BibiMaghoo
Member
I would imagine that making 10,000 people redundant is a large factor in this. Even if the redundancy payment is only 10k, that's still a hundred, million dollars. Laying that many people off is extremely expensive.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Sony doubles forecast of annual loss to $6.4bn
- Thread starter DarkChild
- Start date
Infamous Chris
Banned
Please don't give Samsung any more ideas than they already have.
bigtroyjon
Member
Will go towards next fiscal year which makes me wonder how big the actual net profit will be next year when all of the one time costs are factored into their projected operating income.
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
and taking it home
Yet, their lack of it makes mainstream people can't use their TV for streaming on the most popular sites. In Sweden streaming is incredibly popular and all major channels have their own high-quality streaming site, uploading new shows and movies every week. But, they mostly use Flash or Silverlight.
It's important to separate the browser and Apps. Netflix and similar big companies obviously have the economical strength to do apps for a lot of platforms, but many others don't. Specially the ones here in Europe that only cover one small country, that doesn't have 300 million inhabitants like the US. They can afford programming a Internet streaming site (potential customers: all PC owners), but programming an App for a small platform like Sony TV? No.
So, since Sony have more or less no App support (Youtube, Skype, Eurosport and a couple others but nothing major), people are forced to use the browser to visit the streaming sites. Since they all use Flash, Sony TV owners are fucked.
Samsung, on the other hand, both has a huge App marketplace AND Flash support. A couple TV companies (I think Philips, LG and Panasonic?) are teaming up for a shared app platform á la Android phone OS. Sony, on the other hand, are continuing on their own.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Yep, their lineup of first party offerings would be awesome. Oh wait a sec...
Phonomezer
Banned
Magna Carta 3 SNSDstation exclusive.
They would just enter the market like Sony and Microsoft did; moneyhats.
Apple has taken their mantle as the go to brand for high end consumer electronics. MP3 Players, Laptops, Cell Phones.
Microsoft has split the high end console market and edged them out in a market that makes up nearly 30% of the entire industry.
Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Vizio own the TV market from top to bottom.
Noone buys DVD or Blu-Ray players anymore.
Their systems in a box audio systems are decent, but so are 100 others.
Sony's marketing is also just plain terrible. Their shtick has been to market their products as something desirable because it's "so far over your head" that their ads make no sense at all anymore. That shit might have been impressive in the 90's but it doesn't work anymore. We live in an age of >1080p tablets, 4G and instant access internet 24/7.
They're so far behind with their product lines that I don't see how they could make any kind of comeback in the next 10 years. They'd probably be better off focusing solely on the Playstation brand, or being bought out by someone who knows what they're doing.
Microsoft has split the high end console market and edged them out in a market that makes up nearly 30% of the entire industry.
Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Vizio own the TV market from top to bottom.
Noone buys DVD or Blu-Ray players anymore.
Their systems in a box audio systems are decent, but so are 100 others.
Sony's marketing is also just plain terrible. Their shtick has been to market their products as something desirable because it's "so far over your head" that their ads make no sense at all anymore. That shit might have been impressive in the 90's but it doesn't work anymore. We live in an age of >1080p tablets, 4G and instant access internet 24/7.
They're so far behind with their product lines that I don't see how they could make any kind of comeback in the next 10 years. They'd probably be better off focusing solely on the Playstation brand, or being bought out by someone who knows what they're doing.
fluffydelusions
Member
I still wonder where all Sony's ad money goes. Psv was supposed to be their biggest ever but I only ever saw the one commercial meanwhile Ms has a one ad every 5 minutes.
zomgbbqftw
Banned
Sony haven't outlined what, if any, restructuring charges they are going to take yet, I expect we will find out on Thursday.
If Kaz doesn't exit LCD TVs entirely then Sony are done IMO. He needs to come out and say that LCD TVs are dead and that they are now going with high margin TVs with super quality and tech. CLED looks like a decent idea that negates OLED manufacturing issues while maintaining the quality. They could charge whatever they want for it given the quality jump from LCD and the possibility of 4k and 8k.
Thunder Monkey
Banned
This is actually pretty easy to answer. Before the PS3 their prior two console designs were some of the weaker of their generation. The PSX in particular was made with pretty simplistic parts. The most advanced part of it being the CD drive.
They "only" sold the production, the brand will still exist:
http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1303112824
They've shown the 2012 line-up, design-wise they look good. Thin frames.
Indeed, it is a gamble either way, but with a concervative approach at least wont loose as much if it goes wrong
Synth_floyd
Banned
Go KAZ!!!
Cygnus X-1
Member
They said that the division had deep losses and for too much time. They will concentrate on Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle and Lightning. The latter not having investments in LG.
