score:4, Insightful)
They have always done this and become exceptionally arrogant in the process..
The difference now is that they have become increasingly irrelevant while still vainly attempting those same business practices. It is a common progression for companies of this ilk. (e.g. Microsoft with the browser and search)
I think what should happen is that we should streamline OUR lives and be rid of Sony.
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>I think what should happen is that we should streamline OUR lives and be rid of Sony.
Done. Bought a PS3 in around 2008, and won a killer Vaio notebook in a contest around 2009 - severely disappointed in both for multiple reasons. Sony is off my approved vendor list, I just don't consider products with their brand anymore. Haven't encountered anything since the PS3 that is a "Sony exclusive" that I remotely care about owning.
I do give the PS3 credit for one thing, video games are essentially a way to
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Although they do make good TVs. Their blueray boxes are a joke. (was bought as a present for me by my brother without my knowledge...so no one call me a hypocrite)
I just installed OpenElec on my pi and it is AMAZING.
Sony....suck a dick.
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wasting tons of time without even having to play the game at all. Update required x 100,
That's only if you don't use it, or don't have background updates turned on.
only plays media in very specific formats
If you mean it doesn't play your pirated anime MKV's then say so. It does play the following:
Memory Stick Video Format
- MPEG-4 SP (AAC LC)
- H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile (AAC LC)
- MPEG-2 TS(H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, AAC LC)
MP4 file format
- H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Say what you will about Sony but in the 80s and 90s you want a damned good cutting edge piece of gear that will easily last the better part of a decade if not longer? Then YOU BOUGHT SONY
Sony's quality was acceptable enough in the 70's and 80's but had already begun to turn to shit by the time the 90's were underway.
If you wanted very good Japanese electronics, you bought Pioneer or Kenwood. If you wanted damned good, you BOUGHT DENON. :)
Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason. (Score:3, Insightful)
Electronics are a low-margin business. Sony is making huge money from Sony Entertainment. Movies, licensing syndicated TV shows, music ... they don't need PlayStation.
Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason. (Score:5, Insightful)
The PlayStation isn't electronics business, it is in fact entertainment.
Electronics is low margin because of commodity parts and consumer demand for interoperability. Think, microwaves and computers. You don't need a special brand of microwave to heat Packaged Dinner Product.
Console gaming is not a commodity market at all. You can't buy a game and then play it on whatever console was on sale that week. There are no generics, and there is no interoperability. If a particular console has low margin, it means the company is trying to make money off the games. It won't be low margin when considered in total. Generally speaking, the lowest margin consoles are associated with the highest margin game divisions!
As to TFS, what a load. Spinning stuff off doesn't change anything about the products, it changes the corporate accounting. The different departments already had their own bosses. The presumption that people are somehow "distracted" by the parent company employing people (often in totally different locations) to work on other products seems especially daft. If they spin off a division, none of the employees went anywhere, nobody is more or less distracted. Ownership doesn't even change; the parent company simply uses a different set of procedures to manage their subsidiary. If they were truly being distracted by owning both divisions, they'll be equally distracted owning the stock of the subsidiary, and they'll be just as able to mingle their efforts if they desire spaghetti.
And if they shut down a division and sell off the product line, those employees all get laid off, except the few that get hired by whoever bought the bits and pieces. That doesn't reduce the distraction for the other departments at all.
Honestly, if changing the corporate structure was as disruptive as pundits are hoping and fantasizing, they wouldn't be doing it. ;)
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The data is also extremely misleading [reddit.com] as Reddit readers points out in this this graph [imgur.com]
The console for the master race (Score:2)
Console gaming is not a commodity market at all. You can't buy a game and then play it on whatever console was on sale that week. There are no generics, and there is no interoperability.
The iBuyPower SBX looks like a console but interoperates with Steam and other sources of PC games. It's like the railroads: they lost parts of the market because they thought they were in the railroad industry but in fact were in the broader long-haul transport industry. Sony likewise needs to decide whether it wants to be in the console industry or the broader set-top computer entertainment industry.
