/biz/ - Business & Finance

FYI not much on in doomsville today. Some kekking in the media that the FB purchase of What's App is more than Sony itself amd questions why Apple just doesn't buy Sony outright, once more. Ticker is up and down on Japan and China having yet another spat.

http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/SNE

Saaaaaaaaaame shit.

Please not Apple. Amazon and Samsung would at least utilize what they buy instead of just eliminating competition

>>92260

It's not like Sony is really that great at anything they do. A company would have to spend a lot of resources just to get good use out of a Sony division. It's almost better if they were just bought out to die

>>89473
but what will apple do with the other divisions?

sell em of, cut em? make Iphone Vita?

Given the ruling on Internet Neutrality on USA

if Microsoft decides to go bribing ISP, to priority Xbone serves and/or cripple PS4 data,

Sony will be out of the USA market in a blink

>>93098

They would canabalize phones and digital imagining into their own tech departments, sell TV out to LG or Samsung. Playstation would probably get a rebrand as the Apple TV while portable tech gets folded into phones as well. Mostly just to take the IP's and distribution off films and music though. It's mostly mentioned though because it's now considered worth less than Whats App.

In Loeb watch. There's suggestions

>>93240

The tech industry didn't seem pleased with that including Apple, Google and MS. Sounds like pie in the sky thinking.

Plus, PSN cripples itself anyway. Some days it's like a small fart in the vicinity of RackSpace's buildings would end up taking down the entire PSN. But then Sony failed to build any sort of online infrastructure over the past gen and cheaped out on going RackSpace over Amazon AWS. They dug their own grave.

>>93098

They would canabalize phones and digital imagining into their own tech departments, sell TV out to LG or Samsung. Playstation would probably get a rebrand as the Apple TV while portable tech gets folded into phones as well. Mostly just to take the IP's and distribution off films and music though. It's mostly mentioned though because it's now considered worth less than Whats App.

In Loeb watch. There's suggestions that he is using proxies to fight and things are getting ugly. So watch for potential shitstorms over the next two months leading into the FY reports

>>93240

The tech industry didn't seem pleased with that including Apple, Google and MS. Sounds like pie in the sky thinking.

Plus, PSN cripples itself anyway. Some days it's like a small fart in the vicinity of RackSpace's buildings would end up taking down the entire PSN. But then Sony failed to build any sort of online infrastructure over the past gen and cheaped out on going RackSpace over Amazon AWS. They dug their own grave.

>>93468
>cheaped out on going RackSpace
are Rackspace servers realy that cheap and bad?
and if its realy so bad like you say I wonder what Sony try to do with PSnow.

>>93502
>The tech industry didn't seem pleased with that including Apple, Google and MS. Sounds like pie in the sky thinking
of course they are not happy, that + the fact Comcast is aiming for a monopoly will basically make internet private owner.

this is why Google now speed up their plans for Google Fiber and now is expanding to 35 cities across USA

>>93565

RackSpace is pretty bad. The entire Sony and Nintendo online infrastructure is hosted there and you know what happened over the holidays. As for PS Now. Gaikai made some data center investments back in the day with some internet service providers such as BT in Britain, which Sony will probably use, but question is if they will be good enough compared to what Amazon AWS or MS Azure could provide. Gaikai was not that good in early days despite close data servers in some countries. So who knows if the investments will be enough. I'm not sure Sony has the money to be pulling that off or a good plan either. Amazon AWS and MS Azure are at such stratospheric good levels because they target both consumer and enterprise and make the big money through enterprise while also providing a consumer service that provides R&D to the enterprise service. Consumer only cloud may just be asking for trouble if it can't expand.

Can't say I'm hopeful for any Sony online service. This is a company that was militantly anti-online thanks to Pictures and Music which lead to horrifically dumb crap like the Rootkit scandal and Cinavia.

>>93590

Comcast stole a guaranteed threepeat of Worst Company In America from EA with their shenanigans in the last few weeks between finding out they were throttling Netflix, Got Away with it, then merged Time Warner.

It's bad news for Sony as well since that probably means every cable network worth a damn is going to go into hyper protection mode and try push their own services over netflix or join on their proposed IPTV Cloud platform.

It could eat hard into the viability of Pictures if they go the TV route if the big networks and associated providers start circling the wagons.

Why did Sony sell all their cash cows to ultimately fail on strong arming the vidya gaems market? Are they retarded?

>>93886
...try writing this again please.

Hello guys, I'm not very intelligent but I'm willing to admit it.
What does this mean for Sony gaming wise?

>>94051
depends

As Gaming division is Kaz pet, they wont kill it. but there are some scenarios

A) other big boys might buy Sony as a whole, PS is brand with name so it wont be killed in the act, but might face a majoy makeover, (making it more casual or ports to mobile games)

B) under Loeb spin idea, all division will work as independent beings, that means, each division will be in charge of their own profit and losses.
Gaming Division has been making a profit on the last years, but they are far from being good, 7th gen bled em 4.7B (that is all the money PS2 made + a chunk of PS1) and whatever was left was all blew on PS4 Marketing and R&D
as a whole gaming division has been in the red for a while and the only reason it survives is cause other division have shouldered it.
If the division is left on its own, is like releasing a sick animal into the wild, it wont survive and will just die off.

C) Kaz still and god complex - ego driven faggot, does nothing and keeps losing money

>>94051
Playstation 4 wins the next gen battle.

>>94200
to /v/ with you

>>94150

Are you on your phone? Please correct your autocorrect's braindead corrections so I can read your shit.

>>94273
im kinda busy too

more or less

A) Some one buys Sony and reshape the PS division
B) Loeb spins the company and without other division to shoulder it, PS operation model (spend ass load of money to build hype) will kill em
C) nothing will happen cause Kaz is a faggot and Sony as a whole will keep sinking

It's good timing for Sony to do this now, since a lot of good press is distracting the media as PS4 launches in Japan.

>>94302
C will happen.

But who am i kidding, i own NTDOY.

>>94305
they already used PS4 hype to distract the media

that 5.3M announcement? coincidence was the same day reports showed that Loeb's company sold sony stocks and is no longer among the top 10 investors

>>94305

They spun a fuckload to distract from the Third Point shake-up like unit sales. In fact, most traders didn't know till it was mentioned as a side note in the Third Point Blackberry acquisition that Loeb divested the main third point stake and may either be starting a proxy war or quietly pulling out. JP Launch is probably going to get a short Nik spike but since the margins are piss poor on the PS4 and we saw the latest announcement only hold price steady on the ticker than a rapid bubble like before. It's probably not going to add a lot to the margin.

>>94329
>But who am i kidding, i own NTDOY.

Long position? If you are shorting we reserve the right to kek.

C is the most likely however. Kaz has an ego and is also a huge coward as seen with the TV Spin off where he wouldn't let it go and only just made it easier for Samsung or LG to get it at a pittance.

A, depends. Market feels good about Whats App despite the fact we're seeing a dotcom bubble emerge again. But since Sony came up as a cheaper purchase. I do wonder if Apple is going to make a try.

>>94329
>i own NTDOY
Jesus christ why

I mean I like playing games on Nintendo systems and all, but the media has had a straight-up vendetta against them for years now. I heard a great theory about this the other day, the devs/publishers want Nintendo out of the picture so all we're left with is a homogenized binary monopoly with Sony and Microsoft. Pepsi vs Coke, Microsoft vs Apple, Repub vs Democrat, black vs white etc. Publishers want two exactly the same consoles with different names on them to price gouge their corridor shooters on. Makes some sense to me.

>>94348
>that 5.3M announcement?
Personally I seriously suspect that this number is false and/or padded. I don't trust that 80 million number for total PS3 sales either, it reeks of bullshit to me.

>>94302
>>94430
If C happens wouldn't that mean that the share prices of SNE grows, there's a rumour that Leob is slowly pulling out and I don't think Leob will pull out before Sony listen to him and make spin offs.
Either the rumours is false or no one listen to him and he abandon the sinking ship.

>>94348
I'm actually kinda interested on how this changes things. I mean I get what sony's trying to do, they want to make sure their public image looks strong and healthy. I talked with several coworkers today about Sony and they all thought it was healthy and successful, (they actually thought it was Nintendo that was going bankrupt). But even though Sony hides this from the masses I'm wondering what difference does it make if the investors still know about it. Whether the media takes notice of this or not would make no difference to the people who make it job to know about whats happening to sony and it won't change things in the long run either, not with media distraction i mean, so why bother putting so much effort to hide it?

>>94471
Because the Wii U's failure means nothing considering their previous successes.

3rd Parties don't matter to Nintendo, just look at the 3DS's success.

And imo 3rd parties are already in trouble at the start of this gen due to entry costs and doubt over console sales of the xbone and ps4. EA themselves are shooting themselves in the foot by throwing all their weight behind EA Mobile gaming and Origin. Not only are they encouraging the market shift towards freemium content, but they're devaluing their own games on the home consoles AND spitting in the face retail stores.

>>89138
>this thread again.

>>92311
Why would anyone buy Sony out just to let them die, when they will probably die on their own in a year or two anyways?

Sony literally has nothing. I guess Amazon could take over the PS4 and use it as some sort of platform...for something...

>>94584
i think he's referring to asset stripping

>>94497

Sony has been really trying to ride the PS4 hype to hide their weaknesses as a company and promo the electronics and entertainment. Hence why the numbers are always spilled out when bad news reared its head. Having the biggest investor reduce it's stake would be bad news even if they were said to be shaking it around through other proxies to start a proxy war. Also a very weird day to reveal it with no FY or anything involved when they could have revealed it at the FY they beat forecasts by a lot (And it would have been a good blow softner for the forecast loss)

It makes for some good gossip on the Hollywood lines with Sony Pictures though. (A lot of "Wonder if George Clooney wants to give Sony advice since they won't listen to Loeb" lately since The Monuments Men was a massive flop and Clooney started giving Loeb shit last year. Ooops).

But then they didn't really want Roboflop reported widely as well and were also in "Foreign receipts!" mode since they put it out a week earlier where Social Media wouldn't be so quick to shit on it and kill hype. Still happened and hit the domestic gross though. $21.5 million on presidents day weekend? Ouch.

>>94556
Yeah, the rising costs of console gaming are finally coming up bite these braindead publishers in the butt it seems. I honestly can't wait.

To say that third-parties don't matter is just wrong though, part of the reason 3DS is so (relatively) successful is because of third-party Japanese devs. And the lack of some big third-party Japanese games is definitely hurting the Wii U's rep. The gaming media is out at every turn to make Nintendo look bad though, and stock prices are basically entirely dictated by media hype. I've thought about Nintendo stock before but it just seems like such a bad idea, even if I do enjoy their products.

I just got a $300,000 loan and shorted Sony with all of my money. Good idea y/n?

>>94622
Nintendo will just give up on the International market and only make games for Japanese. They can at least stay in business that way.

>>94639

Short and get out after hours tomorrow. If you feel like gambling. Short and get out next monday when there's JP numbers but early word from Japan is that it's getting OK hype and there's queues forming. But nowhere near Pokemon hysteria or that queue who waited in a Typhoon for the iPhone 5 (Mac fanboys are literally insane). 400-500k numbers, is my bet.

>>94645

That would never work. The western market is just too large (which is why Sony/Microsoft latch onto it so hard). Also, some of the best games on Nintendo systems bomb hard in Japan but succeed internationally (the recently-released Donkey Kong Country Returns: TF looks like it will turn out that way). For console games, a few hundred thousand sales in Japan just isn't enough to recoup development costs.

>>94698

From what I understand PS4 hype in Japan is quite low. Consoles in general are struggling over there, and Sony is in full-on western-appeal mode now. The fact that it took this long to release the system there really says something. Not to mention that Sony's Japanese game support is probably the lowest it's ever been, especially with the Vita flopping. I feel like the Japanese would be more sensitive towards paid online as well, but we'll see.

Question: if Sony breaks up and fucks off or whatever...will I still be able to play with my PS3 online?

>>94786
Still up in the air depending on what happens. There's certainly a chance you might not be able to

>>94792
Well fuck.

>>94556

Huh.

Thought's on the possibility of a second Great Video Game Crash happening? Atari's demise kicked off the first one, and this current gen has debuted a flop.

