Posted Dec 09, 2008 at 07:56AM by Isaac C.
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 We are finally seeing the first real effects of Sony's financial
downturn.Last October, they announced a 57% slash on their earnings for this fiscal year. Now, they've announced that they will be axing 16,000 jobs as part of their effort to improve their finances. Around 8,000 of this number will be full-time workers - that's about 5% of their workforce. The other half will include seasonal and temporary workers. The big axe will fall by April 2010. Aside from the layoffs, Sony will also be moving away from unprofitable businesses by March 2010. The PlayStation group is currently under review for structural changes as well, though it was not specified just how much they will be affected. Previous statements from Sony suggest it won't be affected much, though who can really tell? Sony Computer Entertainment released this statement: In order to stay competitive in the accelerating global network environment, we will always carefully review and make structural changes, if necessary, in order to further expand and strengthen the PlayStation business around the world Christmas is looking bleak this year. Related Articles:
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[Via GamesIndustry.biz]
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by StingBlah - 2008-12-09 |
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» WTF.
WHY Is the economy so bad? Why did it fall so quickly? What was the catalyst?!?!! (no I don't mean Claire Bennet)!!!
WHY Is the economy so bad? Why did it fall so quickly? What was the catalyst?!?!! (no I don't mean Claire Bennet)!!!
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Re: akadewboy - 2008-12-09 |
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» .
Economics is complicated and hard to understand, but it had something to do with a couple major banks going bankrupt. Once the top banks topple then rich guys who had investments also topple, and it steadily goes downstream until it hits us.
On the plus side gas prices have finally dropped to a sane level >_>
Economics is complicated and hard to understand, but it had something to do with a couple major banks going bankrupt. Once the top banks topple then rich guys who had investments also topple, and it steadily goes downstream until it hits us.
On the plus side gas prices have finally dropped to a sane level >_>
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Re: StingBlah - 2008-12-09 |
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» yea
but once demand gets high gas prices will go back up...
but once demand gets high gas prices will go back up...
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Re: Cydonos - 2008-12-10 |
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» Well,
Basically it started with everybody having this mentality of "in order to make money you have to take big risks". So all the companies took big risks and alot of those bubbles happened to burst all at once. That's what it boils down to
Basically it started with everybody having this mentality of "in order to make money you have to take big risks". So all the companies took big risks and alot of those bubbles happened to burst all at once. That's what it boils down to
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by D.Dark - 2008-12-09 |
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» "Sony will also be moving away from unprofitable businesses"
I hear this on the radio this morning. Could you believe that Sony is still making casette decks in some countries. When I hear that I thought WTF????
I hear this on the radio this morning. Could you believe that Sony is still making casette decks in some countries. When I hear that I thought WTF????
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by anhero - 2008-12-09 |
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» This is bad...
And really, there's noone else to blame except the bad administrative decision made by Sony high execs. What has happenned inside Sony that they're losing ground on every area? Remember when Sony used to be the top in Cameras, TVs, videogames, and used to have solid markets? Now we see them lacking on every single area and making products that are of less quality than their competitors (at high prices) and making horrible decision regarding the srvices they provide, and and lets not for get the horrible ad marketing strategies.
I can see Playstation being affected, and no matter how they try to hide it they know investors are worried. Why is Playstation in last place, taking huge debts, when a few years ago with the PS2 they were doing great? First of all Sony makes an expensive videogame console with high specs and try to take 2 markets, the movie software and the videogame software. Not only is this stupid because people nowadays mostly atch their movies in theaters and/or pirate them, and beleive me that the expensive price of the blu-ray dvds is the reason why they're failing to rack up profits horribly. Then after making a console so expensive so it can get 2 markets they deny gaming as what should be the most important function of a videogaming console. They put in some new architechture of hardware thats hard to develop for, boasting how good it is yet in reality it's really hard for developers to develop on it, making most games on the console inferior to microsoft's console because gamers are not dumb, they know that actions speak louder than words. Then for developers who actually dedicate to develop an awesome ps3 game the game can't really use the consoles real power due to the limited RAM (srsly, RAM doesn't cost them much, it was a horrible decision to use 2 separate RAMs of 258mb!). Aside from this Sony tries to promote the videogame console horribly. Are they supposed to market it as a blu-ray player? isnt it a videogame system? and whats with psp connectivity? are people actually gonna waste their time with that? Ohh and Home? Srsly it doesn't take much thinking to know Home is gonna be the biggest failure in PS3s history. The budget to run such a server and is high, the budget it took to develop is also high, and the average gamer, or lets say less than 5% of PS3s owner will ever login to it, less will actually make any Home transactions.
People wanna play games, and the better they are the more support they'll get. Sony investors should take action in restructuring the SCEA completely instead of just selling their stocks and keep letting the company plunge into bankruptcy...
