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?
Hey guys, I missed the last two episode comment cycles (vacation, yeah!) so maybe I’ll start with the QOTW from the previous episode, if you don’t mind.
Preorders: Up to this point I only preordered one game, which was The Last of Us. The hype around it was so enormous that I knew that if I didn’t play it, it would get spoiled immediately. It was scheduled to be released on a Friday and I got an e-mail from my local store to come by and pay for the game (there was no preorder fee) on a Wednesday. To my surprise, the man behind the counter reached behind him and gave me the game two days before the official release date. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay up all night playing since I had to go teach a class the next morning.
That’s why I decided to preorder my PS4 there as well. This is your typical BestBuy-like store so they don’t know much about consoles specifically so maybe they release the console a couple of days before as well.
@PS Vita price drop – That’s great news. As we discussed previously, it all comes down to what you expect from your handheld console. If you don’t want only exclusive AAA Vita titles but you’re happy with ports, cross-buy games or indie titles, this is the device to get. The games look great, they play really well, and if you’re a PS+ subscriber you don’t really have to pay much for games since the European PS+ collection lineup is pretty good. I would love it if they also did bundles with a card and a game or a PS+ subscription cheaper. This is the way to go to sell the system. Best case scenario – make the memory card specs open so that other manufacturers can make them as well, reducing the prices.
Speaking of Vita, I recently ‘platinumed’ Rayman Origins and NFS:Most Wanted. I’m currently playing Gucamelle and all those game were great fun. Just reiterating my point that this handheld is great 😉
@Ridiculous indie games.
I find the idea of such games interesting and funny but I’m not compelled to play them at all. I could maybe watch somebody else play it or watch a YT gameplay video… I just don’t feel like devoting my time to such a title while there are other games I’d rather be playing. Granted, I played QWOP for an hour or two (did you finally play it, Jonah?), I also finished Frog Fractions but it is an hour-long game at most. I tried the farming simulator game on the Vita and I didn’t get it, I had no idea what to do and I closed it rather quickly. Maybe if I was a PC gamer I would pay more attention to those quirky titles.
@Gamstop lawsuits: Doesn’t it say on the box that the game requires an online pass to play… online? Or does it say ‘Online pass included’? Anyway, I know it’s different there across the pond but it feels obvious to me that an informed gamer should know that game like the ones you mentioned require an additional purchase. Also, the person at the counter should tell the buyer that this is the case. To make a lawsuit out of it seems a bit over the top.
I always tend to investigate things in detail when I decide to buy something used. Do I need some additional components? Are all the cables included? Do the codes work, etc. It’s on me to find this out although it’s always nice to be informed about it by the seller – just makes the life easier.
@QOTW Currently, I’m pretty much exclusively a console gamer. I only own a crappy laptop computer I work on and I don’t feel like buying a gaming machine. That’s how I divide my electronic devices at home – PC = work; console = games. I used to be a PC gamer some 10 years ago. I didn’t own a console between the NES and the PS3. It was the pirate-boom era in Poland when everybody knew a ‘game dealer’ who would make ‘compilation CDs’ of games with audio stripped out and video cutscenes deleted, etc. You could get a CD with 10-20 games for an equivalent of maybe $5-$10. I quickly decided that this was not the perfect way to experience games and I preferred buying games less often but with higher ‘production value’. Ultimately, I got tired of trying to keep up with the hardware, I found I had less time to game with other things on my mind such as studies, friends, girlfriend, so I drifted away from all of it. I came back to gaming with Fallout 3 (the best RPG series of all time, as I already mentioned) and switched to PS3 then.