"Three years ago Sony handed one of the business world's biggest fix-it jobs to Howard Stringer. He had been running Sony's U.S. operation for six years, but the choice was still unorthodox: Stringer was born in Wales, not Japan, and he wouldn't be moving to Tokyo when he took over one of Japan's most revered companies. The challenge was daunting: The electronics and entertainment giant was struggling with red ink and management paralysis. Stringer didn't profess to have the answers. "Look, I didn't know what I was doing," he says today.
For years Sony persuaded consumers to pay a premium for its gadgets by inventing them first--think Walkmans and camcorders. Today it loads them up with superior technology, which produces clearer TV pictures or tells digital cameras to shoot when the subject smiles.
Stringer's goal is to connect its devices--televisions, music players, PlayStation machines--to one another and to a new Sony network for downloading movies, TV shows, games and other digital content. Downloading goes via the PlayStation 3 console, turning it into a home computer server that can handle movie rentals as well as play games. In addition, Sony's Bravia flat-screen TVs will allow viewers to connect to the Internet and stream Hollywood hits without a set-top box or cable subscription; already the TVs can do this with YouTube and other free Internet channels. Sony will send the new Will Smith movie, Hancock, to Internet-ready Bravia TV sets in November, before it can be seen on DVD or on cable. In Stringer's vision of the future, consumers will pay Sony first for televisions and other hardware, then pay Sony again to download movies, music and TV shows. "The battle for me is the networking of these devices," he says. "I have to succeed at that."
The article goes on analysing the role of Stringer bringing back Sony from it's financial situation, how Blu-ray won, the role of the PS3, Sony's strategy for the future of HD entertainment, among other topics. 2 Pages.
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.
tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
Gary Green said: We have a juxtaposition of 2D and 3D visuals, flashy turn-based combat, quirky anime characters with cheeky dialogue with plenty of partial nudity; Yes, this is a Compile Heart JRPG. Whilst the engine is borrowed from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, Mugen Souls is more of a Disgaea spin-off. It’s not a strategy RPG as such, it merely sits within Disgaea’s ever-expanding universe (Multiverse? Netherverse? Your guess is as good as mine). You won’t find cameos though, since Mugen Souls is a franchise which aims to stand on its own two feet.
That was a really great article. I'm glad Sony is uniting in what they do. I really enjoy ALL of there products and services and they have me as a customer as long as they continue to provide QUALITY.
Really good read.
Sony rocks.
Sony has always been about quality I have no doubt they will continue to do so.
"Stringer's goal is to connect its devices--televisions, music players, PlayStation machines--to one another and to a new Sony network for downloading movies, TV shows, games and other digital content."
And this network of the FUTURE will be better than what I've got on the computer NOW how...?
As for quality, I tell you to google their rootkit fiasco.
Sony's strategy has been weak over the last few years, that being said it is still miles ahead of everyone else. That shows you how pathetic the industry is at this point. The slow launch of the PS3 is a perfect example of the dissarray the company was once in. It only highlights what utter novices and incompetents the boys over at microsoft are, Sony and the playstation brand were ripe for the kill. Put out a killer console with true next gen technology and killer first party titles a year early and sony woulda been DONE. Instead we get the biggest console failure fiasco in history. Anyway enough about the wannabes. If I were running Sony I would have ramped down PS2 titles 4 years ago and then released 4 titles a year for the console. At the same time I would have had alll of my developers researching what it takes to get things done on the PS3's new hardware. It seems like they are playing catchup to their own vision right now. Which is fine because they still offer the best console on the market but they could have already crushed the noobs at MS if their strategy had been on point from the beginning.