>>94786

Yes. They will sell the playstation segment to the highest bidder. Apple or something

if apple buys sony i will burn all of my sony products.

>>95537
>burn the products you already paid them for
That'll show them.

Oh god, imagine if the company that buys Sony releases mp3 players modelled on the old walkman designs?

All my money.

>>94471
This is probably the post you are talking about

SANY IS KILL

YOU COULDA SEEN THIS COMING WHEN THEY DROPPED VAIO

SHAMEFUR DISPRAY

HOW MANY VPS ARE GONNA SUDOKU OVER THIS GREAT DISHONOR

Give these threads a break

You're posting the same articles. There's nothing left to say for now

Eat a fat ass cock, consolefags.

>>97111

Sonydoom will be posted on trading days as there always is something new. Even if the OP hasn't changed. The Loeb proxy war/pullout and Sony being desperate to bury it will show it.

>>97161
>>97072

The /v/ sliding would be entertaining if it wasn't so wearisome now.

We've already been through why Valve is dot com boom part deux company like Facebook before anyway.

>>94768

Japan is a burned out market with no real interest in consoles. They prefer their smartphones and since the start of the 00's the whole push was that eventually they will live their lives on their phones and want everything to appear there and we reached the end game with the iPhone. A desirable lifestyle product marketed excellently. No wonder Japanese companies are scared shitless of it

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/24/outraged_authors_accuse_apple_of_destroying_japans_tech_industry_partner/

Real Asian market this gen is China. Hence why speculation boosted Nintendo to trading $19 since they seemed well placed due to owning a Chinese company and having good relations that they might avoid the general Japanese brand stigma. Of course, Nintendo gonna Nintendo and waste that.

Sony would have stigma. Have had repeated fracas with the PRC Government (Using Google's censorship war as a shield to pulling out? Not gonna make people happy) and being a Japanese brand not named Sharp (Who are shockingly popular in China). Sony's HK popularity isn't a mainland thing. Plus I'm betting Vita TV was their play and it flatlined in Japan. PS4 would have to come out with localized content and probably with a Chinese backer. Problem is, what Chinese company in their right mind would want to back a losing company like Sony that could flatline at any time?

MS are going to offer the actual Xbone backed by a shitload of broadband/Cable TV and tech conglomerates in China in October as part of a subscription deal with Broadband packages, apparently. MS is a popular brand name in China so they likely will do well and will probably sail past Chinese government regulations (The whole "We employ 10,000+ people as part of our investment into China's burgeoning tech sector and seek Chinese business partners" part will help). Also Huaiwei's Microconsole that uses the Tegra K1 SOC should do very well.

>>96852
I'm sure the game was expected to help move new consoles too, which it didn't do. It's a real shame because the game looks pretty great.

>>94622
Ok, 3rd parties matter less to Nintendo.

>>97647
>>96852
>>94471

That was actually the wrong post, chose the wrong thumbnail, notice how even though it makes a fair point it has fucking nothing to do with the subject.

THIS is the post I think he was referring to, my mistake, 4chan doesn't allow me to delete the other one since the post is too old, I'm sorry

>>95537
I won't, but I'll stop supporting the Playstation brand.

I'll be surprised if Sony manages to survive to see the next (9th) gen. The last hope for the PS4 went the way of Kingdom Hearts 3's PS4 exclusivity. As a Sonyfan, the future does look pretty bleak. Sony was like the tie in the balance that stopped Microsoft from taking over the game industry. I wonder what will happen now that it's gone...

>>98102
The PS4 is not meant to be the fourth playstation, it's meant to be the second xbox360

>>97548
>MS are going to offer the actual Xbone backed by a shitload of broadband/Cable TV and tech conglomerates in China in October as part of a subscription deal with Broadband packages, apparently.

lel. I remember Microshills saying that the Xbone would be put in a contract service with cable companies for $99/$199. Never happened. Plus the camera would be fucking useless.

China will stay PC and mobile for the foreseeable future.

>>98164
>Microshills

>>>/v/ makes it easier each time to spot them and tell them to back to >>>/v/

PS. Here's a source.

http://www.techinasia.com/xbox-hit-shelves-china-september-2014/

>>98140
I don't get it. Aren't they pretty much the same thing now?

Mainstream media now starting to pick up on the "PS4 won't save Sony" train of thought

http://news.yahoo.com/beleaguered-sony-counting-game-machine-064821541.html

This one's going to be interesting. Also exploitable shooping potential of that kaz photo too.

>>97916
That maybe true, but there is still competition in other industries.

I think you underestimate Nintendo's ability to have ideas, and you overestimate the appeal of powerful hardware.

>>98324
It's not my post, just one I saw which I assume is what the other poster was referring to

>>98323
I can bet my ass it's not going to be picked up in gaming journalism, even if it cried doom and perdition for Nintendo not even a year ago

>>98441

You would be right. Japan launch and controlled leak of a VR headset to bury talk, just like the 5.3 million number. Especially revelations that more engineers are leaving and Hirai has not got a single clue.

>Yasunori Tateishi, who has written books on Sony's fall from grace, fears that eventually Sony will be reduced to its entertainment business such as music, movies and perhaps games.

>The biggest problem is that Sony President Kazuo Hirai has been selling pieces of the company, instead of investing in the future as did his predecessors, including founder Akio Morita, he said.

>Hirai has repeatedly said Sony's smartphones, tablets and imaging technology are still scoring success, and its engineers are working hard to come up with dazzling products. He is promising a turnaround through his reforms.

>That hasn't stopped him from being peppered with questions from investors who have heard engineers are quitting in droves, endangering Sony's ability to come up with innovation. Hirai has not directly addressed such questions.

>"Mr. Hirai has not scripted out a scenario for the future," Tateishi said, stressing that PlayStation 4 will not be enough to save Sony's electronics. "It's just a game machine."

Bloomberg reported engineers were leaving and getting laid off last year. More fuel to the fire that it's a sinking ship and it's getting abandoned.

Also, I'm not expecting that headset to be good. Probably a rebadged HVR with a tilt sensor.

>>98197
If anything, it'll be some weird hybrid with that company they went into partnership with.

>>98202

He means that it's using the 360 strategy and the types of games 360 players like to grab an audience.

Also that Pico Projectors deal with Microvision looks like it just wrote off the minimal gain they made on the nik last night. Two loser companies joining forces. Market says "nope". Beautiful, Kaz Hirai. Beautiful.

>>100589
>Pico Projectors deal with Microvision looks like it just wrote off the minimal gain they made on the nik last night
Which deal and what do it do?

It's interesting to note that Nintendo, although smaller than Sony, has the same amount of market capitol as Sony, while Sony makes most of it's revenue off of stock trading, Nintendo enforced its policy of "never take loans from anyone" that their old CEO lived by, and they just sit on cash
Why doesn't Nintendo just go private?

>>101253

This one

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sony-develops-pico-projector-module-with-high-definition-resolution-and-focus-free-image-projection-2014-02-21

Made a deal too create Micro-Projectors for phones and tablets with a company that's not very good at it. Microvision's rep is average projectors, high cost, not much interest (Acer currently is best in market). Niche market and Sony getting even more involved in electronics (Y'know, the thing they SHOULD NOT BE DOING) means market's not happy.

Market opened on a high from Nikkei trading and rose up but is now trading lower than what it opened at today. The whole point is that Sony should not be announcing more electronics, yet that is what they are doing. The company is intent on not learning a damn thing.

What would it take for Sony to find success with the IPTV service they announced? Is it plausible that Sony could successfully illicit the participation of enough content providers to make the service a worthwhile replacement of traditional cable?

I get the sense after their announcement that they are unusually confident about the service, and seem to be waiting to play their hand in terms of demonstrating how far along they may be, particularly in terms of infrastructure potential.

Also in terms of content, I could forsee Sony pulling a coup by securing rights to major sports leagues. Live sports is the one thing cable still has over hulu and the like, but if Sony can convince the NFL/MLB/Premier League to give them broadcasting rights through the service, it instantly becomes a major favorite. There is precedent for this; Sony already has strong ties to the MLB through their MLB live service available on the PS3. Imagine paying only $40/month to stream every major sport broadcast along with a handful of participating providers (Viacom would be game to stick it to NBC Universal Comcast Subway, for example). People would love that shit

>>101512
>What would it take for Sony to find success with the IPTV service they announced? Is it plausible that Sony could successfully illicit the participation of enough content providers to make the service a worthwhile replacement of traditional cable?

Not really any chance any more. The current providers are circling the wagons and are freaked over the comcast merger. Expect them to start their own IPTV services. Netflix and Amazon Instant will likely be used as proxies till they figure how to get rid of them.

>Also in terms of content, I could forsee Sony pulling a coup by securing rights to major sports leagues. Live sports is the one thing cable still has over hulu and the like, but if Sony can convince the NFL/MLB/Premier League to give them broadcasting rights through the service, it instantly becomes a major favorite. There is precedent for this; Sony already has strong ties to the MLB through their MLB live service available on the PS3. Imagine paying only $40/month to stream every major sport broadcast along with a handful of participating providers (Viacom would be game to stick it to NBC Universal Comcast Subway, for example). People would love that shit

Two words kill any sort of chance of that sort of deal happening: Rupert Murdoch.

Seriously. As long as Rupert Murdoch still exists, you will pry those sports rights out of his cold dead hands (And he has a lot more money than Sony has. Fox made $7.1 billion last quarter. Sony's $243 is pocket change in comparison). Hell, you could kill him and not a chance of any platform taking exclusive rights from him.

IPTV as a success is very wishful thinking.

News from Japan on PS4 launch on twitter.

>5 store clerks standing outside with signs shouting "WE'RE SELLING PS4's!"...no line or people inside.

Aye, Aye! Captain Hirai. Full speed ahead towards that glacier!

More conformation. Rumor of only 350K units and not even near that being sold going around on twitter as well.

So, that King IPO anyone?

>>102488
>>102867
I thought this might happen, although I never expected less than 500k.

The Wii U failing is a symptom of larger problems in the industry, not just anti-Nintendoism (although that certainly does play a part). Sony thinks the PS4 is somehow different, but it's not.

>>98441
Sorry but looks like you lost the bet.

http://kotaku.com/5960411/how-sony-is-turning-into-a-ghost-in-japan-and-around-the-world

>>103498

Repost from 2012 but disturbingly relevant considering the incoming news. Apple's just got a stranglehold now.

Looking at the 5 day ticker, [shorting intensifies] should be applicable.

>>94150
>>94302
What would happen to Sony if they were to focus solely on their gaming division and, I don't know, sold the rest of theirs that were bleeding money like their electronics and mobile phones etc, kinda how Nintendo focuses solely on gaming?

i will get the fuck back to /v/ after this but seeing neogaf reaction to what is happening is priceless

>>103498
>Kotaku

>>103498
>>103570
Forgot my reaction face.

>>103570
It counts as gay man journalism right?

>>103544

First of all they would have to MASSIVELY downsize. Sony's gaming division has only been on-and-off profitable recently. The PS3 alone lost the company literal BILLIONS of dollars, and the Vita is a failure. Sony's first-party software has kind of been on the decline in both quality and quantity recently as well.

>>103544

They would go out of business. Their margins are horrible on gaming and and that was over the units they sold WW over the last quarterly, the busiest of the year. They would be terrible otherwise.

It's going to be worse this year as Cryptocurrency is going to keep spot pricing of GDDR5 very high (And it's rocketing lately) so no chance of a drop either (7870 cards were going as low as $150 with rebate before the big crypto boom) so manufacturing prices are going to be a huge ass for them as well.

It just seems a clusterfuck and success at a heavy price.

>>103542
So when the Xbone is released in Japan, how well do you think it will perform compared to the PS4 or even the Wii U? Since consoles are dead in Japan (with the exception of the 3DS) do you think Microsoft will even bother to release it there?

>>103613
And it's sad that their gaming division is their most profitable division.

When was the last time their Japan studio made a good game?

>>103641
Seems like no matter what they do they're going out of business anyway. The only way they could survive is if the PS4 somehow made back all the money the PS3 lost (which I don't think will EVER happen).

>>103639

They will probably sell it as an enthusiast device with the whole "Every box can be a devkit" angle and with a low run. Expect waifu marketing as well. Pic related is their Internet Explorer-Tan. She was only for a sponsorship with last Comiket and "Not the official IE mascot", but she ended up rocketing IE 11 usage in Japan (especially with the custom browser). But them MS marketing has been very on point in Japan since they used a new agency.

