Network now...NEWS
Sony Cuts Profit Outlook by 57%
Coinciding with the news that the PS3 is hitting rock-bottom sales figures in Japan, Sony has announced it is cutting its profit forecast by an alarming 57%.
While Sony had previously estimated a ¥470b profit for the period, the firm has made a shocking revision to that figure to account for the strong Yen that is cutting into Japan’s export business. Sony's revised operating profit estimates relate to the full year ending in March 2009.
Sony said in a statement that it now expects an operating profit of ¥200b. Sony shares dropped 6.3% in Tokyo ahead of the announcement.
Sony has cited its games division as one of the key areas to expect a fall. “We expect our results to be lower than the July forecast with operating income decreasing by approximately ¥130b, mainly within the Electronics and the Game segments,” the company said.
Multiple reports in Edge see the PS3 leaking sales in key areas such as Japan, the US and Europe. Earlier today we reported Famitsu’s estimates that the PS3 sold just 4,800 units in Japan for the week ending Oct 17.
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Sure you coul have gyak. I think this is the first time I've agreed with you and ozz at the same time. ^^
/popping champagne ;p
Speaking of you and Ozz, where is Kenology? He's the other one I tend to butt heads with.
Serves Sony right, maybe they will cut back on the arrogance and lies now but i doubt it.
Well I for one don't want to see any of them fail. I own all 3 and like them all for different reasons. 360 is my favorite for the moment, but could change based on what comes out for the PS3. Wii is a great get together with a lot people type game system, but aside from that I don't use it much.
PS3 is great blu-ray player and I use it for my primary player. So it is defnitely dependable. I'm also one of the fortunate one's it seems, that my 360 Elite has never red ringed on me.
Competition is a good thing and each system having some success make the competing companies try that much harder to get ahead. If Sony or Microsoft were the only act, the prices would not fall nearly as quickly. So enjoy it when one company does something great or comes out with a really good game, knowing the competition will not allow that sucess to go unchallenged for long. In the end we all win from this.
Who will win in the end? I have no idea, but I'm not going to stress over that and just enjoy what each company brings out for their system.
Have fun with whatever system is your preference.............it's all about the games anyway
It seems where one falters, the other excels, but neither at the same time. It took me out of the game and that's unforgiveable.
No question Sony finds itself in a tough spot. They're not in a position to price drop, the economy makes it harder to expand their audience at the present price point and the exchange rate only exacerbates the situation. The PS3 should turn out profitable in the end, but I feel very strongly that this will go down in Sony's history as their most disappointing console generation (In terms of sales, market share and perception).
What is up with all the hate on this site? Sony this Sony that? Have you realized they have 3 healthy platforms out? All I hear is X360 in every SONY post. Well gee, let me see.... M$ had one year lead and what they are up by what? 5 mill? WTF? Price had to be cut in order to steal the momentum from SONY. Think about it if M$ was not loosing in sales compared to PS3, it wouldn't consider that cut. Anyhow lets not forget that this season M$ might beat SONY then think about the future when this SYSTEM drops - Its still better bang for the buck no matter what you look at it. DB/DVD/CD/PS1/PS2/PS3 all for 4 benjies. It also can browse etc... Has all the same games that you would find on X360, at least the multi plats. Oh and lets not forget how big SWWS is...
P.S This sale jump for MS will only be short lived, so will be the loss for SONY. There is nothing to worry about. Plus its the NA market that has what the most sales? Lets not forget the economic situation... IMO everyone will do just fine...
My problem with the Xbox is two fold... One, that they're selling busted up systems to everyone, and the second part is that people know it and buy them, their system breaks and they keep buying replacements. (1 replacement I can almost understand... But 3 to 5 replacements?)
And I really don't know who I'm ticked at the most, MS or the players.
If we (the gamers) allow this to keep happening, it'll soon become the standard. I don't want that to happen and I'm sure most clear headed players don't want that to happen.
My problem with Sony is that it's just way to overpriced and there's only a few games I'd really be interested in playing anyways. We can now buy blueray players for half the price.
The problem I have with both is that I can get media from anywhere, and it seems that that's where most of their focus is and not on gaming per se.
Monkey,
I didn't finish reading your post cause I had to stop and say something. The 360 has INCEASED its conosle lead over Sony since Sony launched. Sony has not made up any ground and has fallen further behind MS. So, technically speaking, if MS had launced day and date with the PS3 based on their console sales so far, the 360 would still be in the lead. So launching first may have gave them an edge, and maybe if the installed base was even MS wouldn't be fairing quite as well (if it launched on the same day) but it didn't.
