Noobie said: Do you think he will be able to get some of the XBOX 360 exclusives on the PS3.? if so which one you think are the most probable.? or be able to get some more software studios inside the Sony ? Secondly wasn't Haze from the start a PS3 game.? Konami and Square both doesn't look too strong with Playstation as i don't see any other games from them apart from MGS and FF coming abroad on PS3. yup he manages to keep them committed to the exlusiveness on these two games which should itself is a good thing but i don't see him achieving any more from them.

Personally I think MGS, Final Fantasy will go multi platform. Rumours are timed exclusive for MGS. And some other Final Fantasy game for the xbox. The one thing Sony need to stop is constantly buying second tier devs. Latest one is the Motorstorm devs. Buying 2nd party games imagine if Sony went for GEOW, Bioshock, Mass Effect instead of Heavenly Sword, Lair etc?. The exclusive xbox GTA content is also going to have a huge impact. Why werent Sony doing this instead of buying the Motorstorm devs who were already exclusive?. As I'v said I think things look very bleak for 2008 unless Sony have hid a ton of things and there strategies are not as awful as they look.

Bladeneo said: Noobie said: Do you think he will be able to get some of the XBOX 360 exclusives on the PS3.? if so which one you think are the most probable.? or be able to get some more software studios inside the Sony ? Secondly wasn't Haze from the start a PS3 game.? Konami and Square both doesn't look too strong with Playstation as i don't see any other games from them apart from MGS and FF coming abroad on PS3. yup he manages to keep them committed to the exlusiveness on these two games which should itself is a good thing but i don't see him achieving any more from them.  Haze was originally set on the 360 and PC as well as the PS3, so either MS not talking or Sony persuading free radical made it an exclusive, either way it can only say good things about Kaz I suppose.   Also, to rukusa, the advertisements in the Europe are terrible compared to the recent american adverts, Ive no idea how the PS3 is doing so well over here. UK adverts dont show any games, just some idiot in red prancing around with a poodle, its ridiculous.

Although i think its too early to ask but he has to get some of the big XBOX 360 exclusive in the PS3 folds just to get some foothold in american market. Atleast none of the present PS3 title has been able to give a boost to the PS3. or he has to get some new IP for the PS3.

I don't think Sony can ignore the American market they have to become 2nd there in the sales per week and i would say before the end of March '08.

rukusa said: dishdash said: As I'v said Hirai is just a Stringer yes man. And the ps3 to me is treading water at best. The original team that made the ps1 and ps2 have gone (amazing dont you think how Stringers spun this as a good thing?). All I'v seen since the new outfits took charge is Stringer/Hirai desperately dropping the price. There's no vision or plan to turn things around at all. Unless there's lots we're not being told. I expect next year to be more of the same. Woah... except from Kutaragi's departure, I had no idea. Oh boy, if I knew this before I would've understood much better why the SCE department is in such shit like now. Sony is fucking stupid for abusing the PS image. If youre right then its obviously because the current team are business oriented. The focus on games is lost, fuck. Sony, you keep making the wrong choices time after time, after time, I fucking hope 2008 will make them fucking fight for the life of the PS brand.

 

Kuturagi has been portrayed as the villain in all this. But supposedly the villain was Stringers constant interference. Unless Stringer makes the ps3 a success the truth will come out.

dishdash said: As I'v said Hirai is just a Stringer yes man. And the ps3 to me is treading water at best. The original team that made the ps1 and ps2 have gone (amazing dont you think how Stringers spun this as a good thing?). All I'v seen since the new outfits took charge is Stringer/Hirai desperately dropping the price. There's no vision or plan to turn things around at all. Unless there's lots we're not being told. I expect next year to be more of the same.

He may not have that high vision as Ken but atleast he is getting the job done pretty good... Secondly i think Ken definitely created this empire but it look like that he was hell bent to destroy it too... As they say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When he started the division he had a vision and determination but after the success of PS2 he got a little corrupted by the success of PS2. Lastly may be not too much of a vision is required right now, rather continuously repeating the success is wot is the requirement of the day. and making the PS3 a profitable entity for the Sony. lastly i have to say Stringer has done an amazing job in turning the Sony back into black in a very short period. To change the course of a such a large and diverse ship its really worth applauding.

From an industry standpoint I'd certainly say the price drops have helped PS3 gain traction.

However, from a company executive standpoint, while they are necessary sacrifices (and an inherited problem for Kaz), they are still made of pure FAIL.

Two $100 price drops in a single year on a system that started out losing $240 a unit, and they still can't really catch weekly 360?

I mean, they've lost billions in a single year, and while this isn't Kaz's fault and is at this point unavoidable, it's certainly his responsibility that those financial sacrifices put them on top, which they're nowhere near doing. It makes you think what else he has planned to shift the momentum further, because I can't think of anything nearly as big as a $200 price drop.

dishdash said: rukusa said: dishdash said: As I'v said Hirai is just a Stringer yes man. And the ps3 to me is treading water at best. The original team that made the ps1 and ps2 have gone (amazing dont you think how Stringers spun this as a good thing?). All I'v seen since the new outfits took charge is Stringer/Hirai desperately dropping the price. There's no vision or plan to turn things around at all. Unless there's lots we're not being told. I expect next year to be more of the same. Woah... except from Kutaragi's departure, I had no idea. Oh boy, if I knew this before I would've understood much better why the SCE department is in such shit like now. Sony is fucking stupid for abusing the PS image. If youre right then its obviously because the current team are business oriented. The focus on games is lost, fuck. Sony, you keep making the wrong choices time after time, after time, I fucking hope 2008 will make them fucking fight for the life of the PS brand.   Kuturagi has been portrayed as the villain in all this. But supposedly the villain was Stringers constant interference. Unless Stringer makes the ps3 a success the truth will come out.