From what we crunched in previous threads. It's profitable or break even at SKU level like MS said it would be so I don't think it would bother them hugely. But then from all indications, one their big targets this gen is breaking China so they will probably keep JP developer interest for regional content (Also there's a surprising amount of loyalty to MS over Nintendo in Japan since MS were helping and hiring Smaller JP devs back in 6th and early 7th gen. So they likely will get a fair amount of support and the whole "Every box is a dev kit" will probably get a lot of enthusiast stuff going as well. Kinect Waifu sim, anyone?)

>>103671

Currently their biggest profits by division are

Insurance
Music
Film
Gaming
Digital imaging

Film and gaming jump in and out of 5th place depending on good or bad quarters as well.

And the rest are losses. Though mobile was lumped in with PC.

And god knows. Pupeteer and Rain ended up being really average so I have no idea.

>>103639
Not him but
MS will release it in Japan they are stupid if they don't even if it never success before.
they already have some exclusive deal with Platinum(rumour but highly true) and few other developers, I think they have a own dev. team in Japan too(I think its called team Osaka).
I think the launch of xbox won't be as good that of PS4 but they have a chance of success later but not because of games but mostly to other features of Xbone.
Who knows what could happens, their chance are bigger than the 360 time.

>>103767
But would slapping Xbone-tan all over the place really be enough for the Xbone to take off in Japan? If so, why the hell didn't Sony do the same with PS4-tan?

>>103785
>Who knows what could happens, their chance are bigger than the 360 time.

But the 360 had more Jap shit going for it than the Xbone, which (so far) seems to be catering to the western audience like the PS4 is. Heck, the original Xbox had massive support from SEGA back in the early 2000s and it still fell behind the PS2 and Gamecube in Japan. I honestly doubt the Xbone will do any better but hey, anythings possible.

>>103863

It still kinda upsets me about the reception that the 360 got in Japan. Microsoft legitimately seemed to put a lot of effort into securing good Japanese titles (especially quite a few good exclusives) on the system. They put in far more effort than Sony ever has. But Japanese gamers all rejected them and all the publishers immediately shot back to sucking Sony's dick.

>>103863

Are you a newfig and don't know about the OS-Tan's and 2ch? Sony can't because the OS-Tans are based on MS products and always have been. Also were popular on /b/ when it was actually about anime (Oh god I'm old as fuck)

Also before anyone starts. XP-Tan = Best Girl. I said it.

(98 a slut. Compatible with everyone's dick)

>>103884
>They put in far more effort than Sony ever has.
And for that they were leading the 7th gen with several worthwhile exclusives like Lost Odyssey, and were well ahead of the competition.

Meanwhile, Sony has been going downhill ever since E3 2006 and 8 years later still has yet to recover.

>>103884

360 had Crap marketing but then Microsoft in general had really awful marketing in Japan back then which is why Apple were able to saunter in.

Which is why it was surprising why Win8 took off so quick in Japan compared to the rest of the world. Waifus and pandering work.

Marketing is everything. Apple's adverts in Japan are just effortlessly cool and stylish to them and market the iPhone as a lifestyle device. MS found you can pander to the otaku. Sony is a ghost, like that article says.

Hell, when Apple is taking shots on you on your home turf in 2004 and winning. You fucking goofed. Pic related.

>>103926
Well yeah. I've been here since ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER. But I've never heard of the whole OS-tan thing.

So apparently a bunch of people are buying up GDDR5 with bitcoin? What exactly is going on with that?

>>103978

OS-Tan's were before your time then, junior.

Win 7 had an official Tan as well. Japan loves em'. An xbone tan wouldn't be a guarantee of success. But it would be very good marketing (Better than what the US branch did anyway. Yeesh.)

>>103957
>Advertise the Xbone all over the place using Xbone-tan
>Japanese Xbones come with Xbone-tan waifu simulator, who asks you how your day was every time you turn on the Xbone and you can talk with her and play games with her etc
>Ronery otaku buy the Xbone in droves on day one
>???
>PROFIT
>This kills the PS4, whom everyone has completely forgotten about

>>103639
Xbone is even more fucked than Wii U and PS4.

>>103767
>one their big targets this gen is breaking China
http://www.techinasia.com/6-reasons-china-game-consoles-windfall-sony-microsoft/

>>103785
Microsoft Studios Osaka does not exist. Pic related.

>>103884
>>103940
I'm sorry no one bought your shit games, Phil. Funny that even CAVE seems to downsizing in the face of Xbone failure. http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/27/japanese-shoot-em-up-developer-cave-ceasing-western-presence/

>>103926
>OS-Tans are based on MS products and always have been.
Don't they have OS-tans for Mac and Linux too?

>>104002

Graphics cards are used for cryptocurrency "mining" and demand has shot up like crazy for them. Cards that were declining to $150 with rebate now shooting back up to $200 on newegg. GDDR5 pricing has risen to reflect the demand for cards (And people were literally buying 7950's by the boxful. Some part websites will only allow you to buy two at most for SLI) and it's expected to really rise this year as crypto becomes more popular. For Sony, that means GDDR5 stock will be more expensive to acquire from Samsung and Hynix and it means the loss they were making on PS4 units will grow as component pricing is actually rising instead.

Basically, the gamble they took on GDDR5 was "Is there enough available for 8GB and an initial run". Problem was, they didn't see "Would there be a huge explosion in GDDR5 usage outside of gaming" and will have to pay more for to acquire GDDR5 when companies like NVidia will also be looking for it in bigger numbers on top of more gaming demand from AMD and NVidia which means paying more for it. Unforeseeable odds, really. Will still cost them. Everything in business is a risk.

>>104036

>I'm sorry no one bought your shit games, Phil.

CAUTION: The thread just got linked on >>>/v/ again. Keep calm and just keep posting about /biz/ matters.

>>104071

They do, but they never got embraced officially. Opera embraced theirs and there was even a statue available of her. Opera usage, of course, went up. Firefox preferred to keep their own mascot though.

>>104119
When it comes to consoles, the Neptunia girls will have to suffice.

>>104138
Too bad the games are so dreadfully bad. Seriously, with everything JRPGs have the potential to be they just leave a bad taste in my mouth.

>>104187
They're bad but not the worst. I'd still rather play them than Toriyama's Waifu Returns: Corridor Simulator XIII or Time and Eternity, the latter being the absolute lowest JRPGs have fallen. At least the Neptunia games are all about good waifus.

>>89473
Dark days are ahead for manking if Apple ever buys Sony.

>>92311
Your new is showing. The sony of today is not the sony of yesterday.

>>104282
They won't just stop with Sony. Soon they'll take the whole industry and then it will all be over. The end is nigh, mark my words.

>>104309

Sony would probably be the last big one they need. Apple's only interested in smaller acquisitions at the minute. Though the capability of producing original film and TV and having a huge music library to sell would probably be enticing for them. PS4 would be an easy Apple TV rebrand as well.

They would be settled for a few years at least.

Okay so this thread got linked on >>>/v/. How long before this thread is overrun like all the others?

>>104529

This guy is a screeching /v/ faggot who's crying about the thread being full of "Xbots" on /v/ >>104036

I don't think anyone was actually praising xbone here. Just discussing marketing (On a business board no less).

Like the threads before.Shut them out with facts. Report when they have a meltdown about the facts.

>>104529
Several of them will come over, have a look, and realize that they have nothing they can say without getting blown the fuck out for not understanding how business and marketing work. One or two, however, will try and shit up the thread, holding on so desperately to their idea of what Sony is that they'll either get argued into oblivion over the course of a dozen posts or post something that violates the rules, resulting in thread termination and what they'll call a victory because the bad business people don't have their thread anymore. Until the next general begins.

For the /v/tards just coming in, this is how people tend to view your opinions.

MS fans
>we fucked up on PR, but not as badly as we thought. we need to get our shit together.
Nintendo fans
>Wii U is struggling due to poor marketing, we hope it picks up but aren't holding our breath. 3DS is doing alright, but we still need to get our shit together.
Sony fans
>5.3 MILLION SUCK IT! SONY IS JUST FINE NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!

These views are not universal, but expect to be met with ire if you come in waving a company flag

>>104630
>Until the next general begins

I can assure you the general will continue till Sony is sold off, flatlines due to bankruptcy or moot kills /biz/.

Also because this board is slower and sees discussion. If someone comes in like >>104036 screaming and having a hissyfit. It's easier to pick out when it's a shitposter from /v/.

can we stop with the sony hate? all this dumb ass speculation is not needed. Why not a Microsoft watch? Why not a Nintendo (YOU KNOW, THE COMPANY THAT IS ACTUALLY FAILING THE CONSOLE MARKET) watch?

PS4 is the fastest selling console of all time, and the Vita is looking strong too because of remote play.

All you nigs jerking off on the Sony downfall, just know that it will be a dark day for gaming if it ever happens.

>>104580
>Make reasonable points about the Xbone in Japan backed by evidence
>hurr durr u must be snoypnoy on /v/ bcuz u dunt hivemind

Yeah, nah. Take that tinfoil hat off, it's cutting off the circulation of oxygenated blood to your brain.

>>104580
>>104630
>>104658
>Samefagging to keep the pain away

Tragic.

>>104727

>Comes in with /v/ style shitposting
>Accusing people of being microshills in the same post
>Angry when people ignore them.

Stop and consider why people are ignoring you and pointing out why it's so easy to spot /v/ Sony Fanboy posters in the thread. If it talks like >>>/v/ and it acts like >>>/v/, it needs to go back to >>>/v/

>>104757
>Reasonable points
>/v/ style shitposting

OK.

>>104692

Microsoft and Nintendo are actually relatively profitable companies. Nintendo in particular has a war chest of money and no debt.

Sony has a shitload of debt and they've been bleeding money for years, sometimes at the rate of over a billion dollars per year (2013 looks to be another one of those years based on what Sony is predicting). They're selling off assets left and right. They already sold their headquarters in both the US and Japan, and they just sold off their entire PC division. Also the Vita is doing just as horribly on the market as the Wii U, if not worse.

>>104769

>Calling the poster "Phil" and "No one buys your shitty games, Phil" to imply shilling.
>Implying it's not /v/ style shitposting to deflect and derail
>Takes temper tantrum when called out on /v/ style Sony Fanboy posting

Quick philosophical and scientific question, /biz/. Do retards actually realize they are retarded?

Back on topic. If Japan is a much smaller than expected sale. Wonder how much that impacts the margins for the next quarter?

Also in Sony Columbia Flopwatch, Pompeii opens this weekend with a critical drubbing. How much you think it's going to take in. Box Office Mojo's prediction is $11 million opening on a $100 million budget.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3786&p=.htm

Streamlined greenlighting process my ass, Kaz.

>>104692
There is no MS watch because unlike sony since 2005, they have turned in profits and didn't lose 4.7 billion dollars.
There is no nintendo watch because while the Wii U is doing poorly, this was the first year in a long time where nintendo posted loses. Their company is in healthy shape, having the 3DS selling and dominating the market as well as all that money from the Wii.
There is a Sony watch because while their console is selling, they are not turning a profit on it. They are bleeding money, with two divisions (TV and PC) being left for dead. The company has not had a profitable year since 2005.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/23/5338162/microsoft-q2-2014-financial-earnings

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-06/sony-forecasts-annual-loss-as-hirai-turnaround-stalls-on-tvs.html

>>104824
OK, OK.

>Make reasonable points interspersed with mocking Xfaggots for whining about Japanese not buying 360s for shmups and bought exclusives.

I wonder if the Japanese development community will recover from the damage brought about by the latter.

>>104866
>Xfaggots

Into the trash it goes.

>>>/v/

>>104866
man its so obvious you are a sonynigger from /v/ (i know how you faggots shit post). Your precious Sony is already forcasting a 1.1 billion dollar this year. Enjoy your console with no support

What everyone saying makes me wonder is Sony the only one bleeding from PC and TV's or are thers others as well. Cause my thoughts as a person with no experience with business is that if other companies are struggling with TV's then I doubt anyone would by there TV division even if they do try to sell it. I mean it seems like Sony's TV area is dieing because the TV market needs to shrink right now. Am I in the ball park with this or am I way off?