And steal the momentum? Sony BARELY had an edge over the 360 on annual console sales so far this year and MS almost knocked that down with one month (september).
All those features may be great, but obviously its not what enough gamers want or else people would be buying it. You're saying it has all those features so it SHOULD be outselling the 360, but its not. Ok, great point. The Wii has none of those and its smashing the PS3, bullet points don't mean anything to most people.
I'm sure everyone will do just fine. And no, its not just the NA market. The 360 leads the PS3 in worldwide console sales, software and accessory revenue. It even leads the Wii in software sales and overrall revenue. People aren't PS3 bashing, they're PS3 truth-telling. If you don't like the facts, naming features the PS3 has isn't going to make the facts change no matter how bad you want the PS3 to be in the lead.
In the end I'm sure the PS3 will turn out profitable, but there's only about 2 years left in this console cycle, so I'll be enjoying next gen goodness and could care less (as I do now with PS2 sales) about if the PS3 ends up doing well.
"there's only about 2 years left in this console cycle, so I'll be enjoying next gen goodness and could care less"
Couldn't help but laughed out loud at this. Bro, you seriously believe that the Nextbox (whatever will be its name) will mark the 'next-gen' in console gaming, and it will be a huge step forward technically, as the ps2 - ps3 step was.
You wish. What if the 720 will be a slightly modified 360? Just because things won't be that easy than before. Last time HD gaming did the trick, but next time rough horsepower won't make a difference. The real next-gen won't start tomorrow you know, and you'll stick to the ol' 360 for years to come, whether you like it or not. Just mark my word.
(Sorry to sound like a Sony trollboy, but can't stand this premature next-next-gen BS.)
As usual, not true. This graph shows the sales of each console, as if they had launched at the same time. PS3 > 360 at this stage in their lives.
http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php
Coop, c'mon. You need to pay a bit more attention to what I said. Yes, you're absolutely correct, the 360's first year wasn't that good (the PS3 had a better FIRST year than 360 did), ironically enough, the 360 didn't start really picking up sales until the PS3 launched. Weird huh?
My point was, and here's some simple math for you. If the 360 was...say at 5 million consoles sold when the PS3 launched. And say within the first year the PS3 generates 6 million sales. Yes that means the PS3 had a better first year when compared to the 360's FIRST year. Well, now what if I told you that during Sony's FIRST year (the 360's SECOND year) the 360 sold 7 million consoles (I'm just throwing numbers out there). So that would have meant that when the PS3 launched, MS only had a 5 million console lead. One year after the PS3 launched the 360 increased its lead from 5 million to 6 million? You see? Simple math. I didn't ever say MS had a better first year than Sony did, I said that the 360 increased its console lead over the PS3 since the PS3 has been out. And no, that is not wrong.
Here's the link to total US sales up to June 2008 (I took the liberty researching and adding July, August and September numbers for both the 360 and PS3 which are readily available on that same website).
http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/NPD_Seventh_generation
360 US sales from launch to PS3's launch (360's console lead) - 2,667,000
360 US sales to date- 11,208,000
PS3's US sales to date- 5,496,100
360's US sales to date lead INCREASE over the PS3- 3,044,000
360's Total US console lead over PS3- 5,711,000
So by taking the 360's total console lead to date at 5,711,000 and subtract their lead at Sony's launch (a weak lead of only 2,667,000) you will get the number 3,044,000, which is 3 million systems MS has INCREASED their lead over Sony. Their total lead is 5.7 million.
2.6 million Console lead over the PS3 when PS3 launches. They manage to more than double their lead over the PS3 since the PS3 has been out to 5.7 million consoles.
So, as I said before...MS' 360 has increased their launch lead of 2.6 million consoles over Sony's PS3 to an embarrassing 5.7 million consoles. Could I be any more clear as to what I mean Coop? Ok, so the PS3 had a better first year than MS had...so what. MS had a better 2nd year than Sony's 1st year, and MS is going to have a better 3rd year than Sony's 2nd year. What's your point?
MS is annually increasing their lead over Sony. Maybe next year will be Sony's year???
(edit) Ok, seems I gave the PS3 way too much credit. The PS3 did not sell more consoles in its first year than the 360 did in its first year.
1st year 360 sales: 2,667,000
1st year PS3 sales: 1,982,000
2nd year 360 sales (November-September only since the PS3 has only had 11 months so far in its 2nd year)
360- 3,834,000
PS3- 3,515,000
The total of those two numbers does not equal the current TOTAL of 360's sold since its not counting the 360's October 2007 to September 2008 numbers.