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Right, but does the existence of a PC disguised as console and preloaded with Steam really say anything about Sony?
Sony is in the console industry, and the broader entertainment industry already, and they have a history in set-top boxes.
The railroad example only works in one direction; a company that ignores the larger market. It doesn't work to tell us about a company that already exists in the larger market, and other larger markets, and other large markets, and that sees many of these not being profitabl
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Right, but does the existence of a PC disguised as console and preloaded with Steam really say anything about Sony?
Indeed. Unlike the Playstation, which is, oh, a PC disguised as a console and preloaded with some Sony crap.
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A Playstation is a proprietary black box, regardless of what is under the hood. It doesn't interoperate. The characterization has nothing to do with however crappy the Sony crap is, but rather with what you can do with it, and what it is marketed as being able to do. A Playstation is a totally proprietary black box with a whole proprietary ecosystem built around it.
The whatever-its-called Steam box is just a generic PC with no special ecosystem whose entire purpose is just to run the same software available
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but rather with what you can do with it, and what it is marketed as being able to do.
It's marketed for playing games, and watching movies.
The whatever-its-called Steam box is just a generic PC with no special ecosystem whose entire purpose is just to run the same software available already for generic PCs.
Steam on any platform is an ecosystem in it's own right, and SteamOS is most certainly a specific non-generic ecosystem. It's Linux, after all, and DOESN"T run the same software as what most would call a "generic PC".
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If you don't agree that linux boxes are generic PCs, I'm not sure how you'll even participate in the conversation. I guess you'll just be talking past everybody else.
Normally these are understood terms.
It is a generic PC, because you can replace the hardware and run the same software. Because the software is portable to any PC-platform. That is the difference between "generic PC" and "proprietary black box." With a black box, you can't run that software on different hardware. You have to buy Branded Conso
Low margin vs. High demand (Score:4, Insightful)
Electronics is low margin because of commodity parts and consumer demand for interoperability. Think, microwaves and computers. You don't need a special brand of microwave to heat Packaged Dinner Product.
Low margin vs. High demand
There's room for both low margin, and there's high demand items in consumer electronics.
When I needed a Windows laptop, before Bootcamp existed so that Windows could run on Apple hardware, I bought a Sony Vaio: it was the most beautiful non-Apple laptop on the market at the time, and when you are going into a VC to pitch your idea to them, you want to dress to impress, and that includes the machine on which you are giving your powerpoint on your business plan.
Vaio's were a high demand item because they had very good esthetics. A lot of other Sony products were higher margin than their competitors as well, because they were aimed at the high esthetic market.
The PlayStation is really a terrible product, comparatively speaking; the XBox is a much better product, based on Microsoft being able to leverage it to get game onto their desktop platforms as well (at some point), and potentially onto Windows Phones, as well (at some point), because the underlying platform technology is Windows on all three.
I think the person writing the article is a gamer who has drank the PlayStation Kool Aid, and wants Sony to concentrate on it, even though Sony is one PSN hack away from losing out on a holiday season, as they did previously. A single product company is just too vulnerable to single point of failure due to externalities.
It's a dumb idea because it would be a bad business decision on their part.
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I agree their is room for low-margin electronics. In fact, I only use low margin stuff because I hate proprietary crap, and high margin always means you're paying for label, and labels only have value when they're proprietary. Aesthetics aside, Sony is perceived as being a stylish brand, so it was a good choice for you, and were probably making better use of the label than any actual aesthetics. And it isn't clear that "better" aesthetics increases margin outside of brand-association. I think in general it
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The last "console" I owned was a Sega Genesis. Luckily, I sold it off to a guy from the local BBS right before the resale price crashed. I guess around `97.
Then you should understand that some might think you're clueless about console gaming in general since you have little familiarity with anything past the Genesis.
