Sony's gaming unit lost $443 mil 3Q

[johnlucas]

Erik Aston said:
Its funny seeing people saying "Sony is a big company! These losses are part of the plan!" Riiiiight. They've got MS and Nintendo right where they want them. The plan all along was to have 2 billion in losses over one year, with no end in sight, reach 50% of their initial sales goal, make dangerous cost-cutting decisions like dropping full backwards-compatability and their "cheap" SKU soon after launch, all while losing exclusivity on key franchises left and right, and getting outsold by at least one competitor in every region of the world--two in the largest market. I can tell... They're about to spring the trap! Watch out when all those 1st party mega-franchises come out! Gran Turismo!! ... erm... SOCOM?... Ratchet?... Uh... EyeToy?... Everybody's Golf? Yeah, bitch. Console war over.

Hilarious!

Ya know, I've said this many times.  Super Mario 64 & Zelda: Ocarina of Time were some of the greatest games of all time...

...and THEY STILL didn't save Nintendo. What makes people think 1st party can save anyone else if it didn't save the Kings of 1st party, Nintendo?

http://www.popzart.com/?page=view&topic=447

Games are not simple to make anymore like back in the 1970's & early 80's. Not as cheap to make either and both of these qualities make gamemaking costly and untimely.

The gamesbusiness is costly. Bruno Bonnell leaving his own company Infogrames, the company he founded, the company trying to resurrect the name & reputation of the genesis of the videogame business Atari, him leaving at the crux of Infogrames/Atari's finance woes demonstrates the difficulty in maintaining this business.

http://www.popzart.com/?page=view&topic=596

Microsoft losing so much just to make a videogame machine??? Who loses 4 billion dollars on anything?! Sega, Atari, Coleco, Mattel, SNK, NEC, every hardware maker who even TRIED to break into this field except Nintendo has had difficulty sustaining healthy profits over a decent period of time. And software makers are not much different. That's why we've had so many mergers & buyouts in recent years. It's really why what Wii's trying to do is smart. You can't maintain selling to the same relatively small set of people all the time while increasing costs of production of your goods. It makes no sense!

Life lesson: losing money is NEVER good. NEVER good—unless you don't have to worry paying that money back like identity thieves, Paris Hilton & the U.S. Government. If you ain't one of these groups, when you lose money it COUNTS literally. The way things are going I see Sony downsizing in the near future. If gaming is one of their few profitable sectors and it's going bad, then that means Sony will downsize & start cutting jobs very soon within the next few years. They MAY end their gaming division altogether. I know this sounds fatalist but it's in my eyes too strongly not to see. They may be forced to unless something changes.

It was so hard to make money when they were dominant. But can they even attempt to stay in this costly game if they have to be an Gamecubian underdog? Will Microsoft kick them when they're down knowing that the whole reason Microsoft is in this business to begin with started with Sony's existence in gaming. Will Microsoft go for the kill? Attack its weak point for massive damage? (yes I had to use it) Knowing Microsoft I'd have to say yes. Anyone willing to pursue this thing after blowing the equivalent of the GDP of most nations is in it to win it.

Sony is in trouble, don't fool yourself. They know they are & are hopefully trying to rectify the problem before it's too late.

John Lucas