A company with money to throw around like Samsung would buy their TV division, claiming their assets and patents and they will get it at a low price.

>>104895

I can't really speak for other companies but Sony has been grossly mishandling their TV business. Their management still thinks they're in the 90s, where people will pay a premium for a product if it has the Sony brand on it. That's not the case at all. Sony's TVs are being beaten in every category by competitors who still sell their TVs for cheaper. Sony's 3D TVs bombed. And at this early stage, 4K TVs are pretty much a joke, but Sony is investing big in it while their competitors, once again, undercut Sony's prices by a huge margin.

>>104895

Samsung and LG have a hold on the market with regional brands like like Vizio or Medion. There's no room for Sony who are charging premium prices for less quality than the competitors.

Also other electronics are starting to phase out or lessen in demand like Blu-Ray and they are outpaced in other markets like headphones (Monster and Senniheiser). Walkman is just a brand they hold onto with phones (And nowhere near HTC's phones for sound quality).

Electronics in general is bleeding and needs a spin off. Just Kaz Hirai is afraid to do it and even when he did it with TV, he refused to allow other venture capital and made it a wholly owned spin off by Sony. Made it easier to sell off, but still funneling billions into it.

>>104891
>>104893

Thanks for the predictable responses, lads. I'm off to play Spelunky.

>>104942
>I was only pretending to be retarded!

>>>/v/

>>104948
>Pretending to be retarded

But if I was going to do that, I'd stay here, friend.

>>103498
>Article literally more than a year old

Like come on

>>89138
I've never seen shitposting like this on 4chan before goddamn

>>105026
stay out of /v/ and /sp/ then
>tfw frequent both

>>104692
>know that it will be a dark day for gaming if it ever happens

Not really, since gaming has thrived online, and through micro-developers in the last decade, regardless of the Call of Duty brands. The third-parties, which have pulled and pushed their customers with greater and greater unfair demands, deserve to fucking die off.

>>97548
Indeed, look at the box office for Pacific Rim.
China is not just a country that can be regarded as full of mostly poor people but rather a country with lots of people and disposable income to burn.
Breaking into that market would be considerably lucrative.

Is Sony really in such a bad position. I was in other gaming sites before 4chan. I'm not saying /biz/ is lying. More like I just can't find this kind of information on other sites.

>Whatsapp $16b
>Instagram $1b
>VW makes $9b bid on Scania
>Motorola to Google for $12b
>Motorola to Lenovo for $3b

>Implying no IT Bubble 2.0
>Implying FB is not dying

Let's not forget what Loeb and his supporters are after, splitting Sony up and making a profit on the healthy parts of Sony, simple Jew tactics. It's not going to happens and you should put that in your head, no Japanese company will do that. Their banking is doing great and electronics are on an upswing with cameras and Playstation. With TV and PC out of the way, the end of 2014 should be profitable unless Loeb and his Jew-pals in the US get away with their shit, and again that won't happen. Japanese government will see to it that other companies help them out. End of story, kill this thread.

So what I gather is that Sony is in shit because they stuck to the 80s-90s model of a highly diversified mega conglomerate when it no longer became appropriate or profitable. If they sellout the baggage and trim the fat, can they sustain their media endeavours?
>We can make everything!
>expect money

There are rumours that sony will announce a new VR headset for the PS4 at GDC. If they beat oculus to the punch I think they can get very popular.

>>107020
That's because most posters on /biz/ aren't "gamers" but people with actual knowledge and insight into the business world.

Playstation fans who know very little about Sony outside of video games see those 5 million sales figures for PS4 and just assume that Sony is in good shape. But if you take the time to do your homework on Sony as a whole, you'll quickly realize the PS4's success means fuck-all in the grand scheme of things.

Sony is well beyond fucked at this point, it's even rumored the real reason they're trying so hard to make PS4 look good with all these latest announcements is so they can pretty up the SCE division for potential buyers.

>>107513

>anyone on 4chan
>know what they are talking about

>>107511
>If they beat oculus to the punch I think they can get very popular.
It won't, there's been some talk and reports on what it really is. It's basically the knock off OR. No head tracking, tiny FOV, low res (even lower then OR), and has some weird ass strips to keep it on your head.

Sony can't do anything right.

>>107581
Nah that's the HMZ, the rumours are that they have a proper VR heatset in the works that definitely rivals the rift.

I only care about Sony's film and music ( to a lesser extent vidja) studios. I just hope they endup in a good place like amazon

>>107593
It's being designed with PS4 in mind, that there alone already makes it crippled in comparison to the rift, which won't be held back by consoles.

How much are Sony's assets actually worth? I was under the impression they were worth far more than their low market cap implies and that the share price doesn't quite reflect it as the japanese shareholders would not allow them to sell them to foreigners. They make quite a lot of mundane components and industrial things the average 4chan poster is oblivious to.

>>107100

>Japanese government will see to it that other companies help them out.

Japanese government has already said that no tech and media companies will be getting bailouts. Purely infrastructure. Glorious Nippon sees Sony as a company that made it's bed in the US, and it's going to lie in it there as well.

>>107709

Sony has a very high asset value. Something near $150 billion. Hence why it's often refered to as an undervalued stock as some of those assets are bringing the company down. They have already been selling things like their Chemical factories. PC's are just the latest.

>>107676

Well if we get a proper proxy war, Hope you like Apple.

>>107927
>Well if we get a proper proxy war, Hope you like Apple.
Well I pirate all their shit anyway, as long they aren't going anywhere, though a vacuum in the big 6 studios and big 4 labels would be something to revel in

>>107020
Sony have made a lot of expensive mistakes over the last decade, even when products were selling. They got arrogant. Their gaming division was inching back towards the black before Nintendo kicked off the 8th gen race, but now they've blown a chunk of what little cash they had left on R&D and marketing for PS4 and Vita, one of which is selling at a loss and the other either at a razor profit or a loss, and the Vita just had a revision which would be another chunk thrown into R&D. They're selling products, but they're not making money doing so anymore. They are not the only company to have made mistakes, but they are the focus of this thread, which some /v/babbies can't seem to comprehend.

good thing i bought muh noise cancelling headphones from them before this bullshit.

>>107513
>>108238
I see. Thank you for the information and time.

>>94051
It means you're a perfect sony customer!

>>108275
You're welcome. Of course, Sony is not gaming alone, and though the hemorrhage that was the first few years of the PS3 was a contributing factor, it's mostly their massive cockups in Computers, TV, and HiFi that have drained them of cash and consumer confidence. Movies and Music have gone either way, depending on whether they have a string of hits or flops, and unless Amazing Spiderman 2 is a box office hit it's looking like this coming FY it will be the latter (Robocop remake bombed, Pompeii is unlikely to make back its $100M budget, the Apple/Amazon cut out of music sales is hurting them so much that they're pushing their own propriety service harder than ever).
It seems a shame, because Sony have had so many winning ticket products in the past (still have my cassette/radio walkman from 93, still works), and they've had such a presence in the market over the last three decades it won't feel right without them there, but that's nostalgia talking. They made mistakes, and now they need to pay the balance.

>>108325
Zing.

Just ventured in here by curiosity.
Can someone explain to me *why* Sony is actually that bad in a shape?

I know the company made several errors and was always arrogant, trying to force its own standarts onto people, using propietary technology whenever they could (memorystick, audio files).

But is it simply because people are not buying their stuff anymore? Are their TVs so much worse and more expensive than Korean ones, does no one buy their cameras anymore, not use their phones (and why?).

>>108358

Whoops, seems I should have refreshed before posting.

>>108322

>>94645
Nah, nintendo will probably just buy up some struggling jap devs/pubs like capcom and maybe mistwalker maybe even square if or when XV bombs, fatten their online offerings up leverage the nintendo name with a large but well directed marketing campaign and go full NES/Disney.

Maybe even put out a much cheaper 100-175 dollar wiiu sku with disc based playback for the jap market.

Making friends with large companies, and media congloms and putting out nintendo based cartoons in movie theatres etc.
Stuff like that.

They have the name brand the money and oddly enough the trust of the actual game industry and most importantly the casuals.

And let's face it. They don't need the third parties or the game media to sell, hell their 24/7 black pr campaign to ruin their shit hasn't actually hurt their stock prices or really hurt them. It's actually fucking the very game industry that they depend on to stay afloat.

Here's something else you should chew on. If the game industry crashes, it'll just be nintendo left. That's it.

MS will probably go full media box with the occasional halo or gears of war or football/soccer game(EA will be dead)
Sony? They won't last 2 years at this rate and that's me being generous.
And ever console that went ps4/xb1 only will be beyond fucked.
Not only that but most pubs that depend on the massive base of customers of the last gen will be dead in a few years.

Nintendo is quite honestly the only one in a position to survive and even thrive in this new market.

>>108358
>>108367
You more or less answered your own questions, but I'm happy to elaborate on why. I do market analysis for a major Australian researcher, got a lot of in depth notes on the international market, but I'll give the quick version to avoid the character limit.

>TVs
Sony does not build their own panels anymore, they use Korean screens (LG for the most part, I believe) and use their own software on them. They've never been particularly good with software, and even worse when it comes to gimmicks, so the public are not interested in buying Sony Television products when they can buy a screen of the same or higher quality from Samsung or LG for 10-20% less (or even cheaper from companies like Hisense). Customer service is a big issue for TVs as well, as until recently Sony have had an extremely slow turnover rate for repairs and replacements (in and out of warranty), and their CS staff are vague and unhelpful. Retail reps are alright, but gods help you if you have to call a Sony hotline.

>Cameras
Regular digital cameras have been undercut by companies like Olympus, Nikon, and Canon, and DSLRs have cannibalized a larger part of that market than expected. User friendliness is a big factor in retail camera sales, and Sony don't really have that going for them anymore. I own one of their heavy duty underwater cameras, I've dropped the thing off a cliff before and it's fine, love the little gadget but it's not a huge seller.

>Phones
The consumer base at large either goes Apple or Samsung when choosing a smartphone, occasionally a Nokia if they're keen on WP8, all decisions born of brand familiarity and user friendliness. Sony phones were a real contender before smartphones became the go-to item, and they did not make the transition well. Sony phones are nice, they're durable, they're good looking, but the interface is kind of ugly. That, and there's little marketing done for it.

>>108438
Is nintendo getting square really possible?
I'd figure that KH3 would print their independence now that its no longer exclusive

>>97548
Less mobile more handheld tech devices.
As for consoles tanking there, its' more to do with the rising costs for development then anything else.
I mean, the wii is pretty damned popular(not getting games anymore cause the japs don't dig piracy and nintendo dumping it cause of that) there and the ps3 utterly tanked till they were the only one on the market/cheap and well done enough for the average dev to play around on.

>>108322
The closest I got to game business related content before 4chan was Michael Pachter and Gametrailers. In retrospect, doubt the guy actually knows what he s talking about. So thank you again for information.

>>108438
>Nah, nintendo will probably just buy up some struggling jap devs/pubs like capcom and maybe mistwalker maybe even square

I actually hope this is the case, because I would much rather Nintendo gets Square then Microsoft, or anyone else for that matter. Mistwalker would also be a great asset for Nintendo. As for Capcom, they'd probably be best suited for Microsoft. Same with Konami.

>>108322
I feel their Music and Movie businesses deserve a lot more blame than they get. While they might have technically made a profit as a division they completely destroyed the ability of other divisions to function by making unreasonable demands. Sony could never make the iPod because the music division wanted to sell CDs and shit up any music player with broken DRM. They could never make their own itunes competitor because again the music division wanted digital distribution to not exist. The music division only relented after Apple crushed them in the market to the point they couldn't even exist without them.

It's the same with movies, they are never at the forefront of distribution because progress upsets them. They could have had an on demand movie service via the PS3 and their TVs years before netflix but of course that would never happen as it might reduce bluray or dvd sales.

The movie and music business are a joke compared to the money they have missed out in consumer electronics. I hope the movie and music divisions get sold to greedy hedge funds and all the RIAA/MPAA people suffer massive job losses.

>>103767
>(Also there's a surprising amount of loyalty to MS over Nintendo in Japan since MS were helping and hiring Smaller JP devs back in 6th and early 7th gen.

The shit they pulled in the 6th gen is exactly why most jap pubs and devs hated microsoft and they saw no games for the system.