My prediction is that Steam will wipe out the console game premium before anybody "solves" how to leverage their proprietary tie-ins.
Steam's been around since..what is it, 2004? With the first third party games in 2005? It didn't wipe out the PS3, did it? What you don't understand is that to console gamers, we already have "steam" we call it PSN or Xbox Markeplace/Live.
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Right, because when you buy crap you get magical insights. Also known as bias.
Perhaps you are tense-challenged. Sorry. Were you born that way? And yeah, if you think nothing has changed for Steam between 2005 and now, wow. There are real reasons why in 2005 it was not yet serious competition, and why now it is. People now who only buy games on Steam were not considering that possible in 2005. They'd have basically been giving up gaming. Now it is a real option. Are you sure you know what Steam is?
I notice t
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Did being a Jerkass come with your Steam account, or with your Aspergers?
Are you sure you know what Steam is?
yeah, it's basically PSN for PC users. I even have a steam account.
So you have some magical knowledge from having a consumer purchase under your belt. The little proprietary mind gnome is in there throwing pixy dust at your thoughts on the subject.
You haven't owned a console since the genesis...doesn't that mean you don't know much about modern consoles? And yet you are making a judgement on how steam is so superior without any experience with how modern consoles work.
How else could you read what I wrote, which was obviously too long for you, and think that having a proprietary service locked to a black box is the same thing as a service that runs on any generic box?
Steam will run on a generic machine but it's still a walled garden in and of itself and it's own ecosystem not that different from PSN.
Especially in the context of consoles, which you claim to know more than me about through the process of purchasing one.
Not just
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I don't have a Steam account. LOL
Why are you trying to make a medical condition that many people on Slashdot have into a pejorative? Doesn't it seem especially lame to you? Do you think it makes you sound informed, or like an asshole? Do you think I'll even read what else you have to say?
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Yes, because VCs are so impressed by a good-looking laptop. I mean, forget the numbers on the spreadsheet, this candidate has an ugly Thinkpad.
VCs tend to be impressed by polish.
Typically, if you take an idea to a VC, unless you have some IP tied up, or there is significant work entailed to get to a first mover advantage, they are already thinking about one of their go-to teams that can take your idea and run with it. Frankly, ideas are a dime a dozen, and beyond that, the only thing that matters is an ability to execute, and that means they are not investing in your product, per se, they are investing in your market segment and the team.
Usually,
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Exactly right. Sony's gaming division is about ~10-15% of the company by revenue; how do you "spin off" 85-90% of the company? While I think the article has a point that Sony has too often crippled its products in order to help other business divisions succeed, I think the solution is more of a refocusing of corporate priorities than dissassembling the company. For instance, there are a lot of shared technologies that go into the range of consumer electronics products Sony makes, and fairly obvious advan
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I thought their reputation had improved significantly since the 80s. Back then I was warned by TV repairpeople not to buy Sony because they cheaped out passive components and their capacitors died way sooner than generic brands. They were, in modern terms, the Toshiba of TVs, but with better styling. Now their TVs look the same as a Toshiba, but their laptops have popular styling. And nobody expects a laptop to last as long as an old TV, and I doubt they even have electrolytic caps to blow out.
Totally anecd
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Whether Sony spins off the PS3/games division, or spins off everything else and keeps PS3/games, or - most likely - organizes PS3 and games in their own business units while keeping the Sony brand on all of it, only really matters for consumer brand perception.
I don't see Sony leaving the TV type electronics or movie businesses anytime soon.
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I mostly agree, but they could spin off (eg change the name) the movie division without brand harm, because while people often know what studio made a movie, they more often don't, and almost nobody would go to a movie (or not) on that basis.
I've heard people insist they won't see any "mainstream hollywood" movie, but I've never heard anybody say they won't watch a movie from (or unless it is from) Brand X.