And really, there's noone else to blame except the bad administrative decision made by Sony high execs. What has happenned inside Sony that they're losing ground on every area? Remember when Sony used to be the top in Cameras, TVs, videogames, and used to have solid markets? Now we see them lacking on every single area and making products that are of less quality than their competitors (at high prices) and making horrible decision regarding the srvices they provide, and and lets not for get the horrible ad marketing strategies.
I can see Playstation being affected, and no matter how they try to hide it they know investors are worried. Why is Playstation in last place, taking huge debts, when a few years ago with the PS2 they were doing great? First of all Sony makes an expensive videogame console with high specs and try to take 2 markets, the movie software and the videogame software. Not only is this stupid because people nowadays mostly atch their movies in theaters and/or pirate them, and beleive me that the expensive price of the blu-ray dvds is the reason why they're failing to rack up profits horribly. Then after making a console so expensive so it can get 2 markets they deny gaming as what should be the most important function of a videogaming console. They put in some new architechture of hardware thats hard to develop for, boasting how good it is yet in reality it's really hard for developers to develop on it, making most games on the console inferior to microsoft's console because gamers are not dumb, they know that actions speak louder than words. Then for developers who actually dedicate to develop an awesome ps3 game the game can't really use the consoles real power due to the limited RAM (srsly, RAM doesn't cost them much, it was a horrible decision to use 2 separate RAMs of 258mb!). Aside from this Sony tries to promote the videogame console horribly. Are they supposed to market it as a blu-ray player? isnt it a videogame system? and whats with psp connectivity? are people actually gonna waste their time with that? Ohh and Home? Srsly it doesn't take much thinking to know Home is gonna be the biggest failure in PS3s history. The budget to run such a server and is high, the budget it took to develop is also high, and the average gamer, or lets say less than 5% of PS3s owner will ever login to it, less will actually make any Home transactions.
People wanna play games, and the better they are the more support they'll get. Sony investors should take action in restructuring the SCEA completely instead of just selling their stocks and keep letting the company plunge into bankruptcy...
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Re: StingBlah - 2008-12-09 |
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» umm
im sure you said some great things in there, but nobody will read it. Break it up into bite sized pieces next time!!
im sure you said some great things in there, but nobody will read it. Break it up into bite sized pieces next time!!
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Re: doubleA - 2008-12-09 |
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» agreed
What sony should do is give the ps3 a price break (about $100) while keeping those same specs instead of going to 40 or 60 gb. Right now, people dont have $400 to spend on a console and would rather pay thier bills. And it doesnt cost them anywhere near that to make one. Plus when the ps2 first debuted, it was about $300 unlike the ps3 at over $500. They`re selling it way too high to the point where they dont get as much sales. Also to top it off, they should kill that ps2 because thats also taking away sales. Instead, put backwards compatibility back in so it isn`t a complete waste if you own alot of ps2 games. Until it gets to about $299 for an 80gig, im not buying.
What sony should do is give the ps3 a price break (about $100) while keeping those same specs instead of going to 40 or 60 gb. Right now, people dont have $400 to spend on a console and would rather pay thier bills. And it doesnt cost them anywhere near that to make one. Plus when the ps2 first debuted, it was about $300 unlike the ps3 at over $500. They`re selling it way too high to the point where they dont get as much sales. Also to top it off, they should kill that ps2 because thats also taking away sales. Instead, put backwards compatibility back in so it isn`t a complete waste if you own alot of ps2 games. Until it gets to about $299 for an 80gig, im not buying.
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Re: StingBlah - 2008-12-09 |
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» @doubleA
you're clearly very misguided.
It costs actually much more than $400 to make a ps3. Sony actually takes a loss with each unit sold. Also, it is a VERY fair price for the value you get. For an xbox, its $299 to start out with. Add an HDD and it goes up 50 bucks for an HDD and another 50 bucks for Live. Still, no blu-ray player or internet browser.
you're clearly very misguided.
It costs actually much more than $400 to make a ps3. Sony actually takes a loss with each unit sold. Also, it is a VERY fair price for the value you get. For an xbox, its $299 to start out with. Add an HDD and it goes up 50 bucks for an HDD and another 50 bucks for Live. Still, no blu-ray player or internet browser.
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Re: anhero - 2008-12-10 |
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» Both of you are misguided
First of all to doubleA, Sony can't lower the price like that, PS3s cost too much to produce. The fault is in the original design itself. The PS3 shouldn't have had a blu-ray, and shouldn't have had innecessary hardware (the cell arquitechture was stupid, why need 7 spe cores when the PS3 has only 2 258mb RAMs? come on even my cheap budget laptop got 516mb unified RAM, and spe cores are ot as good as real cpu cores).Sony shouldn't have also given the 360 a head start, microsoft was at the time of getting console momentum and xbox had started getting popularity, obviously not the situation with the sega dreamcast when Sega was losing its ground. Sony should have been more communicative with developers, now they're all leaving the PS3 because of Sony's inability of communication and helping them, not leave them needy.
