Sony's first quarter results are out, and the news isn't good.
Sony has not been doing well. It's suffered four straight years of financial losses and the results for the first quarter this financial year aren't any better.
Yeah but to be fair no one is advertising I have not seen any commercials for the Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3 in a while.
So not really a valid argument that it's not selling because of advertising when really not one of the console manufacturers are advertising right now. They will all start when the holidays get near.
Advertising isn't excluded to tv commercials. Advertising goes to mags billboards and even the 360 dashboard which is what alot of 360 owners use to get info they need. I don't need to see a commercial on tv to see what is available right on the dashboard and click the link and I am ready to download whatever game I am ready to play.
People care about gaming but most people all over the world are in bad shape. When the world economy sucks nobody should expect things like gaming to do great. The cost of living keeps going up while people who are lucky enough to have a job make less money. Nobody is going to but a lot of games right now.
Vita makes money because it is sold at a profit per unit. The problem for Sony with the Vita is they aren't selling nearly as many as they had hoped. And that is eating into their projected profit. Which is eating into their credit rating and stock price. And that will eat into their profits further.
So they need much bigger Vita sales because the Vita was being counted on for a huge chunk of their profit projections.
@Brian
It's not about the economy. It's about there not being any games peo0ple want and no new consoles. Once new consoles hit, the sales will go up again. This generation was too long.
Someone want to show me where Sony ever claims they're losing money on the PS3 or PSP. I've read that earnings report from top to bottom and while they comment on slower sales effecting revenue streams, no where do they back up this article's claim that the PS3 or PSP are losing money. They could be quite profitable within the Gaming division still, even with revenue slowing. We simply don't know from this report. This is about as misleading a headline as you can get.
Funny, I didn't notice anyone writing articles about the 360 losing money when Microsoft's Entertainment posted a loss last quarter. Or a couple of years ago when the divison was last posting loses. Or all the losses the division suffered before that. Odd how we only see these types of articles about Sony, but not when Microsoft is losing money, or even when Nintendo posts loses. I don't recall seeing big "Nintendo losing money on Wii" headlines.
"Funny, I didn't notice anyone writing articles about the 360 losing money when Microsoft's Entertainment posted a loss last quarter."
Probably because the loss in the E&D was due to platform payments to Nokia as part of their partnership. It was a Windows Phone loss not a Xbox loss. But you probably already knew that and you are just trolling.
'Funny, I didn't notice anyone writing articles about the 360 losing money when Microsoft's Entertainment posted a loss last quarter. Or a couple of years ago when the divison was last posting loses. Or all the losses the division suffered before that. Odd how we only see these types of articles about Sony, but not when Microsoft is losing money, or even when Nintendo posts loses'
LMAO @ Darkride lying through his teeth. He LIVES for the day that Microsoft loses a penny to the point that HE writes will write and post articles from his blog site.
He'll dissapear for as long as it takes till he sniffs out a loss. But NOW is claiming that there isn't ANY articles on Microsoft losing money..lol.
ON TOPIC..
I will say this about Sony advertising in regards to Vita.
I saw the Vita MLB commercial here in the states more times than I could count.
But IMO it wasnt THE commercial that should have run for a new system releasing. It gave the average Joe consumer very little information that implied THIS is a new Sony Portable arriving in stores now.
At the same time, advertising does NOT always mean your system will succeed initially.
IMO..Vita has at least the next two holidays to hit home with the masses.
And yet, no one counters darkrides arguement, instead they just make fun of him...
This article is really vague though, no concrete subsistence. Bunch of ramblings jumboed up.
For u Microsoft fanboys, dont worry, Microsoft generally does well and stays profitable. Still monopolizing the PC industry and bill gates family will be rich for another so many generations after his death.
I also agree sony's products arent what it use to be, in a sense that, there is a different market trend than previous decades, as well as more, better competitors than before.
but no one really knows why ps3s arent selling as much as it should, this was already discussed with Geoff Keighley and Michael pachter. Sony themself is probably scratching their heads trying to figure out whats wrong with the consumers.
Although other Sony products arent that great, I do think ps3 is better than xbox in terms of software and hardware. Arguably better. As well as movies like Spiderman Sony pictures pumps out.
But xbox arguably has better online and is more consumer friendly.
If things keep going the way it is for sony, I feel sorry for gamers and the future gaming industry.
Until recently Sony had gaming in a separate division. So any losses were for gaming and it was obvious. MS has never had gaming as a separate division. There are many things in the division that don't make money. Their most innovative products R & D come from the division. Kinect, Surface(original). Many things that lose money like Zune and Internet TV. Hundreds of millions for advertising software that makes millions, but that income doesn't go to that division.
There are no doom and gloom articles about Xbox because the sources for those business reports. And business reporters know that Xbox isn't the cause of the losses in Entertainment and Devices division. At least not for the last four or five years.
