| MontanaHatchet said: The real question I have is if it was this bad when the PS3 was outselling the 360. The trolling is horrendous, we even have a moderator comparing the PS3 to the Dreamcast and Saturn (make up your mind, I guess the Dreamcast is a slightly more insulting analogy). People are calling for the PS3's doom and Sony's doom and it's all hilariously exaggerated. The PS3 is still selling millions of units of software every week, with consistent hardware sales and a busy release list. Maybe it's not doing as well as the Wii or 360, but it will be a player for the rest of this generation. I suppose none of this is very surprising, since a lot of people were calling for the 360's doom even when it was only being beaten by a small amount by the PS3 every week. Maybe in 2009, people will learn to calm down. |
There's a lot more to it than just the PS3's low sales (though they are certainly a factor).
Moe of it has to do with several important economic factors - if the margins on the PS3 were so low that they were only barely breaking even, then the ~20% drop in strength of the USD and EUR against the yen puts them scarily in the red. That's true for the PS3, but it also cuts into the profit margins of the PS2 and the PSP. Meaning that in order to keep profits at a reasonable level, the PSP and the PS2 have to sell much more units than before - assuming that they're even making a profit at this point. But they aren't.
Low PS3 sales aren't positive. They're never positive, especially when the console is costing them money. The PS3s that are already out there (and not selling) are a sunk cost that Sony definitely wants to at least partially make back. If they don't sell, then the PS3s are just sitting in a warehouse somewhere, costing them more and more money over time.
The whole thing is only exacerbated by the fact that Sony is hurting in nealy every other division, too. That's why they fired sixteen thousand people. That's why economists - not just random dumb-ass fanboys on the internet - are panicking. We're heading into rougher economic times, and Sony is already in bad shape at this stage. Before it's over, the economic could end up affecting even Nintendo, much less a company that's already hemorrhaging money.
Lower PS3/PS2/PSP sales are difficult in another respect - they indicate a level of consumer disinterest. This is awful, especially for the PS3 (whereas with the PS2 and to a degree the PSP it's to be expected) which should be making gains this holiday season. It indicates they're losing lage amounts of consumer mindshare, which means that this may actually be indicative of a larger trend away from SCE products.
Does this mean Sony's going to crash, or pull out of the games industry, or even discontinue the PS3? No. Of course not. Calling that this early would be ridiculous. But if trends continue in the direction they are currently going, then Sony is going to be in a much worse place in six months than they are now, and considering the downsizing they are already doing that is really saying something.
And yes, I agree that moderators should try to be more objective in general.
