UK newspaper The Times reports today that radical corporate upheaval is coming to Sony.
Long-overdue cost-cutting moves will, according to company sources, result in "sacred cow-slaying measures" that will "will abolish or fundamentally alter many of Sony's long-established business practices."
The reorganization will likely be made public following CES in Las Vegas. The massive trade show ends on January 11th.
Could the PlayStation hardware business get the chop?
That's hard to say, but the PS3 has been bleeding money since it launched in November, 2006 and the PSP is struggling as well. One ominous sign: there is talk of a shift that would turn Sony from a manufacturing to a content-driven business model.
PS3 manufacturing costs have generated huge losses for Sony over the past two years. Content would include games, of course, but Sony also has a stake in movies and music. If the company judges its console business as too costly to continue, it could decide to pursue a system-agnostic approach like the one adopted by Sega after it abandoned the Dreamcast in 2001. Ironically, back then it was Sony's PlayStation 2 which steamrolled the well-regared Sega console.
Alternately, the PlayStation business might be salvaged in whole or in part and manufacturing cuts could be made on the consumer electronics side of Sony's house.
In any case, we should know more next week. In the meantime, PlayStation 3 fanboys may suffer a few sleepless nights as they worry about the future of their system.
Comments
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Did you own a 3DO? I did. It was awesome. Ridiculously expensive, I had to stop short of selling my right arm to get one. But it had some great games. The original Need for Speed came out on it, FIFA was amazing, Star Control II, just to name a few.
Please don't bash a system you have no idea about. There's a ton of misinformation about that sysyem.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
The only 3DO titles I ever owned were Star Control 2 and Way of the Warrior (because the soundtrack was all White Zombie). I still lament never having owned a Neo Geo... but then again who can afford $200 a game?
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Benjamin Franklin
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Which is ironic, seeing the PS3 version of GTA IV runs at a LOWER NATIVE RESOLUTION (640p) in order to keep up with the 360 (720p). Both upscale of course to your tv (720/1080).
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Yeah, I heard about the whole JRPG problem that Sony has been having, essentially that Microsoft realised that in order to sell good numbers of the 360 in the far east it'd need to get some must have JRPGs on board, so they did, and the PS3 is loosing at least some of their market share out there as a result. Of course, I'm not sure how significant the impact of that is being a westerner.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
If it wasn't for MystWalker though and whoever makes the Tales series (I forget) the 360 might of been screwed. I mean, Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia think their most notable JPRG was Enchanted Arms, which was western RPG designed to be like JRPG to help the 360 enter japanese markets and just felt like some kind of giant sack of racism. THIS IS WHAT WE THINK OF YOU!
One thing Microsoft still needs to exploit is Gundam. For a while the two biggest selling titles for the PS3 were Gundam games, holding 2nd and 3rd with Rdige Racer holding first.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Someone has been playing too much Diablo...
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
I was thinking that too.
Anyway, I think this is going to be the longest console generation yet, so Playstation has plenty of time to make a profit.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Interesting news for me. Now that the Holiday dust is settling, I've been thinking of upgrading to either a PS3 or an XBox 360. I own a PS2, but I'm a PC gamer at heart. I only use consoles to fuel my love of JRPGs (and the occasional action game like God of War). Now, I had thought that Valkyria Chronicles and backwards compatability was making me favor the PS3. On the other hand, the PS3 hasn't been doing well, they lost their golden goose of exclusivity (Final Fantasy series going multiplatform), and many RPGs are showing up on the XBox anymore.