Sony started very wrong with the PS3 and now its too late, the best they can do is try to restructure SCE completely and fix all the problems there, starting with the people with the high administrative offices. I mean most of the people who made this mess have left SCE (some even who were great pioneers from even the PS1 but musthave been corrupted by money and self-well being like, for example the PS1 creator itself Ken Kutaragi, sadly). Now others have taken their positions and are also making a mess of horrible decisions. The PS3 can't be saved sadly but not because I have a PS3, but because this could mean Sony dropping out from the videogame console business on the next-gen videogame consoles, but there's still hope for the future, just look at how Sega survived and eventually recovered from one of the biggest failure in videogame history, up to a point that there have even been plans of Sega re-entering the videogame console market (though they don't have the support they need yet).
Ohh and StingBlah, the Arcade 360without harddrive actually costs 200 dollars, and the one with hard-drive, microphone, and stuff costs 300. The elite costs 400 and it has 120gb hd and lots of crap (though the feature of copying games once to the hd is pretty cool, though I could see some conflicts that it might bring, some developers might start getting angry). To be honest I would suggest the 300 dollar 360, and really paying 50 dollars a year is not that bad considering how good xbox live is (though I don't like the downloads speeds, though they're faster than the PS3 I still consider them slow, why can't the console download at a point near to my internet speed capacity?). Also, like I've previously sayed, blu-ray is not good, its overhyped, I mean we live at a time where either you watch movies in the theater or if you really wanna watch a movie that is not showing then you just download it. No point in blu-ray this days. Ohh and for internet browser, this days almost 99% who have a ps3 already have laptops, and with this cheap 200 dollar laptop I get real internet speed and a keyboard, plus everything a laptop should have, and best of all no crappy Vista (XP is the best, besides Ubuntu).
First of all to doubleA, Sony can't lower the price like that, PS3s cost too much to produce. The fault is in the original design itself. The PS3 shouldn't have had a blu-ray, and shouldn't have had innecessary hardware (the cell arquitechture was stupid, why need 7 spe cores when the PS3 has only 2 258mb RAMs? come on even my cheap budget laptop got 516mb unified RAM, and spe cores are ot as good as real cpu cores).Sony shouldn't have also given the 360 a head start, microsoft was at the time of getting console momentum and xbox had started getting popularity, obviously not the situation with the sega dreamcast when Sega was losing its ground. Sony should have been more communicative with developers, now they're all leaving the PS3 because of Sony's inability of communication and helping them, not leave them needy.
Sony started very wrong with the PS3 and now its too late, the best they can do is try to restructure SCE completely and fix all the problems there, starting with the people with the high administrative offices. I mean most of the people who made this mess have left SCE (some even who were great pioneers from even the PS1 but musthave been corrupted by money and self-well being like, for example the PS1 creator itself Ken Kutaragi, sadly). Now others have taken their positions and are also making a mess of horrible decisions. The PS3 can't be saved sadly but not because I have a PS3, but because this could mean Sony dropping out from the videogame console business on the next-gen videogame consoles, but there's still hope for the future, just look at how Sega survived and eventually recovered from one of the biggest failure in videogame history, up to a point that there have even been plans of Sega re-entering the videogame console market (though they don't have the support they need yet).
Ohh and StingBlah, the Arcade 360without harddrive actually costs 200 dollars, and the one with hard-drive, microphone, and stuff costs 300. The elite costs 400 and it has 120gb hd and lots of crap (though the feature of copying games once to the hd is pretty cool, though I could see some conflicts that it might bring, some developers might start getting angry). To be honest I would suggest the 300 dollar 360, and really paying 50 dollars a year is not that bad considering how good xbox live is (though I don't like the downloads speeds, though they're faster than the PS3 I still consider them slow, why can't the console download at a point near to my internet speed capacity?). Also, like I've previously sayed, blu-ray is not good, its overhyped, I mean we live at a time where either you watch movies in the theater or if you really wanna watch a movie that is not showing then you just download it. No point in blu-ray this days. Ohh and for internet browser, this days almost 99% who have a ps3 already have laptops, and with this cheap 200 dollar laptop I get real internet speed and a keyboard, plus everything a laptop should have, and best of all no crappy Vista (XP is the best, besides Ubuntu).
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by raggedjimmi - 2008-12-09 |
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» -
Sony is losing money, Nintendo are making hella lots.
Might be a good idea to copy them for a bit, just to get yourself stable.
Sony is losing money, Nintendo are making hella lots.
Might be a good idea to copy them for a bit, just to get yourself stable.
