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Forums - Sony - Sony scales back expectations for Vita after weak sales performanc

Train wreck on 06 August 2012
RolStoppable said:
ils411 said:
RolStoppable said:

Sony's gaming unit has been posting losses for the last two quarters which coincides with the PSV launches in America and Europe. Previously, they posted profits for several quarters in a row. It's not hard to see a connection. If it isn't the PSV that drags Sony's gaming unit's financials down, then what is?

You obviously don't know anything about manufacturing/marketing/sales so i'll just let this be as I don't feel like downgrading myself to your level.

Cutting your price by more than 30% just a few months after launch is the king of fail. No matter how you look at it, that move was epic fail to the highest degree.

You didn't answer my question, because you know I am right. The PSV is causing Sony's gaming unit to lose money. It's not the PS2, PS3 or PSP. It's the PSV.

Selling at a loss (PSV) and failing to reach the same sales performance as a product that is sold at a profit (3DS) is a bigger fail than switching to lossleading after a few months. What this means for Sony is that they have to take an even bigger loss on PSV hardware in order to keep the system relevant. Otherwise third parties will either switch to the 3DS or subscribe to the "smartphones have killed the dedicated handheld" mantra. Without a doubt, Nintendo handled the 3DS poorly. But Sony handled the PSV worse.

Well if you look at the numbers...

We dont have the forex impact of last year but 3.2 of the 3.5 operating loss for Q1 2012 is currency. So strip that out you're basically at breakeven.

Quarter (Q4 Jan to Mar) on Quarter (Q1 Apr to Jun); the loss went from a -11.5 to -3.5 (not including currency). Q4 included the launch numbers for Europe and the US.  If the numbers for Q1 are worse than Q4 for vita sales, where did the 8 billion yen gain come from?

The division has 20 billion dollar sales hit (from Q1 '11 to Q1 '12) which again impacted its bottom line, if you are not selling more stuff you can't profit off it. They sold 400k less ps2/ps3 400k combination psv/psp and 8.3 million units of software between all platforms (with software being the biggest driver)  

Saying its all vita fault is the nice convenient way out but its alot more than just that.



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cusman on 06 August 2012

Perhaps Sony should have done a more staggered release schedule instead of blowing their full load at launch and then taking a nice long nap.



VicViper on 06 August 2012

AKB48 will save Vita... December 20th, believe!

Hatsune Miku and AKB48 to be vita's biggest games of the year? Seriously, if that happens, it'll be funny as hell! The hardcorest of the hardcorest of systems being sustained by girl games in japan (not for girls, but you get the point) is a hilarious thought! But probably won't happen, since it's being released on PSP too, and that will steal most (or at least a lot) of its sales.

That said, it was a good game for Vita to get!



Train wreck on 06 August 2012
RolStoppable said:
Train wreck said:

Well if you look at the numbers...

We dont have the forex impact of last year but 3.2 of the 3.5 operating loss for Q1 2012 is currency. So strip that out you're basically at breakeven.

Quarter (Q4 Jan to Mar) on Quarter (Q1 Apr to Jun); the loss went from a -11.5 to -3.5 (not including currency). Q4 included the launch numbers for Europe and the US.  If the numbers for Q1 are worse than Q4 for vita sales, where did the 8 billion yen gain come from?

The division has 20 billion dollar sales hit (from Q1 '11 to Q1 '12) which again impacted its bottom line, if you are not selling more stuff you can't profit off it. They sold 400k less ps2/ps3 400k combination psv/psp and 8.3 million units of software between all platforms (with software being the biggest driver)  

Saying its all vita fault is the nice convenient way out but its alot more than just that.

During the early PS3 days, one Sony executive said it best (paraphrasing here): "Our losses were lower than expected, because we sold [shipped] less PS3 units than expected." - That's where much of Sony's gain in Q1 2012 comes from, because they had to ship less Vita units than in the previous quarter.

You can go into semantics, but the initial point of contention was whether the PSV is sold at a loss. It certainly is and I don't think you will disagree with this.

PSP/Vita shipments:

Q4 (Jan - Mar) shipments .9

Q1 (Apr - June) shipments 1.4  Im sure that the 500k increase in shipments is not all PSP.

The loss for the PS3 was profound we could tell immedieatly that the system was selling at a huge loss.  The PSVita, not so much.  we have had 3 quarters of Sony's game numbers and there is no extreme drop off in sales or profits (losses) outside normal seasonal trends.



Andrespetmonkey on 06 August 2012

RolStoppable said:

You didn't answer my question, because you know I am right. The PSV is causing Sony's gaming unit to lose money. It's not the PS2, PS3 or PSP. It's the PSV.

Selling at a loss (PSV) and failing to reach the same sales performance as a product that is sold at a profit (3DS) is a bigger fail than switching to lossleading after a few months. What this means for Sony is that they have to take an even bigger loss on PSV hardware in order to keep the system relevant. Otherwise third parties will either switch to the 3DS or subscribe to the "smartphones have killed the dedicated handheld" mantra. Without a doubt, Nintendo handled the 3DS poorly. But Sony handled the PSV worse.

It doesn't need a price cut to stay relevant if it gets software. A GTA and GT could help out a lot, AC and COD won't do wonders, but they'll give it a boost. The next Uncharted and obviously a Monster Hunter will also do well, but that's pretty far out. Any new IP could be a surpise hit, there are plenty of Sony's first party studios working on Vita games. Oh and Bioshock will release next year. It seems set for the next year and half, it's sales across that time period will make publishers decide whether or not to publish another Vita title. And if major publishers decide not to, a price cut will be needed. But I guess by the end of 2013 they'll be cutting the price no matter what. 



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Andrespetmonkey on 06 August 2012
man-bear-pig said:
Wait...so Sony has lowered their predictions from 16 million Vitas for the year to 12 million? That is ridiculous... 5.4 million vitas by the end of 2012 seems realistic, 12 million is ridiculous. Perhaps i am reading this wrong...

12 million is for PSV + PSP 



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Carl on 06 August 2012
kowenicki said:
Carl2291 said:
Week old news?


turkish posted quarter old news...



Yes. I know.



                            

BenVTrigger on 06 August 2012

Old news but still stings

Vita is by FAR my favorite handheld ever......ut just desperatley needs software and fast



VicViper on 06 August 2012
BenVTrigger said:
Old news but still stings

Vita is by FAR my favorite handheld ever......ut just desperatley needs software and fast

How do you think Vita's big 3 (COD, Ass Creed and PASBR) will perform?

Especially the last one, how do you feel will be the PS3/Vita sales rate between versions.

Not tellng any inside info obviously, but also, do you think Vita will fly from shelves a LOT better with a price cut?



Galaki on 06 August 2012
AbbathTheGrim said:

A game that forces the user to reject 152 "schoolgirls" is going to save the Vita.

I wouldn't mind replaying it one hundred and fifty two times as long as I get to front-and-back-touch them all.



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