Reality Check People! Don't blow this off and don't shoot the messenger.
I have refrained from contributing to most of these articles about Sony sales because I didn't want to seem like I was gloating or trolling. And I know how hard this has been on PS3 fans to be bombarded with bad news and the instinct to fight back is irresistible BUT:
THIS IS THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - this is authoritative and IT DOES MATTER. Stockholders and businessmen including game developers will take this as gospel. This is not the BS Mickey Mouse gaming blogs and sites.
There is some seriously BAD NEWS here and it has nothing to do with sales vs. the Xbox 360 over this year, the last three months or at all. You're missing the point. Total up the profits and loss and what it says is that since 2000, Sony would be a lot better off IF THEY HADN'T BEEN IN THE GAME BUSINESS AT ALL.
It's not enough to point out the catastrophic losses have gone to merely disastrous and may possible get to break even or a small profit. At current sales levels it will take a lot more than that to make up lost ground. And you're paying for a lot of debt in the mean time.
SO WHY DOES IT MATTER! You can pretty well figure stock holders are going to be VERY UNHAPPY and will want to see change and that change may not be good news for gamers. I forwarded this to an economics professor I have known many years. I don't believe he knows or cares about games at all. He emailed me back:
"Seeing this result and the fact that the current upward trend is going to be fighting against economic pressure making it hard to borrow to cover the debt, and an unfavorable exchange rate; if this company came to me for advice, or I was taking over as CFO or if I was voting as a stockholder the only reasonable course would be to try to sell the games division. That probably would fail for lack of companies wanting to assume the kind of liability unless there was someone out there that wanted to buy them out to get rid of the competition and had the resources to do so. Otherwise, in order to survive, you'd have to shut that division down."
I've had some fun earlier on having a little fun at Sony's sales but that was before I knew how much they had lost on the PS3. I do not want Sony out of the video game business. They have brought too much to video games that it would be a terrible loss. Nor do I want to see them bought out by Microsoft. Microsoft in a position without strong competition doesn't work to anyone's advantage.
I don't think this should be taken lightly although I have no idea what you could do to help except maintain your loyal support. Believe it or not, I'm not a PS3 owner nor particularly want to be but I honestly am rooting for you and hoping this works out somehow.
