VideoGameAccountant said:
Your arguments have been "Look, other divisions make money, so it's not just gaming." At the same time, you message the numbers to fit your conclusion. Look at the bold. Only 25 percent of Sony's operating income comes from Playstation (its more like 30). So of Sony's 10 or so divisions, 1 is making a quarter of the operating income for the company as a whole. And to the guy you originally quoted, if Playstation has a bad year and has a lose, that sends Sony's straight into the red. No other division could do that. And if finance is a subsidiary, it means the income Sony is reporting is not the true cash flow they are getting. If the pay out is 50 percent, then the actual money Sony is getting could be as little as half of what is reported in the slide you showed earlier. If you remove finance, Gaming makes up about 38 percent of all operating profit (of the profitable divisions). And this says nothing to the fact that numerous divisions are losing money. The problem is you see trees but not the forest. You point out that other divisions are making money but don't look at them as a whole. The only division that is competitive with Gaming, in terms of both profit and revenue, is Finance and if this is a sub it means Sony only gets what they pay out in dividends. In terms of growth, the only divisions with growth in both revenue and operating income was Gaming and Finance, and Gaming has far stronger growth. 5 divisions had a decline in revenue. Look at this in comparison to net income. Sony only made 73 billion yen for FY 16. Music's operating income was 75 billion. If it had a net loss, earnings could still be saved if slack is picked up by other sectors and they have a good year. Gaming, on the other hand, made 135 billion yen. If it went in the red, the company would be in serious trouble. This is also bad when you consider Sony's has historically sold their systems at a loss and they'll need to release the PS5 before too long or lose out to Nintendo and the growing PC market. Your original comment was that "The narrative that the only segment of Sony currently doing well is Playstation is quite wrong." When you look at growth and total revenue/profit, that doesn't seem to be the case. (as an aside, I think Hedra's point on dividend payout was good)
If music has a bad year, the company will be fine. If gaming has a bad year, it means Sony's financial results (and its stock price) will be a disaster. You say everyone else misunderstand's Sony's possition but you never considered that gaming is what is driving the company's profits. |
Omfg I give up. I have said time and time again, that gaming is very important to Sony. If you remove gaming from Sony, they will be in a much worse state. How many times do I have to say this? All I'm saying is that also without gaming, Sony isn't completely screwed. They have other segments that are doing well, or at the very least decent. (Financials, Music, Semiconductors are doing well, despite semiconductors' recent woes from the Japan 2016 earthquake, while Movies, IP&S and H&ES are doing decent, again, despite the writedown (a one time cost) in the pictures division.)
If you seriously reply to this by again saying that I'm denying the importance of gaming to Sony, I'll stop replying, cause it's a waste of my time. But just so you get the message - yes, gaming is very important to Sony. Like I've been saying this whole thread. Jesus.
And as for your comment about massaging the numbers, 135.6/524.7=0.258, or 26%. I used 25% because it's a 4th which is a more natural size to talk about, but it certainly isn't 30%.... lol... talk about massaging the numbers.
