• 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.

The biggest threat to Sony now that Microsoft is going 3rd party is…

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Because they will run a much more efficient SteamOs rather than a bloated version of windows, thus optimizing it for the hardware design,. and optimized for gaming much more than a PC would be.
PCs can run SteamOS (or Linux distros close enough to it, anyways) too and there have been "debloated" versions of Windows for years, including LTSC
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
No, Sony makes more revenue and a bigger userbase. And well, this quarter also had more profit than Nintendo.
Nintendo has the mindshare that Sony doesn't though, not to mention that outside of here the PS5 still has a reputation for having no games

Nintendo.... this isn't a problem for them to say the least
 
Last edited:

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Sony doesn’t subsidize hardware over the lifecycle, but margins are razor thin. Sony will always be able to provide a cheaper and more powerful product unless Valve wants to incur heavy losses to gain share in Sony in this space and I don’t think they do

Steam Box may have a niche place if they decide to go that route but it’s not going to be selling anywhere close to Xbox let alone PlayStation, again it’s niche.

Even beyond that Valve is a tiny company compared to Sony and Nintendo. Less than 400 employees. They do not have the capacity to deal with customer service and tech support for selling 100M units of hardware.
 
PCs can run SteamOS (or Linux distros close enough to it, anyways) too and there have been "debloated" versions of Windows for years, including LTSC
Yeah you need to be a tech person to install it, we are talking about a consumer product with it preinstalled and working right out of the box.
 

Solidus_T

Member
All the studios get closed for the same reason: not being profitable.

And shareholders can't tell them to shut down an specific studio: they may just tell them that after two decades being the last ones in the console race, having billions of loses every year in their gaming division and having spent $100B on acquisitions it's time to turn their gaming business into a profitable one. Which is common sense.
Yes there's the answer for what shareholders did to Xbox - the demands for cuts came as a consequence for their strategy of gobbling up publishers and hollowing them out. Just because Playstation has been doing better than Xbox for years doesn't mean they aren't under the same pressure. Sony is headed in the same direction, albeit more slowly.
 

onQ123

Member
Because they will run a much more efficient SteamOs rather than a bloated version of windows, thus optimizing it for the hardware design,. and optimized for gaming much more than a PC would be.

I think the next Xbox will basically be a Xbox branded "Steambox"
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Yeah you need to be a tech person to install it, we are talking about a consumer product with it preinstalled and working right out of the box.
You'd also need to be a tech person to properly tell how Windows' bloat affects performance, so it all works out
 
You'd also need to be a tech person to properly tell how Windows' bloat affects performance, so it all works out
Not really, you can tell by the price they are charging you for the hardware, optimized hardware will need less powerful components to run the games and be cheaper to buy.
 

zedinen

Member
The biggest threat to SIE is Sony Group.


Yoshida & Totoki's poor strategic decisions about capital allocation lead to a deterioration in free cash flow margins, worse liquidity metrics and lower stock prices.


Sony Group FY17 | CEO and President: Kaz Hirai ($1 = ¥110.9)
Cash ¥1,193.2 b ($10.75 b)

Debt ¥710.3 b ($6.40 b)

Net Cash ¥482.9 b ($4.35 b)


Sony Group FY23 | CEO: Yoshida; President: Totoki ($1 = ¥144.4)
Cash ¥993.3 b ($6.87 b)

Debt ¥1583.0 b($10.96 b)

Net Cash ¥-589.7 b (-$4.09 b)



Past Year
Topix 27.21%

Nikkei 225 25.68%

Sony -4.00%




G&NS sales have risen by 159%, but profits "only" by 114% since FY16 . In other words, G&NS lower margins lead to explosive profit growth.


Talking nonsense about G&NS profit margins allows Totoki to avoid taking responsibility for his own decisions and take control of the only segment that can save his ass.


Which is why we' ve seen mass layoffs after the best Q4 in PlayStation history (Operating Income +173% YoY)


eZCbc7j.jpeg







Totoki, a 60-year old man alien to the industry, couldn't care less about PlayStation future. He has designed SIE structure with the sole aim of maximizing short-term profits and save his own ass.


SIE Chairman: Totoki

SIE CEO: -

SIE President: -

CEO Platform: Nishino

CEO Studio: Hermen



SIE needs a CEO, a president and assets; PS5 needs a price cut.

crjT2ZI.jpeg
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
So many different scenarios to Sony being doomed because of PC ports....

