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Sony FY2014 Q4 (Jan-Mar 2015) Earnings (2.4m PS4 + 400k PS3, 450k PSP+PSV)

I don't like seeing the game division cash cowed. It's obvious that crazy experimental PS3 Sony has become Microsoft-ish in some ways. They've consolidated studios and are relying far more on tent pole releases. I guess I blame last gen where they got the shit kicked out of them financially. Still, they make some great games...but have to feel for things like Afrika and Tokyo Jungle that will probably never happen again.

Oh and obviously stellar performance.
Nah, I don't think so.
SCE Japan Studio's Allan Becker said he will continue making these kind of (Japan Studio typical) games.
 
Still, they make some great games...but have to feel for things like Afrika and Tokyo Jungle that will probably never happen again.

We'll probably never see another Japan-Studio "hey, you all can do whatever the hell you want, like develop 40 games simultaneously!" situation, but we're actually seeing Sony double-down on quirky, unique games.

We'll probably never see a big-budget example of said games, but stuff like Tokyo Jungle, Unfinished Swan, etc are all developed by small teams, and realistically speaking, are probably on a slim budget anyway.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
We'll probably never see another Japan-Studio "hey, you all can do whatever the hell you want, like develop 40 games simultaneously!" situation, but we're actually seeing Sony double-down on quirky, unique games.
But there was no point to that for the customer about that situation at Japan Studio.

Nothing got done and the lack of output from them was constantly criticized.

I'm sure there are personality types that loved to work on whatever they wanted but others like to see stuff released to get their fulfillment.
 

pastrami

Member
I don't like seeing the game division cash cowed. It's obvious that crazy experimental PS3 Sony has become Microsoft-ish in some ways. They've consolidated studios and are relying far more on tent pole releases. I guess I blame last gen where they got the shit kicked out of them financially. Still, they make some great games...but have to feel for things like Afrika and Tokyo Jungle that will probably never happen again.

Oh and obviously stellar performance.

I don't know about that. They have The Tomorrow Children, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Rime, and Wild in the pipeline, and all look to have decent budgets but are not homogenized tentpole releases. Sure, none of those are first party studios, but it is their funding making those games.
 

Boke1879

Member
Agressive investing by way of increasing unit sales and PSN adoption? Price cut on PS4 and PSN subs incoming. That would drive adoption quick.

With that wording I do believe a price drop Is coming. Of course bundles help drive sales but they only go so far. I'd say a price drop after Gamescom. I don't know if there will be a price cut for PSN subs though.
 
I don't like seeing the game division cash cowed. It's obvious that crazy experimental PS3 Sony has become Microsoft-ish in some ways. They've consolidated studios and are relying far more on tent pole releases. I guess I blame last gen where they got the shit kicked out of them financially. Still, they make some great games...but have to feel for things like Afrika and Tokyo Jungle that will probably never happen again.

Oh and obviously stellar performance.

I don't think they'll do anything like Afrika again but why wouldn't they make more wacky digital games like Tokyo Jungle again? PlayStation C.A.M.P. still exists, as far as I'm aware, which is where that concept came from. And Sony still approves interesting and out there concepts for smaller scale digital games (Hohokum, Wattam, WiLD, etc.).

And while I agree that Sony have definitely consolidated their internal studios, they've also greatly expanded their funding of external first party games. I think there's like 15 digital games they've got coming right now and they'll probably announce more at Gamescom and PSX.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
400k for PS3. Dayum. I mean that in a good way.

As long as they still offer deals, sales, and games on PS+ I will continue to use mine. It gets played less now that I have a PS4 but still.

Dayum.

And I just got a 12GB model to replace a 2008 model. That thing was a tank....had it since 2008..surviving numerous drops, power outages, etc.
 
And if relying on tentpole was core to their decision making, they wouldn't had laid off half of Evolution.

But instead would've renamed it "Polyphony Digital : Europe", responsible for development of Gran Turismo : Arcade-Spec.
 

Adachi

Banned
Time to unban Dual shockers.


Definitely the biggest salt shaker in this thread.

Lol, you think I want Sony or the PS4 to fail or what? Sorry that I don't look at a quarter that has the game division losing money and think that that's totally not disappointing
 
The Last of Us should be above Buzz now, right?

PS3 version is atleast 6 million, but I do remember it being 7 million. The PS4 million is atleast 1 million so yes its 7 million atleast total. Heck, 10 million might not be that far off for total.

How the hell did Naughty Dog create one of the best selling 1st party studios exclusive in the last active year of PS3? Amazing
 
From the call:

- 6.2 billion yen write-down was recorded duo to sale of SOE
- Playstation Newtork now has 65 million active users.
- PS+ membership exceeds 10 million.
- Will continue to invest in first party software.
 

Apathy

Member
I don't like seeing the game division cash cowed. It's obvious that crazy experimental PS3 Sony has become Microsoft-ish in some ways. They've consolidated studios and are relying far more on tent pole releases. I guess I blame last gen where they got the shit kicked out of them financially. Still, they make some great games...but have to feel for things like Afrika and Tokyo Jungle that will probably never happen again.