I may have to wait a little bit longer before making a decision. That's all right. I still have to pick up Persona 4 and Ar Tonelico 2 for the PS2.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Being a JRPG fan as well, i'd reccomend the 360
Completely bizzarrely, for a console thats doing fairly badly in Japan, the 360 seems to actually have more JRPGs than the PS3
Particually, i found Lost Odyssey to be absolutely amazing, worth buying the console for this game alone IMHO
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
None of the new PS3 models are backwards compatible. You'll need to find an older one for that. In terms of gaming, the 360 has more exclusives and the online service is better, plus it's cheaper. The PS3 has argueably better hardware, and plays blu-ray movies by default. I recommend the 360 if your going to be using it for gaming. I recommend the PS3 if you love movies and intend to watch a lot of blu-ray, and you have a TV that can handle them. Keep your PS2, though.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
How is the 360's online service cheaper? The PS3's online service is free. And everything that's on the 360 except Halo 3, gears of war, gears of war 2, mass effect, Ninja Gaiden II, Dead Rising, and Left 4 Dead is on the PS3.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Free online is kinda like anything else you get free... it's not nearly as reliable as a service where the fees collected go towards the upkeep of the service... but when it is down you always have the "well at least I'm not paying for it" excuse.
The argument of games available also sort of defeats itself... since in essence the only GOOD games you can get for PS3 but not 360 are Uncharted and Little Big Planet (even MGS4 is comming to 360 in a couple months, and Square killed the exclusive for FFXIII unless you count the "spend $50 on the side story" game). GTA4, Assassins Creed, CoD4 and World at War are all available on both platforms. Not to mention the RPGs (as mentioned above) Blue Dragon and Lost Odysey that are exclusive to 360 now.
Most people have bought a PS3 based on the fact that it still equates to the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.
I don't get into the habbit of playing "fan-boy", there is not a Gen of console that comes around where I haven't made the effort to own each platform (if for no other reason than they all put out good exclusives). To be honest, Microsoft has always given me the best support where consoles are concerned. They've gotten even better since the realization of the 360 critical failure. (Red ring of death within a three year period= free system, any other problem past a year and its $98. After paying this they either fix it or send you a new one, plus they give you a new warranty and it covers shipping both ways.)
Saddly, it seems the only thing that could save Sony from tanking in the console market right now would be to expedite the release of God Of War 3. I would hope that they will find a way to stay in the fight, if for no other reason than the fact that no one system should be completely dominant in the game market (you really can't count the Wii in this battle since it's really just an improved Game Cube). Without competition, the winner stops trying to win people over.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Benjamin Franklin
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Sorry, the amount of times I couldn't find a game in Shadowrun and the server kicks and connection problems I have had with incalculable Live experiences speak against your statment of Live being superior. Live has a shit load of problems, don't convince yourself that it is better because you are paying for it. Sorry, it isn't.
The PSN and Live are identical when it comes to online gaming performance. EYE-FUCKING_DENTICAL!
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
"To be honest, Microsoft has always given me the best support where consoles are concerned."
Are we serious here? The Xbox 360's Q/A problems are damn near legendary at this point for an example of contract manufacturing gone awry. The fact that Microsoft has only vaguely "made good" on the issue after dragging its feet for Goddamned ever, and still not offering legitimate support for non-RROD deaths (which are also frequent), indicates they are more afraid of class action lawsuits than anything else.
This is not to suggest if the shoe was on the other foot it would be any different; Nintendo got caught blatantly lying about its knowledge of the wrist-straps for the Wii, telling the CPSC that they were being transparent with the volume and nature of complaints, when internal memos show hundreds of complaints went unreported to the authorities. The PS2 also had a rash of bricks early in its lifecycle.
The reality is there needs to be tighter regulation of consumer electronics, or at the very least, a "lemon law" equivalent for hardware failures. We shouldn't have to rely on the good graces of our munificent video game overlords to get a console we've paid for to work properly.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
I got a PS3 a few weeks back and it was backwards compatable, and the PSN is free. In terms of exclusives there's only a hardful for the 360 actually, about the same as the PS3 as many 360 exclusives are actually 'Microsoft' exclusives as they tend to get turned into 'games for Windows.' The big advantages the 360 has in my book are XBox Live is much better supported and the console is usually cheaper. Plus if you're a big first person shooter guy overall the 360 controller better suited for that genre of games, at least that's how I feel. Still, going from a PS controller to an XBox controller can be rough do to the size differences.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
465 isn't a "handful"..
Heck, none of the software-emulating PS3's can do a quarter of that.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Yes but we only care about the really good ones. No one is buying a 360 so they can play the games that were sold at burger king.
