Hey guys,

Sony is in big trouble right now and I want the VGC-community to decide what they should focus on.

The PS3 has its problems in the western market. It gets outsold on a weekly bases by the 2 main competitors in Europe and in North America. They had one major release this year (in the west), but it only helped to put the PS3 past the Xbox360 for one single week, the Wii is still out of reach. We do not know if Sony is still losing money with the PS3, but the financial report is coming soon. Nintendo reported that the profit was 42% smaller than it was during the same timeframe last year, so I doubt Sony will improve from last years numbers when even Big N wasn't able to do so.

The PSP is in Big Trouble. It is getting outsold 4.5 by the Nintendo DS in North America and 3.5:1 in Europe. The software sales are extremly low, because of piracy.

In a word: Sony is not in a great position as a company.

What should they do? Here are some thoughts:

• Price-Cut for the PS3 to stimulate demand. PS3 could get more marketshare, but the financial situation would be even smaller. Maybe software-sales could help to get more revenue.
• Price-Cut for the PSP to stimulate demand. Same thing as for the PS3 but software-sales won't increase, because of piracy. So this won't help Sony much.
• PSP 2. Okay, this would mean the PSP is dead, but Sony could start all over again and try to avoid piracy from the start. Digital Distribution could be the key.

So what do you think? What should Sony do? should they focus on PS3 or PSP / marketshare or profit? Please keep in mind, that Sony forecasted a loss of $1.3 billion for this year. So there are limited resources.

Please try to be reasonable!

Focus on both.
Get the new Cell chip in PS3, (45nm i think, always forget).
Make a slim PS3, get colours on PS3, Use pricecut.

Plenty new games at E3.

So they are in big trouble and you want them to cut prices even more... putting them in even more financial trouble than everyone keeps placing them in already?

I'm sure Sony has done a calculation of how much the demand would go up compared to increased revenue from software sales. Depending on that outcome, a price cut may or may not happen. They will not cut prices just because...


About the PSP2 (or PSP Go): part of the rumours indicate that this "new" version would not mean that the older games or newer games can't work on the old PSP's, meaning it's just an improved / backward-compatible version. Consider it like the DSi and so on. An arrival of a PSP2 or PSP Go doesn't mean "death to the PSP". About piracy: can't they create updates / firmwares like with the PS3 (not too familiar with PSP)

As long as parts on the PS3 system continue to drop in value for them, and the system stays around $400, Sony will make a profit.

$400 - $350 (as an example that it's that much to make the system) = $50 profit

Pull out of the console business and concentrate on the consumer electronics. This gen is a big money pit for them. If they go all out again with the ps4 and it also fails, it could cause the end of Sony over all.

Let's put this in context.

Sure, Sony is in big trouble, but the PS3 business is a tiny part of their trouble overall. So what they need to do is not going to be determined by their relative position in the games market right now - it'll be determined by loads of other things instead.

So really, pushing for price cuts in the console market is not what they are after. So it's not going to happen.

Cheapen PS3 production, cheapen console price. That's all about they CAN do right now.

PSP should get better with its rumored new model+fuckload of games.

 Fair point

Price cut on the PSP would stimulate demand I would imagine, and some non-pricecut incentives for PS3 could work. What thye really need to do is make their consoles more "available" to non-gamers. It constantly seems like they are shunning non-gamers from their console and losing them to Nintendo. Since I got my PS3 I have experienced it everyday, if I was a non-gamer I would just move to wii. My PSP is a bit like that too.

The only thing I can think of is not making the mistakes they've already made in the first place. Though that's impossible now, so I'm at a loss, really.