Here is the latest news - 160 employees to go:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=24232

"Thanks for your hard work on the PS3 - now that its complete, we don't need your services anymore. Goodbye!"

(my quote, not theirs... ;) 

I've found that you generally overstate things, especially when it concerns Sony. Even if they downsize a few divisions, they seem to be clearing out people so that they can hire people that will help them more.

You already overreacted to the FF13 post saying you were "right" just because we found out that instead of 3 games (2 PS3 and 1 cell phone) there will be 6. You don't even know what systems yet! For all you know that's 1 more PS3 and 2 PSP (I'd guess not, but just the same no one knows, and the main game is still exlcusive to PS3 even if that changes LATER).

Anyway, you again overreact. Maybe if you had not predicted the doom of Sony so soon you wouldn't have to scrape and claw at evidence that you will be right? Just a guess as to why you are overreacting so much.

Ok, SCEE is laying off some people, we'll see what kind of effect that has, if any. Geez.

Static, if they did ship 6 million, and won't sell through them for 6 months, thats just as bad. I mean, we can assume that they wanted a high sell-through of those initial 6 million... They didn't want to stuff the channels with 3 million unsold units.

And alone, any one of the recent developments wouldn't be too serious. Together, they look like a company scrambling to improve their bottom line in the wake of poor sales.

I don't think its going to kill Sony. Their other divisions aren't consistently profitable, but more than just SCE would need to crash to take down the company. I do think we're going to see a ton of upheaval within SCE this generation.

Obviously everything isn't great in Sony land at the moment, but I think these sorts of moves by companies are only good things, it means they are wizening up and taking a good strategy (usually).  Cost cutting is a GOOD thing for consumers, and for companies... because they will (hopefully) pass down the saving to the consumer sooner rather than later.

I wasn't spelling doom and gloom but Sony's PR machine is always so positive and never comment about worries or anything like that at all they simply say 'they are the best we will be the best'.

Nintendo for example states that they are in an up-hill battle to win back Japanese consumers, and you know what it's working for them...

I just think this shows that Sony is wizening up and definitely lots of changes seem to be coming from replacing Katarugi (sp?).

If it seems that I overstate things is because I don't enjoy that on the fence feeling. I make it clear my intention and direction. I hate the grey area when it comes to expressing a view. I'm not a fan of wishy-washiness and waiting to see if an opinion is popular, waiting to see which way the wind blows to unveil my thoughts on a subject. So many people hedge bets for various reasons: so as not to rock the boat and alienate some other forum members, because they don't have full confidence in their opinions or views, because if wrong they don't want to be seen as backtracking.

I'm not one of these people. I put it out there as is—even if I'm all alone in that belief. I always try to back up my belief with some supporting evidence or reasoning but I'm not afraid to call it out. Many times I actually reserve comment so as not to seemingly "kick a man when he's down". I can actually say a lot worse! LOL! There's no need for all that so I don't always make a comment on every piece.

Sony has thrown away a tremendous opportunity in the videogame market and there's no getting around that. What I see here is a lot of hope, which I have no problem with, and well-wishing but I'm just being real. It would be lovely if Sony repaired the damage they caused themselves over the past year and brought this system back to prominence to make a good market contest where all types of gamebuyers had a strong choice in what they wanted. But unfortunately the real world doesn't work that way.

Many people wish for "ALL 3 to be equal dividers in the market and we all win." Utopian. It sounds nice and who wouldn't mind that? But that's not gonna happen and it really hasn't EVER happened in this industry's history. The closest you seen of that is between Sega & Nintendo in certain markets in the early 90's. That's as CLOSE a one on one contest you ever saw in companies putting out games in the market.

If Microsoft wasn't here Sony would be OK DESPITE any mistakes. They would be the high-end alternative. But Microsoft complicates the picture and Sony will succumb in the vidgame biz if they play Microsoft's power games.

The industry has never supported more than 2 competitors decently at once and actually most times just one console takes the majority of the market. 6th gen it was PS2......and THEN MAYBE XBox and Gamecube (Dreamcast was already about dead by then). 5th gen it was PS1......and THEN MAYBE N64 and Saturn. 4th gen it was in SOME markets Sega and Nintendo. In the 3rd gen it was Nintendo....and who? In the 2nd gen it was Atari....and maybe Intellivision and Colecovision. In the 1st gen it was Atari PONG or Magnavox PONG or maaaybe johnny-come-lately company PONG.

I'm just relating reality, man. Relating my understanding of the industry. I'm not bashing Sony. I'm just putting the truth out there hoping to ease the pain of the ones who supported the company buying the PS3. I REMEMBER the N64 days when I had to go through lack waiting for titles and genres. Deficient in Vitamin RPG and after long wait Quest 64???? Come ON! If it wasn't for Nintendo's home grown and Rare and a scant few others the N64 woulda been a total waste of time!

Game systems are investments. You'd be surprised at how much you accumulatively spend on game systems and byproducts. $1000's of dollars when it's all said and done. I've got friends with systems sitting up in boxes like 3DO & Neo-Geo & Saturn & stuff like this. Never used just kept because of its history and rarity. I had a cousin who got the Jaguar, poor fella.

What I say won't stop a thing for people who want the system. I'm just giving them the information so that if they end up disappointed they can't say they were surprised. And yes I DO like to call things out and be proven right just for the sake of it. I'm practicing my analysts skills I guess. But I also do it for the game community at large as well as myself in being a smarter customer (never call me a consumer. I loathe the term). Money is short so spend it wisely. Studying the behavior of the market helps you make wiser choices and make your money go further.

All I can say is time is a tattletale. It'll blab out the answer eventually.

John Lucas

johnlucas:  N64 and Gamecube was dominated and yet they were profitable.  People like you still bought them.  N64 sold more than the Genesis. 

Every generation has a different scenerio than the last.  There is not enough turnover in video games to be so certain.  Everything has 2 sides, being "on the fence" isn't so bad.

What I think you do is completely overreact to things in the attempt to be correct.  That doesn't serve anyone well imo.  You don't know everything and looking at the short history of video game consoles does not enable you to predict everything that is going to happen.

But hey, you still have plenty of time to be right. 

johnlucas - once agian. I think your crazy, I dont read your posts. (any of them)

Sony is removing redundant jobs. That means jobs that the people do the same thing. Most likely the EXACT same thing... over... and over... and over... and over!

I can think of 1 company down the road that could shut down 1 assembly line... (they have about 15) And they would fire around 80 people.

Seriously guys. How can fireing 140 useless people be harmful? (unless your the poor guy getting fired)

 kind of like some of the posts around here.  people arguing about the EXACT same thing, over, and over, and over.

but seriously, companies don't lay people off when they have extra work for those people to do.  if those people have been doing useless work... then i sure hope sony fires more people because there's something structurally wrong with the company.