And for people that like to blame the economy for the problems in gaming. Apple sell over 32 million overpriced iPhones a year. And almost 16 million iPads. People are willing to spend on things they want. Gaming just has to offer them something they want. The economy has nothing to do with it.
Actually, while not a direct advertisement, x360 does get quiet a bit. It's indirect, but they advertise through other companies games. Most games you see with a x360 stamp on them, not a PS3 stamp. Also, I see the x360 logo more on tv, whether through sports or other shows. Even movies, like Real Steel, seem to advertise the x360 logo, not the PS3.
they need a better CEO and/ or management team , ones that are prepared to strategize for the bad economy. if im wrong, that Gaikai purchase Better do something to sell a lot of something and make that money back, that's all im saying. stream games to Vita/PS3 Sony and you have the game on lock down. i can play Crysis2 (demo) on my laptop right now on Gaikai's website. this is possible for ps3 and vita, i think that's what they are going to do. if not... you guys just dug your hole a lot deeper...
Kaz is making smart moves. He was just left with a huge problem. If given a chance I think he can dig them out of their hole. I'm not sure he will have that time though. If they had listened to Stringer 5 years ago they would not be in this position.
Darkride...ms as a company has been profiting majorly as a company these past four years and Sony as a company is broke and thats why no doom and gloom on ms as much as you have tried to make others think by pm them saying ms shareholders wont allow another console and it looks like you were dead wrong and whatz ironic is the exact same think u been wishing on ms is happening to your beloved sony. Instead of trolling about a piece of plastic maybe now that the elitist on here are being silenced by sony themselves we can get back to games.
At the current rate, Sony will soon have no investment left of PS Vita. Sony should take Nintendo's lead and drop the price of the PS Vita NOW!
Short term loss, for long term gain. That is how almost all major businesses operate. Even the almighty Nintendo dropped their price, the CEO openly admitted he screwed up and lowered his own salary. Now, that is a well managed company unlike the other one in serious trouble!
Arguably the greatest software launch for a system and none of the games are selling. So what good is a price drop going to do other than make them bleed more than they are already bleeding. They are losing money on the Vita now so if they have no software NOW than what good does it do to drop the price? Sony just told us they admit to struggling getting 3rd party support. Announcments of games are not going to make sales jump. They F'd up and it is as simple as that. They made the mistake of making a system that is supposed to cater mostly to digital content and not provide a system that has any internal memory. The same mistakes they made with the PSP and PSP Go are the same mistakes they are making now. The games are not being bought and just now we find out in the US it has only sold less than 50k for the month of July. That is about the same it sales for the Japan which is a much smaller country and yet Tretton is happy about the current sales today than he was 4 months ago? base on his own calculation if it was selling less around 15.4k a month he thinks that is good. Yeah, this is the denial stage.
sony dosen't have any more short term losses left. and on top of that, that long term gain is not guaranteed, you would just be flipping a coin. they might sell a lot, but maybe not as many as it would take to reach the profit mark. they dont know whether it'll sell well enough with a price drop (that they cant already afford), major businesses don't flip coins w/o a heads up (pun unintended). meaning they use well informed and researched material b4 they make any moves, so, a price drop would be a bad move until they are confident (more games, more apps, something cool and catchy) it will appeal to enough people to sell well.
So you got a profitable PS3, that you cut the price to gain market share at the end of the console cycle i.e little future profit.
Then you have a new product that is at the start of the cycle, but instead of attempting to get market share you go for profit.
See something wrong there?
It is essentially backwards of how the console business has worked for decades. It is stupid and nobody does that, but Sony.
"they dont know whether it'll sell well enough with a price drop (that they cant already afford)"
Well there is only two answers, either it is a product people don't want or the price is too high!
However, they will drop the price on the PS3 back in August of last year?
"major businesses don't flip coins w/o a heads up (pun unintended). meaning they use well informed and researched material b4 they make any moves,"
If that is the case and they do such research, they wouldn't be selling as crappy as it does with little third party support.
This isn't a new market for Sony and yes, businesses do flip coins all the time!
Nobody knows for sure if a product will sell, even with massive research.
"so, a price drop would be a bad move until they are confident (more games, more apps, something cool and catchy) it will appeal to enough people to sell well. "
Nintendo with the 3DS didn't wait for all that to materialize.
Problem Sony has is the longer they wait, the better the 3DS sounds compared to the PS Vita. Nintendo didn't have a direct competitor at the time with 3DS.
It's a vicious cycle that feeds upon itself. More software, more consumers. More consumers, more software.
My entire point is, Sony got their business backwards. They should have used the profits from PS3 to invest into PS Vita. There is little future left of the PS3 and the current console cycle so milk that cow for all it is worth. It just makes business sense.
They're not advertising. Just my opinion.