Sony Game division made $375m profit (FY 2011)

[mike_intellivision]

Turkish said:

Chark said:

Cobretti2 said:

Chark said:
It's like Sony went around and kicked everyone's dog. Seriously, did these people exist 10 years ago?

They did exist, except they where abusing Nintendo when they were on their playsations. Now they some moved to be xbox gamers who abuse Sony.

Nintendo fans jsut have been use to the abuse for so long it doesnt have the same impact anymore with all the doomz day threads each week it is like one of those ebd of the world predictions that never keeps pannin gout.

Ah so all the douchebags went to Xbox, I kid I kid. Were there really that many Nintendo haters back then? I mean, I know the internet (communication) has advanced dramatically and people have aged sinced then, but was it really bad? Any old fogeys that can chime in on this?

Not many people cared about Nintendo. Around the year 2000 it was Sony vs Sega ps2 vs dreamcast lol.

Barely but accureate. PS2 was not launched in Europe until November of 2000 (It was March of 2000 in Japan and October of 2000 in North America).

Dreamcast was a late 1999 in Europe (and North America. It was late 1998 in Japan). It replaced the Saturn which like the original Playstation, launched in the 1995 in Europe (and North America -- and both lauched in 1994 in Japan).  The difference was that Sega was essentially two years out of the console market in Europe (and North America) since it abandoned the Saturn in 1998 there (and 2000 in Japan).

You are correct that Nintendo's consoles did have a different path. The N64 was 1997 in Europe (but 1996 in Japan and North America). The GameCube was five years later -- 2002 in Europe (but 2001 in Japan and North America).

The Xbox released at approximately the same time as the Gamecube -- 2002 in Europe (and Japan but 2001 in North America).

What does this all mean: That Sony had little competition for a several years period from 1998 to 2001/2. That allowed it to make big profits, big sales, and big reputation.  That is why some people think Sony "kicked their dog" to use the term of another poster.

That all being said, Sony's halycyon days were a decade ago. It lost a lot of money on the PS3 - though the unit is no longer directly losing money. But the gaming division has struggled the last six months because of lower-than-expected Vita demand and the aging of the flagship PS3 console.

This is bad in the context of Sony being a giant corporation with other divisions losing money -- and gaming is expected to be a profit center. Thus any money gaming is making is being used to plug the losses in TVs and other units. It is not necessarily available to reinvest in R&D or third-party payments -- at least not in the way that funds once were. 

With gaming having lost money in 4Q Sony FY 2011 (January-March 2012) and 1Q Sony FY 2012 (April-June 2012) -- that is very bad news for the division and the entire corporation.

In other words, the big picture of Sony can overwhelm the small picture success.

 

Mike from Morgantown