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by mari1r - 2008-12-09 |
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» It's..
It's Trip Hawkins fault for not supporting HOME.. j/k lol
If in the end Sony dumps the PS3 bandwagon,, release the info needed to homebrew it. :)
It's Trip Hawkins fault for not supporting HOME.. j/k lol
If in the end Sony dumps the PS3 bandwagon,, release the info needed to homebrew it. :)
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by SupaDawg - 2008-12-09 |
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» the PS3
Last i heard Sony continues to sell the PS3 at a loss.
They honestly screwed this one up. The PS3 launch was far too early. Take a look at PS2 sales. seeing the PS2 outselling the PS2 on a regular basis continues to be the norm.
Sony should have finalized the specs for the PS3 and shelfed the thing until Christmas 08. There is no reason for them to follow the typical console release schedule. The PS2 would still be selling solid because of the massive install base, they would have saved themselves from all the bad PR that the PS3 caused, and it would have given them a chance to storm out with a solid game lineup.
That said, this isn't all SCEA's fault. A majority of the blame sits at the feet of a slowing economy, and you can't ignore the heavy gamble Sony made on Blu-Ray... A format which people continue to resist against.
...At least they're finally getting solid advertising out for the PS3 and PSP.
Last i heard Sony continues to sell the PS3 at a loss.
They honestly screwed this one up. The PS3 launch was far too early. Take a look at PS2 sales. seeing the PS2 outselling the PS2 on a regular basis continues to be the norm.
Sony should have finalized the specs for the PS3 and shelfed the thing until Christmas 08. There is no reason for them to follow the typical console release schedule. The PS2 would still be selling solid because of the massive install base, they would have saved themselves from all the bad PR that the PS3 caused, and it would have given them a chance to storm out with a solid game lineup.
That said, this isn't all SCEA's fault. A majority of the blame sits at the feet of a slowing economy, and you can't ignore the heavy gamble Sony made on Blu-Ray... A format which people continue to resist against.
...At least they're finally getting solid advertising out for the PS3 and PSP.
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by platon - 2008-12-09 |
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» MY GOD
If 8000 is 5% of their workforce, they have 160 000 employees!!!! That's insane!
Also, for those who think it's the ps3, LOL. Ya right, the game studio is one of the only group of sony that did tons of money this year thanks to the PSP and PS2 mainly (PS2 still selling like crazy, and PSP sales going up non stop at the years). The ps3 cost more than it gives right now, but not by much. It's the TVs that is killing the giant. People dislike paying that much in a financial crisis.
Byt the way, at my EBgames in canada, they sell the PS3 with 5 games (metal gear solid, motorstorm, uncharted, etc. 5 really great games) for 399$, lol. :D This is agressive :D God of war for the holidays would lhave rocked, but next holiday M$ will pay :D
If 8000 is 5% of their workforce, they have 160 000 employees!!!! That's insane!
Also, for those who think it's the ps3, LOL. Ya right, the game studio is one of the only group of sony that did tons of money this year thanks to the PSP and PS2 mainly (PS2 still selling like crazy, and PSP sales going up non stop at the years). The ps3 cost more than it gives right now, but not by much. It's the TVs that is killing the giant. People dislike paying that much in a financial crisis.
Byt the way, at my EBgames in canada, they sell the PS3 with 5 games (metal gear solid, motorstorm, uncharted, etc. 5 really great games) for 399$, lol. :D This is agressive :D God of war for the holidays would lhave rocked, but next holiday M$ will pay :D
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by Shin Megami - 2008-12-11 |
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» Only way out of disaster
In my opinion SCE has only one good way to get out of the hole:
BRING OUT A SLIM EDITION! Cut the Wlan out, cut the HDMI exit out, cut the memory card readers out, put a minimum HD inside, ... Simply cut everything out, that most people don't need and sell it for 199$. The Slim-PS3 would sell incredibly.
Best option would be: Only two SKUs of the PS3 on the market. One HiTech-Version with everything (sell it expensive), one Slim-Version with just basics for gaming.
I love my PS3 and like the HiTech-Stuff a lot, but can understand that most people aren't ready to spend so much money on it (especially if they don't need the HiTech, but just wanna game).
In my opinion SCE has only one good way to get out of the hole:
BRING OUT A SLIM EDITION! Cut the Wlan out, cut the HDMI exit out, cut the memory card readers out, put a minimum HD inside, ... Simply cut everything out, that most people don't need and sell it for 199$. The Slim-PS3 would sell incredibly.
Best option would be: Only two SKUs of the PS3 on the market. One HiTech-Version with everything (sell it expensive), one Slim-Version with just basics for gaming.
I love my PS3 and like the HiTech-Stuff a lot, but can understand that most people aren't ready to spend so much money on it (especially if they don't need the HiTech, but just wanna game).
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