M$ paid a gods ransom for the few jap games they did get last gen and did everything to get their support. But hatred for sony and harai and the system being drag and drop compared to sony's ngh sysiphean nightmare of a system couldn't overcome the bad blood they built up, crap hardware. and paid online.

>>108438
This home console gen will humble Nintendo, and hopefully steer them in the right direction to survive, but there are no ironclad guarantees in business. Before the Saturn, it didn't look like Sega were going to fail either. Unlikely that Nintendo will go the same way, considering how healthy they've been over the last decade and a half profit-wise, but stranger things have happened. Nothing is too big to fail.

I do agree with you on the MS/Sony fronts to a point as well. MS have the media box format to fall back on, which has become a popular product in itself, so they don't have to worry too much. I'm starting to wonder if Xbox One could become a brand unto itself; a line of media boxes capable of gaming, eventually moving towards streaming, rather than a game box that does media well.
The PS4 has the opposite problem of the PS3, in that it's being sold as a games device and not a multimedia hub. An Amazon/Samsung buyout of the PS brand would be the best case scenario from a gamers perspective, though cryptocurrency driving up the price of GDDR5 RAM has made unit production problematic.

>>108472
There was a lot of bridge burning between Square and Nintendo in the late 90s and early 00s, but since then things have cooled down enough to say that a purchase a possibility if Squenix shits the bed with FFXV. Not likely, but possible. Being forced to remake XIV was a blow, and publishing a few relative flops over the last couple of years hasn't done the war chest any good.

>>108541

>No example of the "shit they pulled in 6th gen"
>"Crap Hardware" when it launched in 2005, the 360 had the equivalent of a top level AMD GPU.

Your post is so /v/ it hurts on top of trying to deflect this thread more on Microsoft with no evidence at all and lies in the first place.

Post is trash, Stay on >>>/v/

>>108494

Don't forget killing their own DNLA initiative with Cinavia DRM on their own DNLA systems. It would stop playback of legal files you copied or even legal purchases off iTunes. It's a nightmare they still use and have made worse lately.

The film and music division outright pushes against the electronics and it's lead to this massive clusterfuck of trying to control electronics that are made to be open.

>>107511
VR is a joke.
It's empty hype for stupid suits.
Just like "cloud" just like streaming games.

>>107513
>it's even rumored the real reason they're trying so hard to make PS4 look good with all these latest announcements is so they can pretty up the SCE division for potential buyers.

It's not a rumor. It's a fucking fact.
They went into this gen looking to build a nice fat sacrificial lamb. They even helped fuck the entire gaming market and many devs/publishers to do so. Many companies in the console industry right now are fucking a multibilion dollar industry for short term gains.

>>108494
Oh, I agree. Their entertainment division is rife with bloat and arrogance, and both finances and consumer confidence have taken massive hits as a result. The thing that shits me the most about them though, and here begins an off-topic rant, is their executive meddling in movies and music. I mean, sure, you're marketing guys say this might sell something better, and you are fronting money for production, but let the artists make their art for fucks sake. I mean, if they're not confident in the ability of a musician/actor/director, why the fuck did they give them a green light in the first place?
I'm an author when I'm not doing retail market analysis, and I have it specified in my contract that Sony's eBook store does not get to stock my product. My agent was a little shitty about it, but the publisher agreed. We'd rather cut off a potential market than let them have a piece of my work, that's how little confidence I have in them.

>>108472
KH hasn't been a really big thing in a long while. It doesn't have the pull on the consoles it might have had during the 6th gen.

I'm saying that square has a lot of bad decisions that will bankrupt them and if, maybe when things goes tits up for them this gen nintendo might decide to either acquire them or enter into a partnership.

>>108486
Capcom has more games that will do better on a nintendo console then microsoft.
Hell microsoft was behind the anti"weeaboo" game movement back during the 6th gen when they tottally cocked up japanese support.

But I can see capcom trying to push resident evil and uh...the remains of devil may cry
Konami? Yeah, I can see that.

>>108643
>I'm an author when I'm not doing retail market analysis, and I have it specified in my contract that Sony's eBook store does not get to stock my product

They got out of E-Books quietly at the beginning of the month.

http://gigaom.com/2014/02/06/sony-exits-the-north-american-ebook-business-and-gives-its-customers-to-kobo/

They are still operating in Europe and Japan but it probably won't last too long there either.

You were right to though. The Robocop remake had the director locked out of re-writes and the editing room simply because he wanted to use RED cameras since they were more versatile instead of Sony. The film was going to be bad (The Director Of Photography should be actually shot. The action scenes are just badly shot in the first place. Film students have better placement)

>>108625

The rumor now is Amazon's box is more a Roku competitor with games on the side (Though the Snapdragon 800 they are using isn't a slouch). I think Apple would probably be more interested and Apple were apparently stockpiling GDDR5 last year as well which lead to high prices before the crypto boom so they would be better placed to continue production.

>>108553
Saturn? Friend people were questioning if sega had lost their goddamned minds with the 32X and sega cd back then. Yes it was interesting and innovative, but...goddamn what the fuck?
The sega saturn was just the confirmation that they had no fucking idea of what they were doing.

As for the media box... no one is going to go out and buy a media box like that. Gaming is the trojan horse and the thing people understand. A media box with a disc based player is too costly and not worth the mone.

As evidenced by how apple tv is selling less then old wiis and ps360s.

>>108591
Okay,
Microsoft went to small and mid sized jap devs and "leased" them a dev kit for free do create games for their exciting new console.

Most devs saw what was happening and told them to go fuck themselves. Other devs weren't so lucky.

You see, they used this as a way to head hunt for good jap developers and scalp them, AND when the game didn't earn enough to pay back the lease of the dev kits they took their entire fucking companies.

>>108684
>Hell microsoft was behind the anti"weeaboo" game movement back during the 6th gen when they tottally cocked up japanese support.

And now Microsoft went all-out weaboo pandering mode with the 360, and that didn't go down as well as they hoped.

>>108750
>You see, they used this as a way to head hunt for good jap developers and scalp them, AND when the game didn't earn enough to pay back the lease of the dev kits they took their entire fucking companies.

OK. You have no clue what you are talking about. Especially since MS never acquired any Japanese studios in their lifetime. This is super easy to check on Google.

This is Gamefaqs tier circa 2003 garbage. So your post has a new home.

I don't see why the nintendrones couldn't have shut up about this on /v/

Competition is good for markets, and waiting with baited breath to see a company die is just stupid.

>>108805
Okay, sure microshill. But that's what happened. Don't know what they did with them but I know what they did to them.

>>108816
>>108825

>>>/v/

>>108469

>TV's
You're correct on your statements but it should be noted that Sony is only buying LCD-panels from LG. I'm not sure on the percentage. I don't know what they are planning with OLED and 4K and were those panels are coming from.

>Cameras
Not really, see the NEX line, also Sony is selling many CMOS sensors to other brands. Didn't they also buy a part of Olympus when their investment scandal became known? Sony also has a huge camera patent portfolio. Camera tech is something Sony is great in actually, their latest models have received very positive reviews and are very popular.

>Phones
Yes, they started late but they have a great line of phones and they are improving a lot, the dev community loves Sony which is something Samsung lacks.

>>108438
Nintendo surviving.. w-w-what? They don't even have a working online market. Except handhelds, they are doomed. Practically no support from other devs except their long standing partners. Sony has more dev studios than Nintendo if I'm not mistaken.

>Sony selling Playstation
Delusional people in this thread.

>Final Fantasy not being an exclusive
Won't change anything, Sony did the right thing and didn't pay for it, MS can't compete with FF-fanboys on PS.

Their huge failure in the 3D tv market fad was enough to pan them. I don't know what it is about this flavor of shitposting from /v/ but I like it. In small doses.

> New Xperia line of phones and tablets at MWC
> Oculus Rift for the PS4 at GDC
> Games for the PS4 Q2 and Q3, new PS Vita
> New NEX-line of cameras in March

>>109007
Sony has launched hundreds of products a year for decades.

>>109007

> New Xperia line of phones and tablets at MWC

Most have been leaked and it's super underwhelming compared to the Galaxy S5. HTC's apparently got a big announcement next week as well.

Also doggedly sticking to the premium droid tablet market is retarded when the big PC manufacturers are starting to make a killing with full fat Win 8.1 pro tabs with PC specs and the first 64-Bit tabs are to be shown at MWC as well on top of Samsung's massive NotePro stealing the limelight on droid tabs already.

They probably will make minimal impact with the Z2 line from whats been leaked so far compared to the other companies dropping bombs.

>>107020

If there's one thing Sony is good at, it's whitewashing their financial status over the media.

Sony has a ton of debt, they just sold their headquarters in both the US and Japan, they just sold off their PC division, and they're ridiculously unprofitable (often losing over a billion dollars per year, which Kaz is predicting for 2013). Their management is incompetent and isn't taking any of the right steps to turn the country around.

>>109084
*to turn the company around

>>108922
>3D-TV
what was everyone thinking? Every big producer rushed their new 3D-TV's but no one invested anything in 3D-media. The TV's were there but you couldn't watch anything on it.

>>108925
>>>/v/
Or just read over the thread before you post

>>109121
I like the 2D->3D conversion. Its a nice twist but 3d wont take off until 3D porn comes on smart tvs

>>108469
>>108925

Sony makes the Sensors for at least Nikon - but I'm not sure how their camera division is doing.

The Nex line is quite popular since it was one of the first true APS-C sized EVIL camera lines.
But I don't know whether they ever made a profit with their Minolta legacy alpha line - which initially struggled in tech behind the other companies (Nikon could work better with the Sony CCDs and CMOS than Sony itself for some reason) and they lacked the large selection of lenses so crucial in the DSLR market. They also were regarded as toys by many DSLR users that preferd Nikon, Canon or even Pentax over Sony.
While they're doing a lot to shake up the market in tech-related terms, I doubt they ever made a huge profit on that.

>>109068
you are talking hardware spec wise?

>>109472

Yeah. Hardware's underwhelming in the Z2 Tab, especially compared to the Samsung NotePro and the PC big boys like HP and Lenovo are apparently going to be bringing full 64-Bit Win 8.1 tabs with beefy Intel mobile Processors.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57618743-75/finally-here-come-the-64-bit-windows-8.1-tablets/

Not sure the Droid market in tablets is sustainable unless Google start investing seriously into enterprise functions.

>>109270

3D Porn's already available on Blu-Ray. Problem is 3D really only works in a big theater setting. In the home and it's not that impressive. For example, I have a LG 3D Smart panel. It's got godly IQ. I can watch the Pacific Rim Blu-Ray in 3D at 1080P quality with my 5.1 headset and it still loses in the translation between home and cinema. For home and a more intimate setting, 3D is anything but good since you want it quick, dirty and minimal fuss. You don't need to be fumbling around with glasses and settings.

1080P is as far as it should go, anyway. 3D is bad, 4K Porn is horrifying to imagine (And the porn industry's started to find it's profitability again by working with sites like PornHub instead of working against it so slinging in with something the world isn't ready for is not a good idea)

>>109468

They are making Sensors for the next iPhone refresh. So I'd imagine they may do OK as a supplier but they desperately need to find a good margin on it.

What's with the professional imaging line from Sony?

Sony Cinealta is like *the name* next to red in the film industry, are they in the reds as well?

>>109859

Companies are increasingly preferring RED as the cameras are a lot more mobile and high quality. Even directors on Sony films want to use RED instead of Cinealta (and it does not amuse the execs when they hear that). It's a portion that's been losing market share over the past while.

>>102867
>>102896
>Preorders sold out
>Unsold units in stores

Sony marketing is seriously quite something

>>103544
This gets responded like 3 times in every thread I swear

>>103884
This is what pisses me off

PS3 was a fucking grim reaper of small Japanese devs, ginormous development costs made them unable to develop on the thing which their target market was traditionally on

On the other hand Microsoft actually tries to help japanese devs.

And yet you have people buying PS4 for japanese devs while complaining xbone is a codbro machine

>>104926
>Sony's 3D TVs bombed

>Friend gets one of these
>Fails the third day, literally doesn't display image
>he gets a free replacement
>5 days later, doesn't display image
>he gets a free replacement
>a week later (you will never guess) doesn't display image
>after arguing with someone over telephone for over an hour he gets a different tv paying for the difference in price

I seriously hope this wasn't widespread because holy fucking shit.

