TheBigFatJ said:
The analysts are saying that 16,000 job cuts won't be enough for Sony and that Sony needs to make a profitable area. Since games won't be consistently profitable anytime soon, that leaves Sony in a very tough position. You're suggesting no one could make a profit making games (all ported from/to 360 anyway) for a userbase of 20m?? Who's being short sighted?
No, I'm not. You are inferring something from my post that was nowhere in the post. First, if consoles stop selling developers stop making games for them. Period. That's what happens. If devs stop making games, people shift to other consoles and your game sales will fall. It hasn't been done before so it's impossible to say. Generally when a company stops producing a console they also stop supporting it. Sony could continue to support PS3 (advertising for games, Home, new games, downloads, developer support, etc.) without continuing to produce new models, or, come out with a BC compatible higher end PS3 which sells for cost+. Yes it wouldn't sell much but they wouldn't lose on it and they'd become a profitable division again. However if there's some unwritten law that no developer will ever release a game for a console not in production then that would give Sony one of two choices - continue to bleed with the PS3 or get out of the hardware end of the business and just be a 3rd party developer for 360 (& PS3) and Wii. As much as I hate to say it, that might be the way to go. I hope not but if the company as a whole is in trouble then supporting the PS3 for the sake of far off future potential may not be possible. Secondly, the companies who expected the PS3 to get, say, 40 million by the end of the generation who are half way through a game development cycle now would be totally screwed. Do you disagree with me? - Yes. Aside from maybe Sony themselves, those developers would also be releasing those games on 360. Any sales lost on PS3 would be gained by 360 so the 3rd parties lose nothing. Thirdly, the size of an install base is not the sole determining factor of what kinds of games a platform can support. There are other considerations such as the cost of development, the current attach ratios, etc. It's not like any of that would change. Accept attach ratio would rise as current owners buy more games. If Sony canceled the PS3 it would be absolutely devistating for the future profitability of the entertainment division. The Playstation brand kept Sony profitable for years and it was their great victory of the 90's. Now it is their great defeat. Maintenance of home is going to be HUGE...24-7 staff for worldwide support, server support, regular back-up of data, patches...see WoW to gauge cost for operating such a large online space...or better yet, the sims online.
WoW is a bigger undertaking than PSN by far and it has cost less than 200 million to run since launch. That's less than 50 million per year. PSN probably costs less than half that. The equivalent of putting a $25 price drop on hardware a year earlier than planned. |