I get it, get a PC so you can play Xbox and Sony games. Xbox doing 8th degree chess moves to get PlayStation games on "Xbox" hardware.

If it helps some sleep better at night, sure.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Overpriced? Steam machines were priced very low

Comments just after the release from consumers:

"The price x performance relationship is laughable."

"Valve this is garbage... If you want to go after the console market go make your own hardware and stop letting these clowns sell overpriced PCs..."

"For that prices you can build a better pcs then each steam machines on this list... "

"You could build one yourself for a fraction of the price. The expense must be for the super sweet cases. Lol."

"Overpriced piece of crap. For the money you can build twice as powerful rigs, which will run everything"

Just a sample, there were tons more......
 

yurinka

Member
Yes there's the answer for what shareholders did to Xbox - the demands for cuts came as a consequence for their strategy of gobbling up publishers and hollowing them out. Just because Playstation has been doing better than Xbox for years doesn't mean they aren't under the same pressure. Sony is headed in the same direction, albeit more slowly.
They aren't under the same pressure at all, there's a huge difference between them:

Xbox was dying and during its two decades always has been the last one in the race and losing a ton of money even if they invested there a shit ton of money. And is a tiny, non-important portion of the total MS business. Common sense is to make cuts here and change their direction to a more profitable one (going multiplatform and focus again on selling games instead of trying to become the Netflix of videogames).

PS instead is the profitable console market leader that keeps breaking many records every year and keeps growing in basically all areas every year. In recent years has been growing its revenue, profit and active userbase. And is a key part of Sony's total business. Common sense here is to telling them to continue with their ultra successful record breaking strategy, and if something to throw more money to it.

In addition to this, Sony's and MS strategies are very different and have nothing in common: most Sony console exclusives aren't released day one on PC, only (non-GaaS) are ported once they no longer sell on console. All Xbox games are day one on PC. None of the Sony 1st party games are included in a game sub: normally Sony only puts games on their sub that are old and no longer sell.

Plus Sony focus their business on what really makes money and profits: to sell games and addons. And they manage their game sub (btw more succesful than the MS one) as something secondary, as an extra with a business model that is profitable for them.
 
Last edited:
Valve is actually the only winner here, it will be getting a cut from MS, Sony or any other publisher that wants to enter in the PC market.

I can see MS going “third party” but still launching hardware based on Windows and supporting not only their own store but also Steam, EGS and GoG, that would be perfect for MS to extend their market share
 

Fabieter

Member
There's a huge difference between them:

Xbox was dying and during its two decades always has been the last one in the race and losing a ton of money even if they invested there a shit ton of money. And is a tiny, non-important portion of the total MS business. Common sense is to make cuts here and change their direction to a more profitable one (going multiplatform and focus again on selling games instead of trying to become the Netflix of videogames).

PS instead is the profitable console market leader that keeps breaking many records every year and keeps growing in basically all areas every year. In recent years has been growing its revenue, profit and active userbase. And is a key part of Sony's total business. Common sense here is to telling them to continue with their ultra successful record breaking strategy, and if something to throw more money to it.

In addition to this, Sony's and MS strategies are very different and have nothing in common: most Sony console exclusives aren't released day one on PC, only (non-GaaS) are ported once they no longer sell on console. All Xbox games are day one on PC. None of the Sony 1st party games are included in a game sub: normally Sony only puts games on their sub that are old and no longer sell.

This must be the reason they fired so many people after breaking so much records and investing more in other failing parts of sony instead of actually successful divisions ;).

The biggest threat to SIE is Sony Group.


Yoshida & Totoki's poor strategic decisions about capital allocation lead to a deterioration in free cash flow margins, worse liquidity metrics and lower stock prices.


Sony Group FY17 | CEO and President: Kaz Hirai ($1 = ¥110.9)
Cash ¥1,193.2 b ($10.75 b)

Debt ¥710.3 b ($6.40 b)

Net Cash ¥482.9 b ($4.35 b)


Sony Group FY23 | CEO: Yoshida; President: Totoki ($1 = ¥144.4)
Cash ¥993.3 b ($6.87 b)

Debt ¥1583.0 b($10.96 b)

Net Cash ¥-589.7 b (-$4.09 b)



Past Year
Topix 27.21%

Nikkei 225 25.68%

Sony -4.00%




G&NS sales have risen by 159%, but profits "only" by 114% since FY16 . In other words, G&NS lower margins lead to explosive profit growth.