They would leave the TV business if they weren't also selling high priced audio/video gear to people w
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There's more to Sony than just Playstation but I wouldn't expect fanboy gamers to know much about the company. Their professional and prosumer video camera lineup has some value as well as other high margin niche business segments they serve. Many people are unaware that they are one of only two manufacturers turning out high-end video CCDs.
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What they need are PlayStation games. Gotta have a PS3 in the living room in order to sell games into it.
Still small potatoes compared to movies, but probably a more reliable ROI.
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The ups and downs of movies and TVs can't be used, rationally, to support a company like Sony. Sony Pictures is only as good as their last blockbuster, or perhaps their next. But in between those are lots of films that lose money even before Hollywood Accounting(TM) takes over. There are no guarantees. And it only takes one or two expensive flop movies (and Hollywood is paved with the carcasses of such films) to ruin a studio.
TV is the same: ratings, networks, fickle viewing habits make it very hard
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"Electronics are a low-margin business"
Someone should inform Apple.
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"Electronics are a low-margin business"
Someone should inform Apple.
The last I looked, Apple didn't make much of what they sell - it's made in China by low-margin companies like Foxconn. That's why you'll only see stickers that say "Designed in the USA" and not "Made in the USA".
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I think that the Playstation fans would want Sony to focus on that and absolutely nothing else, as is clear from the biased article. On the other hand, fans of other Sony products might have the same idea, dump the Playstation and focus on what they think is more important. Any company that has more than one product probably has to put up with these tug of wars. The management team has almost certainly done the math and figured out what they think is the best way to help profits, and this does not necess
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The management team has almost certainly done the math and figured out what they think is the best way to help profits,
They have and they have said they are going to focus on the profitable segments like the Playstation and Entertainment segments and start spinning off underperformers.
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Anyone got figures for their digital video camera business?
They're a popular choice for many filmmakers, from hobbyists to indies to professionals (but not this little black duck). They're good cameras, but I won't use them unless there's no other choice - I don't like Sony's ethics^W business practices.
The likes of Red, Canon, Blackmagic, and even GoPro have to be eating into Sony's revenue.
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Haven't seen figures for the professional video market but they may get propped up by mirrorless, compact and to a lesser extent DSLR sales where Sony has seen a year on year rise in marketshare, especially in mirrorless format.
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Maybe it's the 3rd party apps they are using, but that's still their fault.
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Are you the same ill informed dipshit who submitted the article?
Oh boy (Score:3, Insightful)
Next 40 posts will be about /. users who haven't bought anything from Sony since the rootkit fiasco, but reserve the right to complain about Sony products anyways.
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a shitty product should be shat upon regardless of actually being smart enough to not pay for it.
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Sony should return to its roots (Score:5, Insightful)
They should dump the "content" divisions..the movie studio and record company
The "content" divisions crippled innovation by insisting that the first priority must be content restrictions
They should shift their focus from style to substance
The "style" advocates crippled innovation by insisting that the first priority must be fashion
They should do whatever it takes to return to being the world's best electronics company
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unfortunately these times are gone and won't come back. Consumer electronics carry too low a margin and there are too few potential customers willing to pay for quality but expensive(r) products for Sony to go back to their roots.
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The real roots were tape recorders. Those were the first Sony (consumer) products I saw. Also, transistor radios. Next came portable (B&W) TV's - ones that would fit on a small table. My brother bought one and then invented the world's first remote control - it was a long stick with wooden attachment that let him change the channel while remaining in bed. Lazy SOB. I did have a Trinitron for a while, and while awesome for its time, it has long been shipped off to recycling.
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I had one of the Sony "tummy buster" portable TVs when I was a young'n. Used to watch White Sox games in bed on school nights.
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They should dump the "content" divisions..the movie studio and record company
So you are saying they should dump the high-margin division that thrives in the non-competitive, cartel-controlled market with imaginary losses (Hollywood accounting, anyone?)
They should do whatever it takes to return to being the world's best electronics company
...and go back to focusing on low-margin division where they would have to face real competition and where all expenses and losses are, in fact, real and not made up?
