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Forums - Sony - Breaking News: Sony to post massive $1.7 billion loss

Darc Requiem on 22 January 2009
bardicverse said:
FishyJoe said:
bardicverse said:

If I owned Sony and my people lost 3.8 billion of my company's money, Id turn the offices into FPS levels and kill them all.

 

 

You shouldn't joke about this, because workplace violence has been known to occur in such times.

Who's joking? Losing 3.8 bil is a serious chunk of change. Id be in a total insane rage. Of course, being of Sicilian and Irish blood doesn't help. =)

 

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 



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Sardauk on 22 January 2009
Demotruk said:
BengaBenga said:
Demotruk said:
Christhegamer said:

 

 

 

 

 

And in that time they've maintained a loss-leading strategy. Of course they've made a loss.

The reason I see this division as more flexible is because it's more based on software than the others. It's much easier to switch strategy in software than it is with hardware.

That is the key difference between the two companies. Technology >< Software or hardware >< Services

 



 

Evan Wells (Uncharted 2): I think the differences that you see between any two games has much more to do with the developer than whether it’s on the Xbox or PS3.

bardicverse on 22 January 2009
Darc Requiem said:
bardicverse said:
FishyJoe said:
bardicverse said:

If I owned Sony and my people lost 3.8 billion of my company's money, Id turn the offices into FPS levels and kill them all.

 

 

You shouldn't joke about this, because workplace violence has been known to occur in such times.

Who's joking? Losing 3.8 bil is a serious chunk of change. Id be in a total insane rage. Of course, being of Sicilian and Irish blood doesn't help. =)

 

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

 

oh noes! Im racist on myself! wait, if I hate myself, does that make me emo? ;)

 



BengaBenga on 22 January 2009
Demotruk said:
BengaBenga said:
Demotruk said:

 

Agreed, though I only think we'd say that because we'd not have taken an in depth look at the division if we weren't a gaming forum. They've been unprofitable by trying to win the generation, and because of that, most of their losses are already sunk and will never be returned. However, it's a division that can be switched over to moderate profitability in the short/medium term more easily than the other parts of the company.

All they have to do is admit defeat in the console war(internally). Once they've done this, they can switch focus to simply short term profit instead of loss-leading. How do they do this? No price cuts, and profit focussed software as opposed to unprofitable "system sellers". This doesn't require the restructuring that the TV's and other areas will require.

Ehm, how? And why does SCE suddenly will outperform the rest of the company while it has underperformed past years?

All I see is 3 years of losses in a row. Doesn't look like a division that can be switched to profitability very fast. If it was easy it would definitely have happened this year, since that was the main message from last year.

As it stands now PS3 won't have a pricecut therefore will likely lose marketshare and it's very probably the rising PS3 software sales won't keep up with decreasing PS2 sales. Meanwhile SCE has an infrastructure built around marketleadership. Sony has more studio's than Nintendo, which is unsustainable with PS3's development costs and low install base.

 

 

And in that time they've maintained a loss-leading strategy. Of course they've made a loss.

The reason I see this division as more flexible is because it's more based on software than the others. It's much easier to switch strategy in software than it is with hardware.

Stringer made it absolutely clear that SCE had to make a profit this year, so they didn't have a loss-leading strategy for this year. Yet they made a loss.

Software development in Sony's case is not flexible at all, because

a) Their userbase is out of their hands
b) Big AAA projects take 3-4 years to make (or longer...GT5...) 

When all these massive first party projects started Sony's estimates must have been much higher than what the PS3 actually sold. But you can't cut the budget for big games like GoW3, GT5 and Killzone 2 halfway through the dev cycle of course. This doesn't mean these games will make a loss, but profit margins will be much lower than initially expected.

If they were to do a Sega your statement becomes more valid, cause they could spread the risk around several platforms and distribute investment among different sized project. Sony bet big with AAA mega games only, which hurts them now.



darthdevidem01 on 22 January 2009

When willw e know what the restructuring is?



All hail the KING, Andrespetmonkey

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Alby_da_Wolf on 22 January 2009
FishyJoe said:
bardicverse said:

If I owned Sony and my people lost 3.8 billion of my company's money, Id turn the offices into FPS levels and kill them all.

 

 

You shouldn't joke about this, because workplace violence has been known to occur in such times.

Let's just hope the Japanese use katanas instead of firearms when they go postal: image is of the essence.    ...And with silent weapons you're able to enjoy the screams much more! 

 



Stwike him, Centuwion. Stwike him vewy wuffly! (Pontius Pilate, "Life of Brian")
A fart without stink is like a sky without stars.
TGS, Third Grade Shooter: brand new genre invented by Kevin Butler exclusively for Natal WiiToo Kinect. PEW! PEW-PEW-PEW!   


NJ5 on 22 January 2009
darthdevidem01 said:
When willw e know what the restructuring is?

This is what we have now.

I noticed Sony is 14% down today in the stock market, though still higher than the lows of early December.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

WiiStation360 on 22 January 2009
NJ5 said:
darthdevidem01 said:
When willw e know what the restructuring is?

This is what we have now.

I noticed Sony is 14% down today in the stock market, though still higher than the lows of early December.

 

Looks like Sony's games division may be safe from job cuts.

Sony job cuts unlikely to affect games division.

 

 



darthdevidem01 on 22 January 2009

@NJ5

shouldn't SONY be lower than DEC though stock market wise



All hail the KING, Andrespetmonkey

Smashed on 22 January 2009

If anything's going its financial services. Gaming division getting closed is very unlikely, and nothing is going to change my mind about that.

On a side note: Is it really necessary to constantly make topics about Sony losing money?..