NJ5 - My argument about 1st parties is the fact that, last year in Q4, Halo 3 shipped ~3-4 million units + other titles such as Scene It? This year, they had BK, Scene It, Lips, and YITM for 1st party efforts. Somehow, I don't think they made as much from 08's 1st party lineup vs. 07's first party lineup.

Not arguing what MS does for 1st/3rd parties, just a note as to why I'd think revenue may be down a little. But other's have had good opinions due to Windows R&D and other investments.

I'm just relaying what Microsoft's earnings reports say... It seems the 360 may have been more profitable than last year even with a price cut and without Halo 3. The userbase is much bigger now so licensing fees should add up as well as Live fees.

The funny part is that despite M$ millions in profits and sony's billions in losses, sony has kept their gaming division intact as of now. Word goes around that they even bought another studio (from a kotaku poster, I never verified this). On the other hand, M$ who has made profits in this division is firing the division's employees.

So it boils down to this: either sony values their gaming division more than M$ or M$ thinks it's better to just outsource everything.

What this kind of strategies hold for the future is this: if something drastic happened and sony's next console totally tanked, they could easily pull of a sega and just make software which holds less risk but if the same happened to M$, that's pretty much it for the gaming industry at least on the console front.

Pristine20 said: The funny part is that despite M$ millions in profits and sony's billions in losses, sony has kept their gaming division intact as of now. Word goes around that they even bought another studio (from a kotaku poster, I never verified this). On the other hand, M$ who has made profits in this division is firing the division's employees. So it boils down to this: either sony values their gaming division more than M$ or M$ thinks it's better to just outsource everything. What this kind of strategies hold for the future is this: if something drastic happened and sony's next console totally tanked, they could easily pull of a sega and just make software which holds less risk but if the same happened to M$, that's pretty much it for the gaming industry at least on the console front.

Either that or Sony is being too confident and it will blow up in their faces at some point... also possible.

There's also the possibility that Sony is planning a restructuring of SCE in secret. It's much too early for any definite claims in this regard.

 

NJ5 said: Pristine20 said: The funny part is that despite M$ millions in profits and sony's billions in losses, sony has kept their gaming division intact as of now. Word goes around that they even bought another studio (from a kotaku poster, I never verified this). On the other hand, M$ who has made profits in this division is firing the division's employees. So it boils down to this: either sony values their gaming division more than M$ or M$ thinks it's better to just outsource everything. What this kind of strategies hold for the future is this: if something drastic happened and sony's next console totally tanked, they could easily pull of a sega and just make software which holds less risk but if the same happened to M$, that's pretty much it for the gaming industry at least on the console front. Either that or Sony is being too confident and it will blow up in their faces at some point... also possible. There's also the possibility that Sony is planning a restructuring of SCE in secret. It's much too early for any definite claims in this regard.

Considering the fact that they've performed very well in this industry in the past, you may be right. As for SCE's restructuring, we'll see. David Reeves for one seemed pretty assured that his team won't take any cuts despite being the section customers have the most problems with. Maybe its because of killzone 2 lol.

 

Pristine20 said: Considering the fact that they've performed very well in this industry in the past, you may be right. As for SCE's restructuring, we'll see. David Reeves for one seemed pretty assured that his team won't take any cuts despite been the section consumers have the most problems with. Maybe its because of killzone 2 lol.

I don't know for sure but Reeves' comments strike me as either lies or foolishness. It's like the whole company is sinking and he happily says "business as usual!!". It would be much more natural to say "we'll evaluate what needs to be done" or something like that.

Sony's modus operandi seems to be to wait until things blow up and then scramble to fix them. Same reason they kept accepting those ridiculously low profit margins until a recession started.

 

NJ5 said: Pristine20 said: Considering the fact that they've performed very well in this industry in the past, you may be right. As for SCE's restructuring, we'll see. David Reeves for one seemed pretty assured that his team won't take any cuts despite been the section consumers have the most problems with. Maybe its because of killzone 2 lol.   I don't know for sure but Reeves' comments strike me as either lies or foolishness. It's like the whole company is sinking and he happily says "business as usual!!". It would be much more natural to say "we'll evaluate what needs to be done" or something like that. Sony's modus operandi seems to be to wait until things blow up and then scramble to fix them. Same reason they kept accepting those ridiculously low profit margins until a recession started.

Well, sony is Japanse company at heart and change doesn't come easy but I still doubt the their gaming sector would take any big hits. One of main reasons SCE is in bad shape today is because they had to carry the rest of the company by adding blu-ray functionality to ps3...let's not forget that. I don't think ps3 would still be selling at a loss now if blu-ray wasn't included.

In other words, if SCE was a different company of it's own, it won't be posting losses right now. On the contrary, when was the last time sony's electronics business brought any great returns?

 

My biggest worry is all the cuts they've made to the Xbox division.. you usually don't make cuts so deep when its one of the few "bright spots" for the quarter. I was just surprised to hear most of the EDD cuts didn't come from the Zune divisions..

In other news, MS maybe in big trouble.

Microsoft 'Vista Capable' Settlement Cost Could Be Over $8 Billion

I don't think X360 is in trouble tho. Sony doesn't pose real threat right now, cuz they are the one in cage atm.

NJ5:

Sony might get big profits from PS3, if they just wait enough, but it might backfire too as you said. If MS would want finish Sony, it would bring next XBox as soon as possible. That way MS would make it even harder Sony to make any profit from PS3.

gebx said: My biggest worry is all the cuts they've made to the Xbox division.. you usually don't make cuts so deep when its one of the few "bright spots" for the quarter. I was just surprised to hear most of the EDD cuts didn't come from the Zune divisions..

What deep cuts? Gamerscore Blog? ACES? Neither of which have anything to do with XBox software or hardware. One is a means for increased customer interaction with the XBox brand and the other is a pc only development group. There have been no evidence of critical XBox related jobs being cut. And as per M$'s press release, the R&D teams are going to be hit hardest. Teams that work on PopFly for instance, which has been confirmed to be shutting dow.