That sounds like an excellent plan.
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They should do whatever it takes to return to being the world's best electronics company
By selling off the division that makes them money and keeping the ones which don't?
Clearly if you were CEO Sony wouldn't exist anymore with that kind of thinking.
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Sony should be admired for diversifying decades ago. In the early 90s, they were one of the most respected device manufacturers, but they saw that the money was in content and diversified into Playstation and Sony Pictures. Microsoft moved into hardware (Xbox), and Apple stayed in both. Samsung stayed purely hardware, for the most part. Palm tried to keep both OS (GeOS) and make hardware.
You could fault a lot of Sony's moves, but they survived the turmoil in display devices. Did not make a big smartph
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Also, in many cases, large, corporate brand names in Japan are used for a wide variety of products, unlike many American brands. Think about Yamaha, and how many different types of products they create: Motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, musical instruments, automobile engines, industrial robots, electronics, scooters, and probably a bunch more I can't think of. American companies may have a parent company, but often retain a market-specific brand name rather than taking on the parent company name.
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Yes. I think they should focus at what they are really good: Design of working products (typically for me, the smaller stuff like Headphones, Bluetooth headsets, etc).
The deisgn of the subnotebook (down to the Vaio P series) was excellent (over 10 years, whenever i wanted to buy a notebook they were always in the last round of competitors due to the excellent design).
One problem of sony was that it was focused on Japan (i lived there for four years and Sony has many Products which were taergeted at the Jp m
Fuck the playstation (Score:3, Informative)
TFA writer is seriously myopic thinking that his console is more important than anything else. It would be s shame for Sony - for sll their faults they still are a quite impressive manufacturer - to be reduced to a one trick pony. And for what? A bloody game console? Why would anyone need another Nintendo? Besides, consoles cripple games. Deus Ex 2 could have been a much better game if not for consoles. And as for the xperia phones, they are actually decent. ANT+ support and IP55/56 is very handy outdoors.
Re:Fuck the playstation (Score:5, Insightful)
Too many companies get rendered irrelevant by not diversifying. Looking at you Blockbuster: After years of domination of the block and mortar video rental and sales niche, they passed up a chance to purchase the fledgling Netflix for $50 million US in 2000. (Current Netflix market cap is $28+ Billion.) Carl Icahn waged a proxy fight for control in 2005, and by 2010 the once great concern filed for Bankruptcy.
It's precisely why you see Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Google making what appear to be crazy stupid acquisitions.
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A bloody game console?
Well aside from the huge bias in the article, the Playstation division is Sony's most profitable along with Sony Entertainment. While the article reads like a whining iFan who's upset he can't get his iPad to work, the actual core strategy in the biased article actually mirrors what the Sony CEO has stated, every underperforming business unit is potentially on the chopping block.
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Playstation might be successful now, but focusing the company by ditching everything else does not magically improve the chances of the next generation not failing. Selling divisions whenever they go through a weak phase means selling for a dime and since every part of the company will see such a phase of relative weakness at one point it is a reliable algorithm to end with an empty shell of a company.
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And for what? A bloody game console? Why would anyone need another Nintendo?
Hey there "mate" and I call you "mate" coz you're obviously one of those UK anti-console zealots, thanks to Sir Clive getting the UK government to protect him from the likes of Nintendo, Sega and Sony.
Besides, consoles cripple games. Deus Ex 2 could have been a much better game if not for consoles.
Console...singular. DX2 was Xbox only. DX1 however, was on the PS2, with mouse/keyboard support. Blame marketers for what they thought about Xboxers for DX2, not consoles in general.
Shallow and ignorant (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony is a huge company with a lot of divisions. These articles are written from a western tech consumer point of view. Western tech consumers don't know about the non-consumer, non-tech, or non-western-facing business that Sony has.
Rather than reading this article, find something better to do with your time.
