Every day we’re hearing of a company running through a round of layoffs or going out of business, it’s really not a happy time. Sony is not immune to the economic troubles either. Sony is talking restructuring and that involves a potential head count reduction of 16,000 jobs due to plant closings.
This leaves Sony with some hard decisions. Restructuring can mean drastic changes that effect all their product lines. The PlayStation 3 isn’t currently a shining example of high profit margins. The console needs time to reduce its overall cost, chip sizes and bring profitability. Is it in danger?
“Sony’s not in a position to halt all domestic production but it has to do something that drastic,” said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management. “If it announces plans to move production overseas while keeping only planning and development functions in Japan, that would be a positive.” (gamestooge)
The yen is losing value in our global economy making it more difficult to export the product and build any type of profitability plan. “A source said this month the company will likely suffer an annual operating loss of about $1.1 billion, its first such loss in 14 years” (news.yahoo.com) All this noise is making CEO Howard Stringer contemplate Sony’s involvement as a “software only” company, making us recall the changes at SEGA to this same result.
The Financial Times reported Sony will unveil details of its restructuring steps on Wednesday or Thursday. It said Chief Executive Howard Stringer was meeting with resistance from some executives to shifting the company’s focus to software from hardware and cutting jobs in Japan. (news.yahoo.com)
Is this just a case of a fearful executive trying to lay plans for a more stable future? Software is easier to develop, pays for itself quickly and becomes pure profit as it ages. Hardware requires constant upkeep at manufacturing facilities, chip reductions and a boat load of quality planning for first shipment. Would Sony go full software?
Let’s face it, Sony isn’t SEGA, they’ve been developing hardware for consumers since anyone can remember and they’ve been doing it with quality and market penetration. It seems absurd to think they’d forgo hardware designs in replacement of a full software solution to the problem. In addition, Sony has already invested a large amount of cash into seeing PS3 through it’s 10-year plan and letting that die now is realizing a huge loss on investment.
If Sony pushes through the economic and maintenance course, the PS3 will become highly profitable, much like the PS2 last generation (with a slower ramp up for sales). Even if they break even after ten years it seems a lot better than throwing all the effort away.
Perhaps Howard Stringer is talking “software” for the next generation home console? You think Sony will create a PlayStation 4?
Hi guys great episode, nice to hear Dan again 🙂
@Noriega sues: Yeah I thought like Jordan that generally former Dictators are dead ones. He should just be happy to have made it to 80.
@Sims 2 Ultimate Edition: My wife and I both got our CD versions redeemed for the digital Ultimate edition and I have to say I’m pretty happy to have access to all those packs and expansions I never bought. I still find myself spoiled for some mods, and I had to tinker with special settings to get a resolution other then 800×600. It is nice to play this game digitally and not have the hassle of some 20 cd’s to go through when wanting to install the game to a new computer. I don’t know if it’s nostalgia glasses or not but I swear the game looked better than what I started up in Ultimate Edition.
I remember you mentioning in regards to Sims 2 not liking that your Sim ages while a neighbor doesn’t and you’d have to go to their lot to age them. For me it’s the inverse in what they do in Sims 3. I like to jump from lot to lot controlling multiple families and creating Dynasty Legacy families. I didn’t like in Sims 3 if I was playing a family and went to another house, only to find the first family had moved, split up or had a baby without me. This happened to my wife who was trying to get one sim with someone else and she went to another house and when she game back he was gone, he had moved out. So for me I like the “rabbit holes” or “hamster cages”. If you couldn’t tell I like gameplay that allows me to feel like a god controlling the lives of these mere digital blips on my computer.
@Codemasters respond: Yeah people need to realize that giving money to companies promotes them to make more of what your buying. Vote with your wallets people, this is why I backed Pillars of Eternity, to show my support for the types of games I want to play.
@Ex-Call of Duty found new studio to make more FPS like we need that. I don’t think people are going to want to play with a big headgear thing on their head. I’m sure they will make a game with Ninja mutant Zombie Nazi Robotic terrorists for all the kiddies to play. Okay bored now next topic
@Adam West playing himself. I’ve been entertained by his role of being “himself” like in Family Guy, I appreciate when an actor embraces a role that made them famous, as opposed to being resentful about it.
@Civ Beyond Earth: I am looking forward to playing this game, I’ll probably be Harmony since you get Sand worms, I look forward to assimilating Dan with the Mother Brain Flower.
@Sony Remakes: Yeah I’m not sure about remakes for PS3, now if they remake PS1 or PS2 games that might interest me. Namely Suikoden, need more Suikoden.
@Spore: “Install spore and see if I like it again” See that’s just an incorrect statement, that game is completely unlikable.
@QotW: I think I am looking forward to Pillars of Eternity the most since it’s a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate of which I want more of. I also am looking forward to Civ Beyond Earth as well for MP with my Polycast/craft friends. My family is looking forward to LittlebigPlant 3 and my wife wants Sims 4 but I’m very cautious of it, I didn’t like the “buy next expansion pack merry go round” with sims 2 and 3. I have to admit I am tempted by the Dragon Age Inquisition as well, I really enjoy the open world gameplay and not being handheld or railroaded from point A to Z. I like taking my time and savoring the game.
Looks like Alphashard had a slow work day 😉 Good job with the comments!
@Sims2 – I never played the game as I’m not that interested in endless titles and I also hate interior design and decoration. However, I saw online somewhere that the Sims2 are being given out for free to anyone who has an Origins account and enters a special code in there. I’m not sure if it includes all the expansion packs or not. I redeemed the code and maybe one day I’ll look into that or have my wife try it out.
@Sony Remakes: I don’t think all the remakes are such a bad idea from a money making standpoint. They have the numbers and they probably see that a lot of people how didn’t own a PS3 jumped on the PS4 and they want to accommodate them by remaking some really great games (TLoU). As a PS3 owner since 2009, I managed to play through most of the recent hits so I don’t really care that much about those remakes.
Obviously, I would prefer to have new titles to play, especially new IPs, but I’m so far behind with my backlog, I don’t mind the ‘drought’ so much. I just finished Bioshock Infinite so that says something. On the other hand, I understand I might be the minority and there are thousands of gamers hungry for new and exciting experiences. Well, 2015 is the year to look forward to.
@QotW
Looking at the list of fall releases I don’t think there’s anything I’m particularly excited about. Maybe the Infamous DLC. I enjoyed the game and I liked the Fetch character so this could be cool. There’s also NHL15 – the first PS4/XBone title in the series. I might give it a go. Far Cry 4 had an interesting demo at E3 and people seem to be excited about it. I haven’t played any of the Far Cry games but I’m not sure I want another open world game from Ubisoft just yet.
By the way, Alphashard’s LittleBigPlant could be amazing 😉 What kind of plant are we talking about? Nuclear?
Hey Pawel the Ultimate edition give away does include all expansions and stuff packs.
I obviously did a typo and meant LittleBigPlanet 3.
Hey Alpha.
Sure I knew it was a typo but LittleBigPlant sounds so much cooler 🙂 Even though I really like platformers, I never got into LBP that much. I beat the Vita version but I didn’t spend endless hours playing user-generated levels.
Thanks about the Sims tip.