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Debates are like merry go rounds Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Hardware emu PS3s have a 99% standard across PSX and PS2. That means PS3 can run a back catalog of over 2000 games.
Software emulation has a 99% backwards compat on PSX and an 85% on PS2 which runs around 1700 games.
The none backwards compat still have PSX compatibility which means over 1000 PSX games work fine on it.
So I have to ask, in what universe is 465>1000? I'm just curious. Way the American Dollar is going, that might be a great place to live for a while.
Wall of Text Simulation- Insert coin to continue.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
In general, I think if Sony were going to do anything in terms of another console in the future, I think they'd rather just adjust their strategy. Theres a lot of money to be made selling games and game consoles, especially if you follow Nintendos example and do away with the idea of 'loss leader' console development where you lose money for each console sold and become reliant on game sales to make your money back.
Heh, it'd also help a great deal if executives stopped having shouting matches at eachother across online & print media and concentrated on making their products worth the price.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Some strategy adjustment will be needed yeah. The PS3 was far too driven by the movie division and thus caused the game division to suffer.
Maybe they will learn to decouple thier buisness a little better? Using strenghts to help eachother is one thing, but huring one product in order to boost another is a differnt matter.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Actually, developers wanting to focus on the 360 for programming because it has a larger install base and is easier to program for hurt Sony like mad. Now that the PS3 has a decent install base internationally more publishers are looking to the machine.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Never say never, but it is HIGHLY unlikely that Sony will ditch the PS hardware. Sony is, at the end of the day, a manufacturing business. While they have divisions that produce music, movies, etc., they are not large enough in and of themselves to stand alone. The PS hardware gives Sony a physical footprint into the home that is extremely important. I would see the VAIO and Sony Ericsson divisions shuttering before SCEI gives up the hardware.
As well, the manufacturing loss has been squeezed down to roughly $50 per unit according to some research firms. The bigger question is, can a price drop be built into their business model at this point in time? I don't think so, unless they shuttered a few other pieces. One now has to question the road they took with PSP. Blu-ray futures will also play into this. (And for those that think the whole future is in downloaded content while physical media will disappear, think again. Compression, bit rates and new formats like 4K means that physical media will be around for a long time. Don't forget those caps your ISP's will start putting in place when you are doing multi-gig streams into your home.)
It is a shame that Sony has arrived to where they currently are. If you read into the history of the Playstation platform and understand it's intent, is it, again, sad. Too many people forcing too many expansion decisions out of trying to control this business at Sony have led to it's downturn. At one point, the Playstation brand accounted for 60% of Sony's operating revenue.
I don't know if the PS group can build to those levels again, but I see many other divisions of Sony shuttering before Sony gives up the hardware footprint. Afterall, thy don't have the franchise strength of 1st party content that Sega did, or Nintendo has, to go platform-agnostic. Playstation will be a foundation platform for Sony moving forward.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
With 45 studios churning out among the highest rated of first and second party projects, I'm curious why people still believe Sony can't make games. This isn't the "good old days" when franchises were shuffled off to 989 once a dev got tired of making them, you know.
Wall of Text Simulation- Insert coin to continue.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Ummmm....because they are not Sony owned studios perhaps? Sony has some amazing content for the PS3, but it is not wholy owned by Sony. Even LBP, which is seeing more play time in our house than anything else, is not owned by Sony.
So, if they were to go 3rd party and publish across other platforms, they would be a standard publisher. Worse than some in that they don't have any internally developed IP that they completely control. That is precisely why it does not make sense for them to abandon their hardware platform.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
That plus Sony has even said themselve that the Playstation brand has been one of the only things to keep their company alive on many points.
You know what I bet gets the axe and gets it hard? VAIO.
VAIO computers are pricey and don't get sells for crap. I can easily see them dying off.
Walkman might take a bullet too.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
http://www.developmag.com/news/31033/No-new-drastic-cost-cutting-says-Sony
No new 'drastic' cost-cutting, says Sony
Christopher Dring - Today
Previously-announced $1.1bn savings are the extent of restructuring plans, asserts the firm
Electronics giant Sony has denied reports that it is set to embark on drastic cost-cutting measures, Reuters has revealed.