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You're right. Everyone knows Sony makes most of it's money selling insurance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05... [nytimes.com]
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Exactly, I don't like Sony but the article is just so bad it is laughable. playstation itself is a tiny portion of Sony and not even are particularly profitable part. We see the same problems when consumer types write articles on Microsoft as well. They simply have no understanding of the depth or breadth of the company or where there income flows come from.
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Rather than reading this article, find something better to do with your time.
I did. I read news articles and comments from the CEO during earnings reports.
- From the CEO's point of view Sony is a huge company with lots of divisions..... and it sounds like the company is going to get a lot smaller very soon. The only divisions the CEO has publicly defended were Playstation, Entertainment, and a subset of their Electronic component manufacture (specifically image sensors).
- Absent from discussions were Cameras, and general electronics seems neutral.
- TV and Mobile are to undergo a dra
Slashbait (Score:2)
Rather than reading this article, find something better to do with your time.
You fell for the Slashbait again.
Somebody at Dice enjoys saying, "this is the stupidest fucking thing anybody on the Internet has said today - I'll push it to the front page so everybody can comment about how stupid it is and generate a bunch of page views in the process."
The very best we can do is to leave them alone so it's all GNAA and AC FP's on these.
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True, but to the degree Sony ties one product line to another it's clear that Sony itself is trying to yoke those divisions to each other for marketing purposes. And to the degree that's true, Sony would be better off spinning off those divisions.
Why? Because this kind of synergy is the kind of thing that seems to make compelling sense inside the company, but is obviously insane to anyone *outside* the company, especially consumers, who see the strategy for what it is: overly complicated and obviously res
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One trick pony is not the way to go (Score:2)
Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC??? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why the hell would Sony focus on _one_ division that basically sells a dumbed-down crippled PC ?
They already bailed on the PC market last year [bloomberg.com]
Their TV division loses money hand over fist: [bloomberg.com]
Sony, the parent company doesn't stick to selling insurance policies. It sells TVs, too, even though it canâ(TM)t manage to do so profitably. Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai said the company will lose money on its television business for the 10th year in a row, with the red ink for TVs this time amounting to Â¥ 25 billion yen.
And you want them to focus on a shitty under-clocked PC ???
Can we mod article: -1 Clueless Author
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It is hardly surprising that their TV division bleeds money. They sold nearly every manufacturing plant they had and basically ship TV with Samsung manufactured LCD screens. The only thing they make themselves is probably the software and the exterior case design. The TV software itself is mostly Google TV so uh...
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Thanks for the info. about the TV plants and Samsung LCD screens.
Any idea how much profit (or loss) their OLED division is making? And which division it is under?
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Read you even *look* at the graph??
437 Financial Services (i.e. Insurance) ...
271 Image Sensors
200 PlayStation <-- ooh, look in third place
-1 Clueless poster who can't:
a) read -- https://infogr.am/sony_profits... [infogr.am]
b) spell -- Cluseless (sic.)
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I don't have time to game so when I get a chance I almost always find myself having to download a new version.
What, you on 1Mbps DSL or something? Forget to turn on background updates? You do know that it will download updates on it's own right?
Ditching the walled garden makes sense (Score:2)
Huge risk (Score:2)
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I wouldn't be surprised if computers and TVs converge entirely in the near future making consoles obsolete.
That's what a game console does. Consoles tend to not be very reliable due to the very thin margins so you can't reasonably converge them with televisions, so you have a box next to the TV which is capable of displaying video. Sooner or later, all video will be delivered via the internet (or via the same technologies, anyway, from your ISP/content provider) and the box will be able to provide all of it, they'll stop putting tuners in televisions, and we can use the frequency space now occupied by television
Cable doesn't cover everybody (Score:2)
I wouldn't be surprised if computers and TVs converge entirely in the near future making consoles obsolete.
That's what a game console does.
That or a console is a tool to prevent end users from installing community-made game mods.
Sooner or later, all video will be delivered via the internet (or via the same technologies, anyway, from your ISP/content provider)
Cable doesn't cover everybody. Good luck getting rural Internet service below $5/GB.