Talking nonsense about G&NS profit margins allows Totoki to avoid taking responsibility for his own decisions and take control of the only segment that can save his ass.


Which is why we' ve seen mass layoffs after the best Q4 in PlayStation history (Operating Income +173% YoY)


eZCbc7j.jpeg







Totoki, a 60-year old man alien to the industry, couldn't care less about PlayStation future. He has designed SIE structure with the sole aim of maximizing short-term profits and save his own ass.


SIE Chairman: Totoki

SIE CEO: -

SIE President: -

CEO Platform: Nishino

CEO Studio: Hermen



SIE needs a CEO, a president and assets; PS5 needs a price cut.

crjT2ZI.jpeg


This guy has alot of good points.
 

yurinka

Member
This must be the reason they fired so many people after breaking so much records and investing more in other failing parts of sony instead of actually successful divisions ;).
No, the factual data shown in their quarterly records say there are no failing parts.

What happened is that due to selling a shit ton of consoles at a loss due to highly increased costs of component and shipments, plus remaining costs related to recent acquisitions, they had to improve their short term profits. So they had to cut some costs somewhere, because components and shipment costs will continue rising.

In the last around 5 years (Jimbo/Hermen era) SIE hugely grew their manpower, becoming several times as big as they were before. They also had a record number of amount of projects under development. So they had some fat they could cut there, and it's what they did.

This guy has alot of good points.
Nah, just someone with no idea spouting nonsense, basically everything said is wrong.

Yoshida & Totoki invested in SIE more money in recent year than it ever received before. And such investment of having new teams working on more projects still not released because AAA take many years are part of lower profit margin in the short term (another one is a ton of consoles being sold at a loss) because of making investments. This is how investments work. And well, still considering this they have record profits, this quarter more than Nintendo.

Totoki is Sony's CFO, so obviously takes cares of Sony's financials, and is part of SIE getting all time records in financials.

Hermen and Nishino are the SIE co-CEOs.

They can't apply a pricecut due to PS5 because its component and shipment costs keep increasing every year causing loses that even forced them to make cuts elsewhere to compensate it.
 
Last edited:

Fabieter

Member
No, the factual data shown in their quarterly records say there are no failing parts.

What happened is that due to selling a shit ton of consoles at a loss due to highly increased costs of component and shipments, plus remaining costs related to recent acquisitions, they had to improve their short term profits. So they had to cut some costs somewhere, because components and shipment costs will continue rising.

In the last around 5 years (Jimbo/Hermen era) SIE hugely grew their manpower, becoming several times as big as they were before. They also had a record number of amount of projects under development. So they had some fat they could cut there, and it's what they did.

So their mobile and TV divisions profit is totally fine and only g+ns need to raise their margins ;). The fact that he talked profit margins is all we need to know.
 

yurinka

Member
So their mobile and TV divisions profit is totally fine and only g+ns need to raise their margins ;). The fact that he talked profit margins is all we need to know.
He temporarily became the interim CEO of SIE because the SIE CEO retired, so they had to put someone there until the next CEO (in this case CEOs) started at the start of the next fiscal year. Not because the division needed to address their profits specifically.

As Sony CFO he cares about the profit and margings of all divisions and they take the actions needed everywhere.
 
Last edited:

DryvBy

Member
Competition is healthy for consumers, but Steam is an open platform, they're not in the habit of making exclusives or paying for exclusivity unlike others and thats not going to change, hopefully. So.. I dont see how theyre a threat to Sony? If anything they've been a huge sale boost to Sony and it's shocking it took Sony so many years to realize that.
Steam certainly has exclusives. What do you think Half-Life and Counterstrike are? I'd list more games but Value puts out games as frequent as System of a Down puts out albums.
 

Fabieter

Member
He temporarily became the interim CEO of SIE because the SIE CEO retired, so they had to put someone there until the next CEO (in this case CEOs) started at the start of the next fiscal year. Not because the division needed to address their profits specifically.

As Sony CFO he cares about the profit and margings of all divisions and they take the actions needed everywhere.

He threw SIE under the bus like no other divisions. If you are so confident in their actions I hope you invest in them because if you are right and they are perfectly doing everything rn than it would be easy money with the drop at the stockmarket they had over the years.
 