The guy still gets upset when I tell him that he should have kept doing that, eventually he would get a TV which lasts for centuries

>>107511
Even if this happened, most of Sony's problems aren't even in gaming.

Also it better be powered by magic and unicorns if they intend to use it properly on the PS4, because the console sure as hell doesn't have enough power to make it work

>>107692
I don't want to get all /g/ in here, but how in the FUCK can anything similar to the OR work on a PS4 if it has FPS drops on freaking knack?

>>110652
POWER OF GDDR5!

>>108438
>Nintendo is quite honestly the only one in a position to survive and even thrive in this new market.

They STILL have to get their shit together.

They are in good shape, they are not in a position of danger right now, but they still have to find their happy little place, I think that not entering into direct competition with Sony and Microsoft is smart, I think diversifying to that health business thing Iwata talked about is VERY smart, but if they intend to have a place in the game industry (and it's obvious they do) they still have to find their happy little place.

Nintendo handhelds usually sell by default, the 3DS had a rough launch, sure it's all good now, but I hope that Nintendo learns and notices that they might have problems down the line

>>108481
>In retrospect

Dude EVEN /V/ knows patcher is a fucking joke

>>110712
Nintendo should try to make AR games. I'm sure an AR version of pokemon or some shit would sell great, if only because of the novelty value.

>>108625
>It's not a rumor. It's a fucking fact.
I understand what you mean, the probability is pretty fucking high, but as long as things are technically rumors I'd rather have them called rumors

>>109084
I always believed the whitwash was a rumor. But looking at sites like gametrailers, giant bomb, kotaku(dont shoot me) polygon. You see lots of info on Nintendo and Micro on their potential financial status being poor. Important to know if your console of choice may be discontinued. When I came to 4chan it jyst blew my mind about all the info on Sony about their own financial status. I figured from what other sites were saying, Sony was doing fantastic for years.

>>108816
The problem here is that you think that this thread is full of ninendo fanboys wanting Sony to fail

>>110772
I think Sony can be fixed if they let American designers come work for their company. All of the weab... indie designers can go there and they will restore the company's profitability by working as interns.

>>110761
Refer to
>>110525
>Sony marketing is seriously quite something

"Gaming journalism" is a complete, total disgrace, it's as if people in a high school made newspapers.

Combine that with Sony being actually pretty damn good in marketing (and using ethically questionable shit) and there you go

>>110806
Yeah. Been feeling ashamed that I believed their news for years. What can I say. Gaming sites said 4chan is a bad place to go to. Been noticing how bad my fav gaming sites had been doing. Decide
>Why not visit 4chan for once?
Blown away by the variety. Thanks for existing 4chan

>>108925
Their most prominent devs smell blood in the water, the ones who've gone full boar with 8th gen with no last gen back up know they're going to get fucked but good.
And they know no that they're being used as a shield to protect their company from bad news and that sony is going to sell them down the river when a good enough offer is made for the playstation brand.

Everyone sees it coming now.
And with EA flailing and looking to blame everyone else for their failures, and criminal mismanagement and pointing the blame squarely at the ps3 underperforming( and for some reason miyamoto), sony is going to get heat for the ps3 too. And their retarded statements sound like a rat leaving a sinking ship, which paints the industry in a bad light, gives credence to the "everyone is going mobile thin, and severly lessened their ability to command 60 dollars up front for their sports franshises and well..fucking everything they put out. What's worse is that they are claiming that their currently failing strategy that they've been employing since mobile was even a thing is the future for the company.

But I digress.
Everyone else hasn't seen any profit from those consoles and are in fact losing money on their ps4 and xb1 games.
If fucking activision isn't seeing any fucking profits then you know something is rotten in denmark.

>>110806
Yeah I know. Sony marketing is fucking brilliant and downright Machiavellian. Too bad their backing a dying retarded coward of a company with no real pull left.

For fucks sake, they were in a position to be THE HD tvs at the beginning of the 7th gen. Even putting out some hd capable crtvs for the people sill wary about flat screens. Whoever won between them and microsoft and nintendo would still more then likely get a sony television to play it on.
What the fuck were they even thinking?

>>110772

Ignore. This thread gets accused of being "Xfaggots" or "Nintendrones" all the time and they wander in occasionally.

Call out and report /v/ posting when you see it. Then resume discussion.

>>110806

The "Sony is a beleaguered company betting on a games console" story from yesterday came from the Associated Press wire service. It's the sort of well researched and written article that gets picked up in national newspapers across the globe.

None of the gaming media would have the balls to run it or even talk about it.

It's rather obvious they are trying to stem talk about financial problems. I remember when Sega was going down, the actual financial media news was leaking into the gaming media. Same with the Microsoft investors (When even a shred of investigative journalism would show via a google search that both own less than 1% of the company and one was just looking for a board seat) and anything Nintendo.

I'd imagine they fear the Dreamcast repeat where if the actual proper news got into the gaming bubble, there would be more fear about it.

>>111070
A shame really. Brute and harsh reality is neededif proper encouragement or support for a company you love. Sometimes you need to know both sides of the business, not just the side you prefer.

>>112178

Even Fox News had to report that Romney lost and Republicans had to accept it. Reality is harsh.

The burial of the PS4 underperformance in Japan will be interesting in the gaming media.

>>112260
They can always spin it and blame whoever

>WiiU kills home console market in Japan

>>112260
Failure is always an imminent possibility for anything, just a difficult outcome to accept (particularly when it actually happens). It carries a heavy load of stigma through cognitive dissonance and such. Its almost treated as a taboo.

>>112387
Failure is seen as too bad by the society

Not even kidding

>>112387
Its just amazing with tbe Sony PR though. Im new to 4chan so the news that Sony being in terrible shape was eye opening moment. I was one of those people getting multiple information fromdifferent gaming sites. Yes I went to Neogaf a few times as well. (please dont hurt me) Business end of gaming was there but it was all roses and daisys for Sony. With business analysts saying that Sony is great and making bank. I wish I was lying, but I see it now as what it was. Damn good marketing. Failure or potential of it is important to know fir a business.

>>112489
Take every single piece of information you ever get access to with some skepticism.

At one point I pretty much forced all of my friends to watch Zeitgeist, then told them to research facts later, it gives insight on how easy it is to make someone believe something

>>112489
I don't think anyone here is going to railroad you for having been on neogaf, reddit, etc. so long as you don't act a retard (true of any place, really). But it's as >>112515 said. Mind what you read and do your research.

Personally, being a Nintendo fan has produced many a bitter pill for me to swallow at times, but I would rather that than continue on not knowing or having a better understanding. I'm glad this board now exists for these kinds of threads that would otherwise get buried elsewhere; I enjoy reading and learning about other (and arguably more important) parts of the industry. Can't have games without the business behind them; even the ones I don't like or care about.

>>112615
Just wanted to make sure. You get the stink eye from other gaming site forums should you ever mention 4chan for anything. Had no idea if same in reverse.

Ok I want to speak now about Microsoft and Xbox future and want to hear your guys oppinions about it.

this text is from another anon and from another thread:
>(Expect big announcements at April MS Build conference when they open the xbone app store) and have projects like "Cortana" doing real time speech to text translate and going further than Siri. Apple will be in that market by the end of the year. They didn't buy PrimeSense for nothing.
>No interest because basically it's already being done by one company (Expect them to royally shit themselves after MS Build has the App Store open in April and the big Apps like Endomondo and Nike + are on xbone) and another plans to have it by Holiday 2014 (The next apple TV doesn't look like it's going to be a big console competitor. A8 would get just about 360 level graphics but it's mainly going to be a TV plus fitness apps thing with the iSensor or whatever they will call their Kinect)

What catch my interest was the part about. realtime speech to text translation, now watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu-nlQqFCKg
I think Ms vision about Xbone and Kinect isn't bad, a Xbox in every household that run many entertainment/tv Apps, speaking with any person on the world through Skype and overcome the language barrier through a game console sounds cool.
Ms could have a chance in Japan with Xbone but not as a game console more as a App machine, ofc if they don't fuck up with their PR and software support for it.
What do you guys think about this?

>>112515

Why do you think this thread promotes such violent reactions at times? It breaks the bubble because we talk about real pressing issues and discuss how the company has huge problems with it's management (There is no sacred cow on /biz/ except the Bull). But that's business. If you buy shares because you like the company, you will be very quickly parted from your investment. Fanboying always ends ugly.

>>112615

It's significantly better to be informed about everything rather than blind yourself by fanboyism. It informs your approach.

>>112731

Probably better to discuss that in a general console thread because we discussed how marketing approaches work in Japan earlier in the thread and used MS and Apple as examples. It attracted some Sony fanboys in /v/ who immediately started shitting up the thread and accusing people of being Microsoft shills for actually discussing something using a competitor as an example. You have merit. Just wrong thread for it. People get "Sensitive" about these things, sadly.

>>112615
>Personally, being a Nintendo fan has produced many a bitter pill for me to swallow at times, but I would rather that than continue on not knowing or having a better understanding. I'm glad this board now exists for these kinds of threads that would otherwise get buried elsewhere

I'm going to go in a tangent and I honestly know this isn't really related to finances themselves but I think it's related to the board and to 4chan itself.

You absolutely can't have a decent discussion with random namecalling and rampant fanboyism, it's impossible, this is why the consolewars will never ever end.

Compare this two statements:

>Nintendo is living in the goddamned 90s, the fucking chinks DONT EVEN HAVE DECENT ONLINE how fucking retarded do you have to be, the worst shit being that their fanbase wille at whatever shit they release so as long as nintendrones are there they will perpetuate the cancer

>It surprises me that Nintendo hasn't invested more in a online infrastructure, online isn't a fad, it's going to stay, they are going to have to do it eventually, why not now?

The responses to these two statements will be dramatically different, even though they essentially state the same thing.

If you attack a company or a fanbase they will feel attacked and get into full defensive mode, their opinions WONT CHANGE and you WILL NOT have a constructive discussion. Ever.

This is as I see it why /v/ is such a cesspool, it's impossible to discuss anything anymore.

>>112757
>>Why do you think this thread promotes such violent reactions at times? It breaks the bubble because we talk about real pressing issues and discuss how the company has huge problems with it's management (There is no sacred cow on /biz/ except the Bull). But that's business. If you buy shares because you like the company, you will be very quickly parted from your investment. Fanboying always ends ugly.

Gaming journalism is rampant with fanboyism, it's meant to cash on the fanboyism and it will perpetuate it.

This won't change.

Notice how almost everybody who considers himself a fanboy of a company hates the other two by default, it's ridiculous

>>112856
>Gaming journalism is rampant with fanboyism, it's meant to cash on the fanboyism and it will perpetuate it.

I wonder if it's bubbling it. They are coddling Sony fanboys a lot lately because they are louder and more numerous. First big controversy or disappointment comes (It's Sony. The company that the Financial Times will start its reports with "A company known more for it's disappointments than gadgets lately...". It's inevitable) and it's heading for a backlash.

Plus, cash poor industry in the first place and you couldn't pay anyone off Reuters or AP to fucking cover gaming unless they are forced to. Whole thing is shitty, really.

Only thing that amuses me is when I search the ticker quote in twitter and see day traders declare they are putting their money on something because they like a related product so much.

>>112827
Not so much /v/ or 4chan as it is any other kind of gaming site. It's flat out hard to really discuss the business side without ridiculous interjections of fanboyism and various console war shit. Some of it is just to intentionally stir up hostile reactions which only further complicates things. Makes it into a mind-numbing and somewhat exhausting ordeal when all I want is to discuss and instead feel like I'm being backed into a corner because others won't relent out of whatever blind reasoning.

Sorry to really derail. I'll go back to my quiet lurking now.

>>112960
>I wonder if it's bubbling it. They are coddling Sony fanboys a lot lately because they are louder and more numerous. First big controversy or disappointment comes (It's Sony. The company that the Financial Times will start its reports with "A company known more for it's disappointments than gadgets lately...". It's inevitable) and it's heading for a backlash.

Clickbait out of anger is still clickbait, if Kotaku wrote an article (It pains me to refer to that shit "article") about how Sony is completely absolutely fucked, which title was literally "SONY IS DEAD" you can bet your dick it would get a fuckload of clicks.