Android-based gaming is about to eat up the space Nintendo has been occupying
Xperia Play tried and failed. OUYA tried and failed. Everyone else just has a touch screen, which works well for point and click gaming. But some genres demand a directional pad and physical buttons, and on-screen buttons lack a clear way to position the thumb over them while watching action in the center.
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Xperia Play tried and failed. OUYA tried and failed.
Right, but people will keep trying until someone gets it right. Razer is about to take a stab at it. All it will really take is someone not trying to do too much. I don't think a new launcher is even merited, just some widgets and a different theme on Play Games. Now that there is something like meaningful game controller support, it's feasible.
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Right, but people will keep trying until someone gets it right. Razer is about to take a stab at it.
Why buy an "android console" when better already exists, that's what the 3DS and Vita are for. And you don't have to put up with F2P monetized crap like Kardashian game or Game of War, or every other crappy little phone game.
Hell, the Vita version of Minecraft is better than the Android version.
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Who's to say consoles will even be a thing in 10 years? I wouldn't be surprised if computers and TVs converge entirely in the near future making consoles obsolete. Want a game? Stream one to your TV from Steam. No consoles required.
You'll still need some kind of small box or built in console functionality in the TV...considering how many Slashdotters don't want smartTV.... I think there will still be boxes. Besides, you can ALREADY stream games to existing consoles. There's this thing called Playstation Now, have you heard of it? Works on the Vita, Vita TV, PS3, PS4 and certain Bravia TV's. Soon it will work on some Samsung models as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... [wikipedia.org]
But some people...like many slashdotters, will still want to
no-cursive is the default (Score:2)
Sony makes great electronics, why dump them for some shitty console?
Exits don't cure anything. (Score:2)
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Exits do cure things when a company loses its edge in one industry.
Anyone can make a computer.
Anyone can make a TV.
Sony exited the computer market for that very reason. They were losing money. TVs are the same. They have lost money on TVs for 10 years running. Are you suggesting that they keep a division that is losing money in the face of fierce competition from Samsung and LG?
The difference between IBM and Sony is that IBM is now effectively a consultant, whereas Sony is a manufacturer who manufactures to
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Anyone can make a computer.
Anyone can make a TV.
But what can Sony make?
Their quality is poor compared to the 90s (I still have my late-90s Sony camcorder, and it still works), and their hardware is crippled by market segmentation (can't have feature X enabled on this version of the camera because we can sell it to the pro market in a black case with that feature enabled in the firmware for $1,000 more), and/or DRM (can't record 44.1kHz on DAT because you might be an EVIL CD PIRATE! can't play foreign DVDs on this DVD player because it might be one of our
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Are you not paying attention to the argument? Sony has several profitable divisions, one of them is the Playstation.
That is the argument being made in the biased article and also the very real indications that the CEO has given. Everything is potentially on the chopping block except for Sony Entertainment, Playstation, and the division which manufactures CCD and CMOS sensors, though they haven't gone as far to say that the camera business is safe.
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But whatever. Companies that are successful hardly ever fire. Toyota keeps hiring. Google keeps hiring.
WHAAAAAAA?
You might wish to let these ex-Toyota workers [14news.com] know. Or these ones [autonews.com]. Or the 4,000 ex-Motorola-turned-Google employees [wired.com] Google laid off because they were - wait for it - exiting a line of business they didn't think they wanted to be in anymore.
Good companies get out of bad businesses all the time. Usually they fire the people who worked in that business. It sucks but it's true, and to think that good companies never exit lines of business or lay people off is insane.