If you believe as I do, that all of Sony's problems are largely stemming from the ridiculous costs of producing PS3s, then I think you have to acknowledge that the fault lies with who designed it. Practically all of the design decisions were made before Stringer was elected CEO, almost all of them were executed by Kutaragi, and given how Stringer has turned Sony's other businesses around by making deep DEEP cutbacks, I think he's shown remarkable restraint in forcing cuts on PS3. He very easily could have forced cuts on Blu-ray, or the hard drive, or the spec of the RAM, or the number SPEs, or their order on the GPU's capacity, or their free online service, or their continued firmware development. He hasn't.

 

I wouldn't say Kutaragi is the vilain, just that he was replaced by his less reasonable twin brother, just like when Homer Simpson designed a car for his brother. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Brother%2C_Where_Art_Thou%3F

bugmenot said: From an industry standpoint I'd certainly say the price drops have helped PS3 gain traction. However, from a company executive standpoint, while they are necessary sacrifices (and an inherited problem for Kaz), they are still made of pure FAIL. Two $100 price drops in a single year on a system that started out losing $240 a unit, and they still can't really catch weekly 360? I mean, they've lost billions in a single year, and while this isn't Kaz's fault and is at this point unavoidable, it's certainly his responsibility that those financial sacrifices put them on top, which they're nowhere near doing. It makes you think what else he has planned to shift the momentum further, because I can't think of anything nearly as big as a $200 price drop.

 Microsoft have been very intelligent with their tactics in NA. There was no way anything Sony could do would avoid the massive impact of Halo 3, especially when MS threw out so much money for its advertising. Add to that MS already being popular in US, and Sonys tarnished reputation its no surprise they cant catch the 360 in NA.

 

To be fair though, the price cuts werent as costly due to reduction in manufacturing costs for the cell and blu-ray aspects of the PS3. Still not what sony would have wanted however. 

That's the thing. The Wii pretty much disproves what you're saying, as its sales are routinely beating 360's, despite all of 360's support and clout. True, I can't think of what it is that Sony could do, but it shows that smart work and marketing can win out over money, support and big name titles. It's Kaz's job to figure out what that magic is. Now I'm not saying he's a miracle worker, but a miracle's what they need, a miracle's what Iwata and Reggie can produce (and Ken before he went batshit), and if I were Sony, I'd look for one of them, because Kaz isn't it.

Also, Halo 3 had relatively little effect on hardware sales when you consider what kind of ruckas MS were making about it. I mean, it was sold as the Second coming...Third coming...whatever. The effects were minimal and short lived, and while not helping the PS cause, weren't as damaging as we feared.

As for the price cuts, yeah, they cut the manufacturing cost, but no one in their right mind believes that Sony could cut it by the $440 required to bring the 40GB unit to break even from the 60GB unit. Frankly, IMO the best they could hope for was shaving just over $200 off (guesstimate - 40 for cell, 10 for hard drive, 40 for GPU, 80 for bluray, 10 for RAM, 40 for others). That means they're still losing almost as much now as when they launched. I mean, you're right, they've made it cheaper and they're losses aren't as astronomical as they could be (most importantly they don't have unsold inventory at $840 a pop anymore). Still, don't let others get the idea that they've got things under control, because it is still a shitstorm.

bugmenot said: dishdash said: rukusa said: dishdash said: As I'v said Hirai is just a Stringer yes man. And the ps3 to me is treading water at best. The original team that made the ps1 and ps2 have gone (amazing dont you think how Stringers spun this as a good thing?). All I'v seen since the new outfits took charge is Stringer/Hirai desperately dropping the price. There's no vision or plan to turn things around at all. Unless there's lots we're not being told. I expect next year to be more of the same. Woah... except from Kutaragi's departure, I had no idea. Oh boy, if I knew this before I would've understood much better why the SCE department is in such shit like now. Sony is fucking stupid for abusing the PS image. If youre right then its obviously because the current team are business oriented. The focus on games is lost, fuck. Sony, you keep making the wrong choices time after time, after time, I fucking hope 2008 will make them fucking fight for the life of the PS brand.   Kuturagi has been portrayed as the villain in all this. But supposedly the villain was Stringers constant interference. Unless Stringer makes the ps3 a success the truth will come out. If you believe as I do, that all of Sony's problems are largely stemming from the ridiculous costs of producing PS3s, then I think you have to acknowledge that the fault lies with who designed it. Practically all of the design decisions were made before Stringer was elected CEO, almost all of them were executed by Kutaragi, and given how Stringer has turned Sony's other businesses around by making deep DEEP cutbacks, I think he's shown remarkable restraint in forcing cuts on PS3. He very easily could have forced cuts on Blu-ray, or the hard drive, or the spec of the RAM, or the number SPEs, or their order on the GPU's capacity, or their free online service, or their continued firmware development. He hasn't.   I wouldn't say Kutaragi is the vilain, just that he was replaced by his less reasonable twin brother, just like when Homer Simpson designed a car for his brother. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Brother%2C_Where_Art_Thou%3F

 

Well the truth about the ps3 we'l find out once Stringers gone.  Stringer was appointed chairman of  Sony precisely because he was foreign. And could make cuts that a Japanese chairman couldnt. Other than that his tenure is decidedly poor. Zero new hit products in his 2 and a half years in charge. As things stand he'l be known as an ultra conservative/safe chairman scared of taking risks. But I suppose that's what Sony wanted someone to steady the ship. And the next guy in charge will be expected to transform Sony. I'v got an inkling even though he says he wants to stay he'l be pushed at the end of this fiscal.

I don't think you can get a proper evaluation until the annual fiscal report is completed in completed in April. If they lose another $2 billion this fiscal year, I'd call him a failure.