>Plus, cash poor industry in the first place and you couldn't pay anyone off Reuters or AP to fucking cover gaming unless they are forced to. Whole thing is shitty, really.

You don't even really need cash in the gaming industry to "bribe" people, that's the beauty of it.

You just give exclusive access to material, and as you are the only source of information they either suck your dick or die

>>113029
>Not so much /v/ or 4chan as it is any other kind of gaming site. It's flat out hard to really discuss the business side without ridiculous interjections of fanboyism and various console war shit.

Doesn't even have to be related to the business side of it really.

If tomorrow was known that Kaz has a bigger dick than Iwata it would hit multiple gaming sites and it would be discussed for a week, it's sad

>Sorry to really derail. I'll go back to my quiet lurking now.

Same, even though it's nice to be able to discuss this kind of thing, this is no place to do that, /biz/ has a right to be /biz/ and not /v/ but keeping shit out/

>>112827
To be fair, Wii U online only has one fault, the lack of games that utilise it.

Oh the question I've been meaning to ask.

How is Sony losing money on the ps4? I've read multiple conflicting reports, but what I have seen the most is that Sony is nearly breaking even per console sold.

>>113393
You have to factor in RnD and Advertising

>>113393
Sony themself said they make loss with every PS4, the rumours about that Sony want to bundle every console with a PSeye and that the price was at $499 was probably true.
they didn't do it to beat MS at price, the hardware parts cost at least $381 then you must include the manufacturing, advertising and shipment cost.
And it won't be better now that the price for GDDR5 are increasing.

>>113393
>>113445
The console itself is also sold at a loss, stated by Sony itself.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-09-20-sony-expects-to-recoup-playstation-4-hardware-loss-at-launch?

Also (and this is the kind of funny thing that happens in the market) the increase of interest in cryptocurrencies (yes, bitcoin and dogecoin and that kind of crap) has increased the demand of graphic cards (which are used to "mine" these cryptocurrencies) which in turn increases the demand for DDR5, which is what the PS4 uses, so we can expect for its assembly cost to increase, rather than decrease, in the near future.

>>113445
>You have to factor in RnD and Advertising

I'm almost certain advertising has been written off in some other division to make gaming division numbers prettier, looking at all the shit going on they have had to spend a fuckload on it

>>113489
>(which are used to "mine" these cryptocurrencies
Why do you need graphics cards to mine a virtuell currency?

>>112757
Who's the Bull? Steve Ballmer?

>>113485
>>113489
even if they sell consoles at a loss, shouldn't they still be making a considerable amount of money on games and other accessories? lots of businesses sell products at a loss and make the profit through selling related products.

>Not knowing about the Charging Bull

Leave.

>>113544
Mining basically consists of solving equations, more powerful graphics card => faster mining.

Although the reason graphics cards are used for this instead of the CPU escapes me as I don't have that much knowledge about hardware

>>113588
They might down the line and it's how was traditionally done, the thing is that the trend in electronics now is to profit on release because the economy is meh and you can't take anything for granted

>>112731
Apparently Japan marketing actually managed to make IE popular. If they can pull something like that off, then there is most certainly some hope for the Xbox.

>>113627
There are mining alternatives for people to use CPU instead, and I think it used something that Graphic Cards are good at.

>>113657
So all they need is a cute cartoon girl to market the xbox brand too?

>>113643

You need the "Apple Tax", Basically. Also, there are things you may not see coming like the Cyrptocurrency boom.

Everything in business is a risk. Undercutting the competition while on such margins may have been a mistake.

>>113702

Good marketing is always part of the business equation. If that means the public wants cartoon girls, give them cartoon girls

>>113702
Wouldn't even be surprised, if Windows OS has it, why not?

>>113728
>Also, there are things you may not see coming like the Cyrptocurrency boom.


Cryptocurrency boom is not even close to the curveball that was the NSA scandal with the Xbone

Imagine if that hadn't happened

>>113738
>>113657
If the Xbone becomes popular in Japan after a marketing campaign starring a xbone-tan and an actually decent library of weeb games, the shitstorm is going to last weeks or maybe months, there is a good amount of people who bought a PS4 solely because of that

>>113702
>Introducing IE tan's tsundere (?) friend, Xbox tan
>Hobbies include Kinect head rubs and tickling

Something like that

Just stopped by to say:

>PS4
>Alphafags

Okay, so all those profits the ps4 is making is not really profit? That is not a good thing is it?

As a pc gamer, this is good news
As a gamer, this kind of is bad news but possibly good as it lets new guys take over for the sick man of Japan.
As someone who just listens to news, meh just another failing conpany.

>Try to make fucking everything
>Make bullshit like this
>Proprietary connectors and media everywhere

This isn't surprising.

>>113797

It's a poor margin for such a high in demand product. You would expect something like $400-500 million plus. Something was allowed to go horrifically wrong.

>>113974

It's not just that. The Music and Pictures section had a massive hissyfit at the advent of the internet and started trying to block everything. They were extremely late into MP3 players because of it and what they did produce was awful DRM filled crap on the MP3 players and the Audio CD's they sold.

They completely shunned the internet and got BTFO by every other tech company who went in on it like Apple.

It's a history of massive missed opportunities and hostility to future distribution. The only thing to complete the irony would be an Apple buy out.

kek

>>113760
If they get a dragons quest game that is the only thing that moves consoles there, o do you mean otakus? Because everybody has pc

>>108731
Sega in the 90s is pretty much a textbook example of how not to manage a company.

The 32x and the Saturn had overlapping development phases but the teams working on each project were unaware of each other's existence.

>>113379
I'm a Nintendo fan but I would say they still lag behind their competitors in term of online infrastructure, especially in terms of online identities and having digital purchases tied to them rather than the console.

Having said that though, they are the last one of the big three to not charge for online play so at least there's that.

>>113769
Good idea or not?

Also, it asks you how your day went and makes a rudimentary effort to try to cheer you up.

>>110552
Funny how Cave going for MS didn't save them.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/27/japanese-shoot-em-up-developer-cave-ceasing-western-presence/

Still, what did those smaller devs expect developing for a console no fucker in Japan bought?

>>115260
With Ikaruga coming to Steam I'm hoping we'll see more shmup presence on PC. The 3DS has a few also, I'd love to see more support for shmups on Nintendo systems.

Real shame about Cave though.

>>109859

RED kicks their ass at video cameras, Nikon and Canon kick their shit in at SLRs.

>>110652

It won't, expect early PS2 graphics at best.

>>115260
>After marketing its games exclusively in Japan for many years, Cave made great strides toward establishing a presence in the West with iOS ports of its popular bullet hell shoot-'em-ups DoDonPachi Resurrection, Espgaluda 2, and Bug Princess.

Wow, i don't know how it is in japan but i can guarantee that the western iOS crowd wouldn't touch the bullet hell genre.

>>110617
I don't blame him for wanting a different TV. With that many consecutive failures I'd get a different TV as well.

>>100000

>>116729
To be fair, Trinitron CRTs were among the best on the market in their time, so from a consumer point of view the next iteration looked to be a sure thing. Sony customer service and warranty used to be great as well, with quick turnover for repair and replacement (a refurbished model was more often than not of higher quality than a factory unit). Cash hemorrhaging and a combination of floods and earthquakes around their manufacturing base tore that away from them.
Following on the subject, the early 3D Sony flat screens had a lot of promise, likely thanks to the Sony hype machine, but ultimately fell flat, and then the 2009/2010 recall debacle poisoned consumer confidence in the brand even further. They made so many simple mistakes, the biggest in my opinion being the NX/HX series. Glass screen LED? It's like taking the pitfalls of both LED and Plasma (off color and highly reflective/fragile/expensive panels) and selling them as features. Not to mention how horrible the XMB was/is as a TV interface for general use.

Pioneer/Panasonic Neo plasmas; they were where the real quality was. Still devastated that they've scaled back to special order only, sucked that the ZT series never made it to Australian retail, but my 42/55 GT30s are still fucking beautiful.

>>89138
>>It's rumored that Amazon is going to buy Sony's entertainment division.
They're selling Sony Music, Sony Pictures, AND Sony Computer Entertainment? What?

Wouldn't it collectively get a higher bid if they sold them individually? (e.g. SME to Victor or UMG, SCEI to Amazon or Apple, SPE to TWX, Disney)

>>94150
>PS4 Marketing
As long as we're on that, how come I haven't seen any ads for Wii U or any PS4 ads besides that Taco Bell promotion or for individual software? Maybe I don't watch the programming they're targeting, though I don't see why it wouldn't make sense to advertise it during college basketball or Olympics coverage.

>>117143
Nintendo's marketing sucks huge balls.

That's about it

>>117171
That's strange since they spammed Wii ads everywhere when it first came out.

I hope they get better, though, just to kill this whole "Multimedia center games console" fad once and for all. They're $150 cheaper than PS4 and they have a healthier lineup, but from what we've learned from Dreamcast, those two things don't always translate to financial success.

>>117192
Multimedia box is the safe bet, that's why MS have taken it three times, and Sony three times with the PS2, PSX (dvr) and PS3. Nintendo did try and get in on it at one point with the Panasonic Q Gamecube, which was a nice DVD player in itself, but released it too late into a market that had been thoroughly dominated by PS2 sales and wrote it off as a failure. I mean, Wii/WiiU have gimped DVD and Blu Ray drives respectively, and with the right software you can get the functionality out of them, but they won't put it on there themselves because they want the focus to be on gaming.
Of course as we inch closer to an entirely digital media ecosystem, and I say inching because there are the consumer demographics of slow adopters and those who staunchly refuse to adopt new tech, disc drives are becoming irrelevant. All the WiiU needs is a bigger hard drive built in, and it will have all the multimedia functionality it needs to compete with the other two. As a gamer I think all of them should be focusing on games, but thinking as a broader consumer (and what business/marketing education has drilled into me) they need to cover as many bases as possible. I think Stephen Colbert put it best a couple of years ago taking about the iPhone, and to paraphrase; it's no longer about having the most toys, it's about having the toy that can do the most things. The market has shown this is a successful strategy, and the WiiU could stand to gain ground if it took that approach.

>>115260
>Still, what did those smaller devs expect developing for a console no fucker in Japan bought?

They didn't really have a choice. Sony wouldn't allow retail releases of those games in the first place as they would block 2D games for the first few years. MS would allow them to release on disc in Japan which was much more important to them back then.

>>115437

No one did. Hence why they shut it down.

>>117131

Sony Entertainment: Music and Movies. They would probably get a very high bid for music and movies combined since the asset value is ridiculously high and it's relatively debt free.

SCE would probably be a separate concern. Wouldn't be sure on the asset value though. PS4 has a high install base and some IP value, but a legacy of debt that would need to be bought out as well.

>>116872
>Trinitron CRTs were among the best on the market in their time

I used to have a Trinitron CRT from the early 90s and it really was head and shoulders above the competition. I was able to keep it for so long because it was ahead of its time with 60hz and NTSC compatibility.

There was a time when Sony were the brand to buy in AV equipment, they cost more but when you handed over the cash you knew you were getting a quality product that would last for years. Now though? There is no way I would buy any of their products.

>>118345
My father bought one in 95, lasted until 2004 when a major power surge killed it. Then he bought a Philips that lasted two years before going brown, then a Samsung CRT that lasted a year and a half before the sound started to drop in quality and the IR receiver stopped working. After clearing my own debt I bought the family the 55 Panasonic Plasma, and after two and a half years its yet to have a single problem. As far as consumer HiFi goes, the Panasonic and LG are the only companies I still have confidence in. Hell, we have a 15 year old LG VCR that still works fine. The only Sony items I've bought in the last five years are a second hand PSP (good for long flights when I don't need to work) and a home theater setup that I bought under cost from a retailer I consult for. The sound is only marginally better than the built in TV speakers, but the people wanted surround, so I delivered.

Actually, that leads me to another point; the 2012/13 proprietary soundbar for the HX series Bravias that could only be used as a stand for the screen, incompatible with other brands. Pants on head retarded

>>110552

Well ps4 is not ps3 and xbone is not 360 maybe for the develophing side perhaps is easier to dev on ps4

>>118621
>proprietary

Basically 50% of what fucked Sony up as a company (bad management being the other 50%) was trying to control the ecosystem of everything thanks to pressure from the music and film divisions (Biggest MPAA and RIAA contributors by far) which extended out into the smallest shit like Camera memory cards and Soundbars.