So it looks like in the US, the PS3's rate of sale is actually slower than the 360's year to year (if counting from each system's respective launches).
My guess is, you were talking worldwide sales, not US sales. But the 360 has the lead there, too. ^^
(2nd edit)
Ok, to give Sony a bit of credit, so far counting from January of 2008 to now, the PS3 has sold 165,100 more consoles than the 360 has. So, these last 3 months will be interesting to see if the PS3 can hold on to that lead. My guess at their chances of pulling that off...zero.
It's pretty amazing that Sony could actually be falling further behind - I'd been wondering what the exact statistics were.
The only variable I would add to your analysis is geographic distribution. 360 is pulling ahead on a global basis, but PS3 sells more evenly across the three main geographies. You could see this in two ways:
1. 360's success over PS3 is overstated because of its very weak sales in key geographies. PS3 may be selling less overall, but it's selling more widely and actually has a big advantage in Japan and Europe (apart from the UK). So PS3 is succeeding in territories that 360 isn't.
2. 360's success over PS3 is actually more impressive than you might think, because it's not even doing that well outside of the US and UK. If it's extending its lead on a global basis mostly from sales in two territories, that means that in those territories it's smashing PS3 by a larger margin than is widely appreciated.
I think there's truth in both points of view - PS3 will likely always be the hardcore console of choice in Japan (assuming the current 360 surge is a blip and won't continue forever), but 360 is consistently extending its lead elsewhere. This explains some of the problems that Japanese developers are having in translating hit domestic titles into international sales - hence some high-profile titles moving to DS (which sells well everywhere), receiving 360 ports or even being developed exclusively for western audiences.
They might be better off giving away the hardware to 11 million non Xbox Live people and making up the difference in services.
What services?
They make a certain amount of profit per game sold, yes, but 11 million consoles x $200+ per console = $2.2B or more. I don't see them being able to make that up with "services" ever.
2-3 billion is a drop in the bucket for sony... satellite companies give away their hardware all the time to get subscribers.
If sony doesn't do something, they'll lose all the hardware, development costs, software and any services they do come up with.
The economy is gonna fall hard shortly.
I'd drop 500-600 into services, and software if I had the hardware. That'd be a little bit of a recoup if 11 million people got on the bus.
If you do the conversion, Sony's ENTIRE OPERATING PROFIT would go to pay for all those PS3s.
Which, in turn, would drive their stock price through the floor.
Which would spiral thier company into death faster than you could say hamhocks.
It won't be long before that happens anyway
Ok, I really doubt it would take 11 million units to do what I suggest. Mainly because there probably aren't very many more people that interested in gaming in general. Most of the people who want to play games are already playing.
If they did half of that, the outcome would be half as great, but still have a tremedous impact.
Edit: What's the new law? Only allowed to sell 40% of stock? I forgot.
2 -3 billion might be a "drop in the bucket" for Sony corp oveall, but for the Games division, that is a big chunk of change, especially if they're still taking a loss on every console sold. Isn't 3 billion the total estimated cost Xbox has spent on the RRoD fiasco? That's a big hit in profitability for anyone.
That's true, but that's what I'd do.... "Clearance!" are them hamhocks ready yet?
And you know what?... People would love me for it.
I'd say... bundle the PS3 with an exciting game for the same price. Assuming that's what they did with LittleBigPlanet, I guess their sales might go up at least a little after its release.
Problem is, that's only a short term solution. Look how MSG4 was touted as THE game to have, a definite system seller, yet only moved a limited # of systems, and only for a short period of time. This would only be a bandage to a bigger sore.
In the month of its release and before it, PS3 sales doubled. So... it's all in the eye of the beholder. :)
Sony definitely has a lot of work ahead... but despite owning both Microsoft and Sony's machines, I feel that the former is at the end of its lifespan while the latter is still developing - and has a better future.
and your eye beholds 2 months as NOT a temporary solution to a larger problem?
Haha - actually, it does see there's a larger issue at hand. It's just that a lot of people have already given up on the brand, it seems. I do realize that the company is in trouble when it comes down to their PS3 sales - but I still think things can get better.
Oh, i completly agree with you. Sony still has PLENTY of time and opportunity to make up ground. But, I don't think relying on AAA exclusive titles is the only answer. It's a PIECE of the puzzle, but i think Sony relies too much on it. They won't have a MGS4 title every few months. Using that as their selling point over the holidays, versus a price cut like Microsoft did, in my opinion, isn't gonna measure up.
Agreed. Couldn't say it better myself.