The Times reported this morning that Sony is set to transform its business by closing factories and ‘major’ divisions. However, a Sony spokesperson insisted there is no new restructuring plans bar the previously announced $1.1 billion savings measures revealed last month.
"We do not plan to announce additional restructuring measures at this time," said Sony spokesman Atsuo Omagari. "We don't have any such plan."
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/32816/Sony-denies-drastic-cost-cutting
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Crisis averted, everyone go back to playing whatever it is you were playing :)
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Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Well, probably, there are two likely possibilities - The newspaper is exagerating or using bad info (Not like that hasn't happened to a newspaper before) or Sony is saying that no further cuts are happening to assuage fears about the companies stability whilst they decide whether or not they really will be going ahead with further cuts. I think its more likely that the newspaper saw a potential story that seemed not unreasonable considering the way companies across the world seem to either be tightening belts for safety or are using the downturn as an excuse for shedding staff they would otherwise have to justify in some other way.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
This would have made me jump for joy about 2 years ago, as it would have meant that Nintendo has avenged Sega, and that Sony would never take down another beloved game company that meant so much to so many. (I had a Sega growing up.)
Now, I just spent 400 bucks on one of these things, so they better pull something out of their butts to fix this.
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Popular Myth =/= Fact
Fact: Sega of Japan was poorly ran and constantly at odds with it's US and Europe branches
Fact: Dreamcast was turning a profit. A hefty one in fact. But not enough of a profit to offset the spending Sega of Japan was doing with new arcade hardware and the real Sega killer....
Fact: Shenmue killed Sega. Period. No other game could compare in costs at the time and had no chance in hell of recovering that money. Shenmue was to Sega was Final Fantasy: Spirits Within was to Square. Only thing time, daddy Sony wasn't there to take up some of the slack.
The fact that Dreamcast was running a successful and profitable business model despite PS2 hitting the scene is evidence of this enough. Did PS2 impact Dreamcast? No doubt. But blaming Sony is like blaming the casino when your uncle gambles away all his possessions. Sega was poorly ran. Sega died.
Wall of Text Simulation- Insert coin to continue.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Its ironic considering that proberbly the biggest demand Sega proberbly gets is Shenmue III
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
If I slit my wrist and before I died Sony shows up with a gun and shoots me in the head... who gets blamed for killing me
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Segas not dead, they're just resting.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Alright, if Sega's not dead I'll just wake him up.....
Hello, Mr. Sega, this is your 9 O'Clock alarm call....wakey wakey!
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
(pushes Sega)
There, he moved.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
I took the liberty of examining Sega and discovered that the only reason it had been standing up is because it had been nailed there.
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Debates are like merry go rounds Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Sega's too busy dreaming of all new ways to turn NiGHTS into SHiT.
Wall of Text Simulation- Insert coin to continue.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
Don't forget Sonic, they turned him into shit too.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
I'm sure I read a story covering this a couple of weeks ago where it was reported Sony would be doing this and had stated their Playstation division was not going to be affected. I'd find the link if I wasn't so lazy.
Also not taken into consideration was the fact that the PS3 has just about reached it's break-even point thanks to the refinement of the manufacturing process, so the 'bleeding money' issue is very soon going to be a non-issue.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: "Sacred Cow Slayings" Rumored at Sony... Is PlayStation In
I'm not so sure that the 'bleeding money' issue is dashed simply by reduing manufacturing costs. They still have to be more competitive with their pricing, which means further cost reduction. Additionally, they need to determine how much profit can be expected from the remaining potential market, and if that market is still willing to buy their machine given the state of the economy.
If the PS3 hasn't been selling all that well up to now, and we can primarily determine that it is because of the price over all other factors, then the machine is pretty screwed. I don't know that they'd be able to drop the price enough to be competitive while still making a profit QUICKLY enough to make it bring in dollars during an economic lull. It just seems very unlikely.