Samsung's market growth is basically down to not just being cheap, but comparable. Buy a Samsung soundbar and it's compatable with the majority of flatscreens. Same with most of their products. Locked ecosystems don't work any more but Sony don't realise that.

>>89138
Sony isn't bankrupt. Sony has lots of money and isn't going bankrupt.

>>118722
What is the latest propietary formats from sony in the last years?

>>118795
They made the Vita only compatible with proprietary Vita memory cards, despite already having their own proprietary format which they use for all their other products.

The worst part is that Vita cards cost 2-3x a comparable SD.

>>118795
Vita memory cards come to mind, along with the game carts themselves. They seem to have this obsession with format wars, tempered by losing the VHS/Betamax battle, made worse by Blu Ray coming out on top of HDDVD. They've convinced themselves they shit gold. You'd think UMD and Minidisc formats falling flat might have humbled them.

>>118845
Small manufacturing base and desperation to make something about the Vita profitable. It's a nice little machine, really, but consumers at large haven't a shit to give; nothing about it screams "must have"

>>118911
I can understand the logic behind the expensive proprietary card but it really is short sighted. I considered buying a Vita but was turned off by the memory cards and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Affordable memory cards would also lead to a boost in digital sales, which are more profitable than games sold on physical media.

>>118942
Aside from a lack of time for portable gaming (constantly working on the go, so if I'm going to play video games I'm going to take the time and do it on a big screen with full controller and/or keyboard functionality), two things turned me off Vita: the memory cards, and the fact that the 3G model was locked exclusively to Vodafone in Australia, one of the worst telcos in terms of coverage and speed. Not that I could think of any reason to actually use cellular, but there was no way it would happen if Voda was involved.
Really, though, Voda AU and Sony seem like a perfect match.

>>118967
I don't really get the point of the 3G model, it doesn't seem like a good enough connection for playing games online and the web browser/social network apps are rendered redundant by smartphones.

To then tie them to a single mobile network is just pure idiocy, I guess AT&T paid them a fair sum to do it but the announcement was met by very loud booing and showed how well received the move was,

I think they were either planning to or already have discontinued it in favour of just producing the wifi model.

>>119005
3G-model is idiotic because you cant play games via it the main appeal of a handheld aside from being portable

>>119005
Had they gone for a solely WiFi model from the start it might have been met with a little more success, and might have helped shift some Sony handsets as well (wireless tethering is surprisingly good with experia, though the Bluetooth leaves something to be desired).

The Vita itself doesn't seem to know what it is, really. It's marketing itself as an ultra powerful handheld console, almost on par with 7th generation home consoles, but it's not living up to the hype. At best it'll be a nice accessory for the PS4 with remote play, but it might end up going the way of the Pocketstation if Sony end up spinning off SCE. Former exclusives being ported is not a good sign, even if it is a low-rated Assassins Creed spinoff.

>>119135
I think the Vita's problem stems from the fact that it's sold as the home console experience on a handheld but in reality people want a different experience on their handhelds.

I bought the Ocarina of Time port on 3DS but rarely play it because it's the kind of game where I like to play in blocks of at least an hour. A handheld game should have the "pick up and play" quality where I can squeeze in a quick ten minutes while waiting for a train or whatever.

>>119183
Definitely, the identity crisis is part of the problem why the vita isnt selling
also sony's inability to market potential system sellers like tearaway. it sold about 0.3m

>>119249
SCE completely gutted their marketing department in a bid to save costs but what's the point in publishing games if no-one's ever going to hear about them?

>>119265
A lot of people tend to jump on Microsoft over Xbox One's PR issues, understandably, but they at least have an active PR department who know how to spin. I mean, the things are selling, and from what I've seen they're rather scarce. I'll paraphrase something I'm writing up for a report I'm meant to submit tomorrow. Stocktake is coming up soon for this company in a couple of months and we're looking to trim the fat with hardware stock. Too much sluggish stock bolsters store targets and makes things hard for salespeople.

Retailer X, one of the biggest sellers of consoles/games/entertainment in my country, is only able to get in a dozen per store at a time, and those are usually sold within a day or two if they haven't been held aside for preorders. Playstation 4, on the other hand, is shipping twice that amount and they're not selling. The stores have been told by Sony to keep the "preorder now, in stock soon!" signage up until April, allegedly so demand doesn't outstrip supply, but shipments are stacking and taking up storage room out back. We're waiting until a couple of other games come out to see if the slack will pick up, but if it doesn't we are recommending the retailer halves their orders.
Vita sales for retailer X have been weak from the beginning, though they were smart and bought OLED units in bulk at a huge discount as soon as the slim version was announced. So Sony are making a bigger loss on that, and this retailer will be able to sell the old units for the same or lower price than the slims whilst making an acceptable margin on them. They're all sitting in a warehouse somewhere, ready to be distributed to stores nationwide, so they're not a big concern.

I'm almost certain that the 5.3 million units sold have not actually been sold through, and would wager the actual number is closer to 4.5 taking the Japanese release into account. That's still an impressive number, but we're never going to hear Sony say that it's all at a loss.

>>119521
cont.
On the MS front, additional orders have been placed for XO units as a buffer in case Titanfall turns out to be a system seller, but MS have given the retailer the option to scale back in the following weeks if it isn't so they don't end up swamped with stock. Even if they do end up swamped, head office will just bounce online orders directly to stores instead of to the warehouses.

I know this is not the thread for it, but one has to wonder what would have happened if the Xbox One had released in the originally intended 22 countries, or more, instead of staggering it the way they have. All we can do is speculate.

Back on topic though, Sony's mix of poor and cunning marketing. The Vita is pretty much a PS4 accessory now, with the retailers scaling back the dedicated section to a fraction of the size. It is the red headed stepchild of this gaming generation. PS4, on the other hand, is riding the hype train hard by omitting certain truths. It is the more capable system, graphically, but it's a loss leader. What people were saying about a PS+ subscription making it profitable don't factor in that the vast majority of subscriptions are being carried over from PS3/Vita owners, not creating new revenue, and aside from a rough 40% attachment for Killzone they have nothing happening first party games. Knack has sold half a million, but that's a launch game picked less than ten percent of the alleged launch buyers, and Driveclub's delay has more than likely missed the hype train. PS4 may play multiplats better, but they're not nearly as profitable now as they were last gen, and Sony's only seeing a fraction of that money. Worse yet, the publishers are pushing price drops already to compete with current gen, shrinking their profits further.

>>119521
>>119673

>I'm almost certain that the 5.3 million units sold have not actually been sold through, and would wager the actual number is closer to 4.5 taking the Japanese release into account. That's still an impressive number, but we're never going to hear Sony say that it's all at a loss.

I wouldn't be shocked since EA said they "Missed forecasts" on Software sales for Sony platforms during the last quarterly. That felt like a "smoking gun" to me that it's not doing what they want us to believe or something went very wrong last year.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's offers to try start pumping up software attach soon. Especially as component prices are raising due to Cyrpto currency demand and whatever Apple is doing.

>>119748
There are, actually, saw a memo about it on Friday. Keep in mind this is AU pricing.

>PS4 Killzone Bundle Feb/March: Price PS4 500GB SKU @ $548, attach PS4 Killzone Shadowfall @ $50 manually through POS

Considering Killzone is priced at $89 normally, I imagine this is to make up for the lack of the pack-in SKU that had the extra controller and camera (they were shorted on the order for that SKU). It's razor thin, but a push nonetheless. Infamous would be a better bundle to move new units, but they can't afford to eat the loss on that. It will be some time before we see PS4 games launching with console bundles, like the later days of PS3 (bundling Assassins Creed 3/4, TLoU, and GTA V moved a lot of consoles last year)

How will the RIAA and MPAA react to their biggest supported dying

>>119921

I'm surprised they aren't trying to push even more on that to pump margins. It wasn't uncommon to see stores bundle hard last year with 3-4 games and accessories a pumped price to take advantage of the "Must have" status.

>>120019

Panic. Absolute panic. Especially if Apple or Amazon buy them as that pretty much means the old RIAA and MPAA will get pushed out for supporters of Apple and Amazon's methods (And the RIAA are still mad as fuck about DRM-Free music)

Also the irony that the biggest DRM pusher in the history of media had to push a DRM-Free console to nail the opposition on marketing. I bet there was internal murder over that and very pissed people in the Music and Film division because that just created a company reputation and if Music and Film start getting protectionist again. Internet backlash ahoy.

>>118942
>I considered buying a Vita but was turned off by the memory cards and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

You are not.

And it's not even about money, I completely refuse to support such a market practice

>>119521
>That's still an impressive number, but we're never going to hear Sony say that it's all at a loss.

In all fairness it's marketing and hype for the userbase, wouldn't really make sense to state that

>>119673
>I know this is not the thread for it, but one has to wonder what would have happened if the Xbox One had released in the originally intended 22 countries, or more, instead of staggering it the way they have. All we can do is speculate.

I'd rather wonder what would have happened without the NSA scandal, which in a big way was the reason as to why the console got a fuckload of bad PR in the first place

>>108731
Lets not forget the neptune

Not really related to Sony, but is the smartphone industry a bubble, /biz/?

>>92311
It would be better if Sony were allowed to just die and fade away. They're junk status and no one is stupid enough to waste money on them, which is why they're hyping their ps4 like crazy. It's the only thing they can do before it's all over.

>>120549

Not unless a major technological advancement renders them useless, demand will only keep rising as economies progress. Seeing that a watch-phone is the only thing in sight to kick out the smartphone and it's a fucking watchphone (lol) I doubt it. Also, smartphones are designed to break after a year, genius business plan tbh, forces people to continue buying them. Will anyone decide to make a brick smartphone? I doubt it, game theory, and even if it was as sturdy as a brick people would still drop them in toilets, AND it wouldn't significantly change the market

>this thread
so do none of you even read the articles that are posted?

Sony is spinning off it's TV into a separate entity, but it will still be owned by Sony.
Sony is selling VAIO. It has stopped it's Sony Reader Online store too.

that's it. they are still operating. they are not breaking up.

>OPs first article is from May 2013
>second article just says they are considering some of the suggestions Loeb made in May 2013

>>120702

I just got in here and thats what i thought too, first article's first few paragraphs just talk about an IPO that would sell 20% of the company, how is that a breakup?

>>120691
Oh, I meant the smartphone game industry.

>>117432
I have to say that I like Nintendo's approach to a media center because adding streaming like from Amazon, Netflix, and HBO doesn't add to hardware costs the same way a DVD or BD drive does, though unless they change the way they package their internet-delivered software, there will always be a market for the physical disc or cartridge.

>>104086
are people really still buying bitcoins even after silkroad and whatnot has gone under? seems like a giant bubble with huge potential downside

>>122899

About 50 new silk roads started up after the original was shut by the Feds. Granted. Half those are Fed honeytraps. But hyrda effect just scattered everything. Bitcoin fell but other currencies are gaining. People are going to still go at it for a long, long time and will still buy cards which means GDDR5 will still be in high demand.

>>123703
Bump limit has been reached, the thread continues here.

>>121072
3DS still sells pretty well. If EA is going to try and fuck over Nintendo, it doesn't look like they're very successful at it.

>>121683
I'm of the mind that if nintendo had a better online infrastructure and had dvd playback out of the box it would be sitting at 200 million+ in sales right now and sell in excess of 10-50k a week world wide from now on.

But they fucking cheaped out on this. What would it have cost them again?
One fucking dollar? Ten? It would have been fucking worth it.

>>125218
>But they fucking cheaped out on this. What would it have cost them again? One fucking dollar? Ten? It would have been fucking worth it.
They would need to pay licensing fees to Toshiba, Panasonic, and the rest of the members of the DVD Forum, they'd also need to include CD audio and video playback along with licensing and/or hardware fees to Dolby Labs and DTS.

Wii was very much capable of DVD playback, but my guess is that including it would've meant raising the launch price above and beyond $300, which didn't make sense even in 2006 since DVD had by that point mostly saturated the market.

I don't know who still uses optical discs on a regular basis for video playback unless it's some specialty thing, like pic related, which was the last physical BD I remember ordering.