Predicted end (Score:2)
One of Samsung's most important motivating goals has long been to utterly destroy Sony. They saw Sony not only as a competitor but also as a representative of a super-successful Japanese company in a country where Japan is viewed very bitterly and resented. Samsung resented Sony. Samsung made it their goal to kill that company, and it can be argued the have done exactly that, though certainly not alone. The end result is the same: Samsung is a household name across the globe, with a huge variety of prod
PS4 Is Doing Fine (Score:2)
I've been helping run the family pawn shop since about November - we have had all of ONE PS4 come into our shop, whereas I've taken in at least a half-dozen Xbones.
Take from that anecdote what you will, but it seems to me that the PS4 is doing pretty good without any extra focus.
Also Sony makes killer DVD players and televisions. I hope they don't stop making that stuff, personally.
Keep their camera/imaging dept. (Score:2)
When you break everything apart... (Score:2)
All that remains is Ruins.
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What are you talking about? We don't need these companies. We sure as hell don't need Sony: they don't do or produce anything that society relies on. I don't need a Sony TV, I can buy one from Samsung, LG, or Vizio, or lots of others. I don't need Sony music (and artists can go find another label). I sure don't need crappy Sony computers, I can get them from many other makers.
The same mostly goes for the others too. I never said eliminate all corporations, I just have a select list. I'd be happy to s
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Sounds like someone wants Sony to give up doing everything except the thing the journalist is interested in.
I suspect the 'journalist' is actually a disgruntled 8yo who recently stopped blaming Santa's elves for the poor quality..
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The Pentax K3-II has an awesome innovation which is that instead of a static low-pass filter (to prevent moire) that you have to either include or not include at time of manufacture, they vibrate the dust screen for the low-pass. So you can turn it on and off. Saves needing a different camera for landscape and portrait. (moire effects most often happen when photographing fabrics)
I did hear that Sony invested in a new and bigger sensor, which is great, but just a natural progression of what the whole industr
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Sony is doing good with their cameras and at this point they can compete in every major digital camera category. They're clearly not "best in class" though. But you claim more than just best-in-class, you claim they are easily best-in-class. Which is a joke. Fans should remain happy that their favorite brand has offerings that are comparable to Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Minolta. Claiming they're "easily" better than those turns a positive review into a bit of a joke, though.
Disclaimer: I've been taking pictures
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SONY should work on creating the premiere desktop and gaming Linux distro.
They DID create a Linux distro, it was a customized version of Kondara Linux, a japanese localized version of Red Hat 6.
Sony also maintained the Linux toolchain for the PS3, IBM maintained the kernel and gdb.
There's a perfect opening for SONY to come out with a Linux distro that people would actually want to use.
Why should they, when they can just use FreeBSD...and they DO use FreeBSD.
http://www.scei.co.jp/psvita-l... [scei.co.jp]
http://www.scei.co.jp/ps3-lice... [scei.co.jp]
http://www.scei.co.jp/ps4-lice... [scei.co.jp]
All maximized all the time (Score:2)
The window management policy in stock Android isn't suitable for working in one application while referring to information displayed in another application.
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So why again do you want a console?
Because console games are more likely to include split-screen or otherwise shared-screen play than major label PC games. This way you don't have to pack up the family PC and take it to a LAN party; instead, you can just bring a controller.
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I have a pc from about 10 years ago that is like to sell you for top dollar. The specs should be significantly better than any current console
What, are you from Eastern Europe? Where "current console" can mean a gray market genesis clone?
Considering that in 2005 the vast majority of people had a single core cpu with a GeForce 6 or some early 7xxx series if they had money to burn....that's in no way better than the PS4 or Xbox One...it's not even as good as the PS Vita. So no, that 10 year old PC won't deliver the same experience as PS4....or PS3 for that matter.
Really console fan boys have no idea what good graphics are. Heck they couldn't recognize a good ui either.
Do you, tovarisch anonymous coward? Most PC game UI is badly designed, wastes screen
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Eventually Sony will have to realise that no matter how many new consoles they throw out, backwards compatibility will be a key issue so players can run their old and favourite titles
Eventually? That's the reason Sony bought Gaikai! Mr. AC....meet Playstation Now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... [wikipedia.org]