Last edited:

Banjo64

cumsessed
People are always talking about the threat to Sony. The truth is that consumers have chosen Sony as a preferred platform. Much like Apple. People aren’t looking for an alternate.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Occasionally Nintendo is a threat to Sony, I think Sony has the look, swagger etc. I guess the only threat to Sony is Sony themselves.
 

yurinka

Member
He threw SIE under the bus like no other divisions. If you are so confident in their actions I hope you invest in them because if you are right and they are perfectly doing everything rn than it would be easy money with the drop at the stockmarket they had over the years.
You're talking about some fantasy stuff. He didn't threw SIE under the bus at all.

The SIE performance can be seen in their fiscal reports every quarter, they are super successful, breaking many records, and keep improving in basically all areas. They just needed to cut some fat after all these years and did so, that's all.
 
Last edited:

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
People are always talking about the threat to Sony. The truth is that consumers have chosen Sony as a preferred platform. Much like Apple. People aren’t looking for an alternate.
You literally couldn't wrangle Sony from the minds of the collective gaming public if you tried. The only thing stopping the Sony train is Sony themselves.
 

Fabieter

Member
Correction: Nintendo is beating Sony.
You can't beat something that doesn't exist or its harmless. Hence why the fight in Japan is between Sony and Nintendo.

There is no fight in japan. Once switch 2 comes along and has full japanese support its gonna be a be a bloodbath.
 

Holammer

Member
Those of you suggesting the Steam machine has already be done, c'mon... That's some disingenuous shit, the reasoning of a child, because I don't think you are that stupid. It was a lame low-energy attempt by Valve to push Linux at a time when everyone thought Microsoft was in the process of turning windows into a walled garden with Windows 8 & UWP.

The real Steam Machine 1.0 came much later as the Steam Deck, with its custom SoC and a mature SteamOS. If they did a console form factor device Deck, I'm sure it would bite a chunk out of the traditional players in the console space (as OP suggested).
That's why I reckon Microsoft might release a similar windows 11 device to keep users in the Windows eco system if Valve makes such moves.
 

SteadyEvo

Member
IMO it would be the SteamBox.

Think about it, a more powerful mini-pc running a more powerful version of the SteamDeck OS connected to your TV.

Can play all the games on Steam which means no Sony exclusive game is beyond its reach.

So you can play any game that the PS can play ( some will be delayed and require a waiting period), but you can also play thousands of games that the PS can’t. Plus all your games you’ve previously bought on Steam carries over, and all your purchases will carry over to a more powerful gaming PC if in you decide to go that route later.

Honestly unless you’re one of those that must play Sony first party games day one, it would be a no brainer to buy the SteamBox at relatively competitive prices to a PlayStation.
Wrong. Everyone doesn’t want to play or is interested in PC. And people don’t want to wait for Sonys exclusives so I don’t see that being an issue even if every game they make comes to PC eventually.

People still want consoles
 
Last edited:

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
IMO it would be the SteamBox.

Think about it, a more powerful mini-pc running a more powerful version of the SteamDeck OS connected to your TV.

Can play all the games on Steam which means no Sony exclusive game is beyond its reach.

So you can play any game that the PS can play ( some will be delayed and require a waiting period), but you can also play thousands of games that the PS can’t. Plus all your games you’ve previously bought on Steam carries over, and all your purchases will carry over to a more powerful gaming PC if in you decide to go that route later.

Honestly unless you’re one of those that must play Sony first party games day one, it would be a no brainer to buy the SteamBox at relatively competitive prices to a PlayStation.
Steam machines are/were already a failed thing. There is no appeal to "closed" PCs. Even pre build desktops are worthy over those closed PCs as you can still upgrade. Steam Deck and brothers have the appeal to be handheld PCs. Nothing more.
 

Fabieter

Member
Steam machines are/were already a failed thing. There is no appeal to "closed" PCs. Even pre build desktops are worthy over those closed PCs as you can still upgrade. Steam Deck and brothers have the appeal to be handheld PCs. Nothing more.

They could make it modular and sell a kit for a few years to upgrade before doing a fresh start. The fixed hardware isnt needed since its a pc.
 
Sony is its own biggest threat, but a Steambox would pose a significant challenge as well.
yep. just read a quote recently (but can't find it) that was something like 'it's not how you deal with failure that determines your character, because we all fail in one way or another. it's how you deal with success that determines who you truly are...'
 
Sony's biggest threat was always themselves. It was Sony that tried to sabotage themselves with the PS3, nothing Nintendo or Microsoft did actually made the early years of PS3 the disaster they were
 

Quasicat

Member
A Steambox would be a killer device, but it does‘t play Fortnite. If they could get Epic on board, then that would make it very enticing.
 
Top Bottom