Actually, Philips is still investing in TV, but through the Hong-Kong's based TPV, one of the largest asian emerging TV makers.
TV LCD are dominated nowadays by Samsung and LG overall. Chinese are rising in importance though.
Actually, let me add that Sony has the largest non-corean market share with 9.4% and that's probably the reason they're not dropping out for now.
lunchwithyuzo
Banned
Samsung should just buy Sega from Sammy. They'd instantly have the 2nd best first party behind Nintendo.
phosphor112
Banned
Doomed Sony is best Sony.
This is exactly what they need. A wake up call. Kazuo-san will lead the way *salutes*
This is exactly what they need. A wake up call. Kazuo-san will lead the way *salutes*
Jacksonlee
Member
times are a changing....
But it was 520 billion yen
It was already converted by the OP. 520 billion yen if you like that format better!
Phonomezer
Banned
No it's $6,400,000,000,000 USD.
A huge amount of Bluray players are sold. Problem, just like with TVs, is that Sony have nothing in their Bluray players that the competitors don't. They're also more expensive.
They might've been expecting that people would buy the PS3 instead of a player. Instead, LG and Samsung's 60 editions sells more than ever.
fluffydelusions
Member
They have been taking losses for the past 4 years so not really a wake up call at this point.
shinra-bansho
Member
It really is better, imo. Although, I know people like seeing things in USD.
Thanks for clearing that up. Darkchild should put this in the OP for clarity, but then that wouldn't be any fun.
frankie_baby
Member
So if they've run up losses for 4 years now, just how much longer can they avoid bankruptcy?
ReyBrujo
Member
Sony going third party. Oh, wait...
I was reading the other day some statistics in a local newspaper: for the first time in history people streamed (legally) more movies and series than bought copies in DVD/BR. While I wouldn't download a 50gb BR movie via streaming, the mass consumer doesn't mind a 480p/720p compressed content streamed. I wonder if Sony will acknowledge that or try to continue pushing BR.
A long time considering most of their losses in the past four years have been paper losses. They actually have more cash now than they did in 2006.
Baron_Calamity
Member
Sony isn't going anywhere. I doubt Sony Gaming is going anywhere either. However Sony is at a cross roads. They will either have to be a content provider or a hardware manufacturer. Sony can't be both except on a platform it owns such as the playstation. Sony really should get out of manufacturing
frankie_baby
Member
They may have a large cash pile but they do also have large debts too
Beautifully Shaped Monsters
Member
Sony should stick to what they are good at: Insurance.
This. But they should stay in manufacturing not leave it. Sony aren't in a position to become a global content/media player like Disney or Time Warner.
Being a Japanese company they aren't able to make inroads into the majority of markets such as the UK, USA etc because of the laws on foreign media ownership.
Sony make cash off their music division but are basically keeping their head above water with their film & TV division.
I was under the impression that Sony were heavily indebted, do they have cash large reserves?
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Sadly, we've yet to see this proven.
Do you happen to have numbers?
sixteen-bit
Member
company-wide bomba
frankie_baby
Member
No i dont, i do remember seeing the figure last year i think and it was billions of dollars
zomgbbqftw
Banned
Incredible really. However it is worth noting that the paper losses that they are taking on tax credits do represent real loss of future earning potential.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
I never understood why they don't have the exclusives on games based on movies they've produced. Shit like Ghostbusters and The Amazing Spiderman. I think it would be pretty smart to have the those exclusively on their platforms.
staticneuron
Member
I thought the same a couple years ago. I purchased a samsung. It made sense since the were sharing LCD tech with Sony yet somehow they were cheaper. Starting at the end of last year and all through the start of this year.... I found out the hard way about the cost cutting measures used. I am used to TV's lasting years. After owning the HDTV for about 3 years it starting giving trouble. Image blinks out and Flashing red power led. It turns out this is a common problem across many different models of that time. Something to do with the power capacitors and a lesser known issue with the main logic board. My friends purchased Sony and I thought I was getting a deal by getting what I thought was the same tech for cheaper. Their TV still works, mine doesn't, and there is a class action against samsung.
If paying a premium ensures that I will still have a working product more than 5 years from now then so be it. I purchased a sony again. I guess they paid the price for not sacrificing quality and people will only go back to them if they are burned.
It's probably more profitable to sell the license to Activision for multiplatform use.
MisterHero
Super Member
I don't know how any company can be fine after cutting so many jobs, which they've already done in the last few years.
Somehow, they do it.
Somehow, they do it.
This doesn't make sense one bit. Why risk it on one platform, while you can reap profit from 9 other sources?
frankie_baby
Member
Movie games tend to only apeal to a fraction of each consoles userbase, it doesnt really make much financial sense to have them as exclusive