Oh and obviously stellar performance.

While you might be right that first party studios are done making super crazy games (with maybe Mm being the only ones allowed to go as wild as they want), but I don't think their funding of crazy/experimental games is over. They are just letting Indies and incubated studios like giant sparrow take care of that.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
PS3 version is atleast 6 million, but I do remember it being 7 million. The PS4 million is atleast 1 million so yes its 7 million atleast total. Heck, 10 million might not be that far off for total.

How the hell did Naughty Dog create one of the best selling 1st party studios exclusive in the last active year of PS3? Amazing

Simply amazing. And I remember many thinking it was gonna be for PS4 only. If it woulda been.....PS4 sales might be around 30% higher. And I remember being more interested in God of War Ascension for the TLoU demo...lol.

The last few years on the PS3 right before the PS4 launched was incredible. Even factoring in GTA 5 having less issues at launch on PS3 vs 360.
 

Javin98

Banned
What I got from that quote from Dualshockers is that a price drop for the PS4 is coming this year and Sony will be more aggressive during this holiday season.
That's my take on it at least.

From the call:

- 6.2 billion yen write-down was recorded duo to sale of SOE
- Playstation Newtork now has 65 million active users.
- PS+ membership exceeds 10 million.
- Will continue to invest in first party software.
The bolded statement is very encouraging to hear. Here's to TLOU 2 and The Last Guardian!
 
What was their PS4 prediction and operating income estimates a year ago? I would be hesitant to assume a price cut if they were similarly bearish.
 

Circinus

Member
The Last of Us should be above Buzz now, right?

Yeah and a couple of other franchises as well.

I'd estimate it's like this:

- Gran Turismo: 73M
- Ratchet & Clank: 27M
- God of War: 24M
- SingStar: 20.5M
- Uncharted: 18M
- LittleBigPlanet: 12M
- Killzone: 10M
- Jak & Daxter: 10M
- The Last of Us: 8.5M
- Everybody's Golf / Hot Shots Golf: 8M
- inFamous: 7M
- MotorStorm: 6.5M
- Buzz!: 6M
- Sly Cooper: 5M
- Wipeout: 3M

EDIT: I changed Gran Turismo from 60M to 73M
 

Road

Member
sony_game_2015twjyn.png


FY2015 is Game & Network Services (Video Unlimited, Music Unlimited, Internet TV etc.), but it's all we have and video games are the majority anyway.
 

gtj1092

Member
From the call:

- 6.2 billion yen write-down was recorded duo to sale of SOE
- Playstation Newtork now has 65 million active users.
- PS+ membership exceeds 10 million.
- Will continue to invest in first party software.

Holy crap at PS+ that is nearly $500 million in revenue right there. Yeah they would be willing to drop the price to get that number even higher.
 
Yeah and a couple of other franchises as well.

I'd estimate it's like this:

- Gran Turismo: 60M
- Ratchet & Clank: 27M
- God of War: 24M
- SingStar: 20.5M
- Uncharted: 18M
- LittleBigPlanet: 12M
- Killzone: 10M
- Jak & Daxter: 10M
- The Last of Us: 8.5M
- Everybody's Golf / Hot Shots Golf: 8M
- inFamous: 7M
- MotorStorm: 6.5M
- Buzz!: 6M
- Sly Cooper: 5M
- Wipeout: 3M

GT is over 70m.
 

Apathy

Member
Yeah and a couple of other franchises as well.

I'd estimate it's like this:

- Gran Turismo: 60M
- Ratchet & Clank: 27M
- God of War: 24M
- SingStar: 20.5M
- Uncharted: 18M
- LittleBigPlanet: 12M
- Killzone: 10M
- Jak & Daxter: 10M
- The Last of Us: 8.5M
- Everybody's Golf / Hot Shots Golf: 8M
- inFamous: 7M
- MotorStorm: 6.5M
- Buzz!: 6M
- Sly Cooper: 5M
- Wipeout: 3M

Damn killzone is that low over all the games
 
Yeah and a couple of other franchises as well.

I'd estimate it's like this:

- Gran Turismo: 60M
- Ratchet & Clank: 27M
- God of War: 24M
- SingStar: 20.5M
- Uncharted: 18M
- LittleBigPlanet: 12M
- Killzone: 10M
- Jak & Daxter: 10M
- The Last of Us: 8.5M
- Everybody's Golf / Hot Shots Golf: 8M
- inFamous: 7M
- MotorStorm: 6.5M
- Buzz!: 6M
- Sly Cooper: 5M
- Wipeout: 3M

Trying to find out Sony's game sales is so hard lately. I do say PaRappa on PS1 was 3 million seller and PS All stars, Bloodborne & Knack were all 1 million sellers.

And yes GT is 70 million. http://www.polyphony.co.jp/english/list.html
 
Anyone have an arstechnica account and want to correct their reporting? They say Sony shipped 22m+ PS4s, not sold to consumers.

Also, I would really love if Sony put some of the effort they are talking about into the Vita. It would make me and the approximately 11m owners happy.
 

Eolz

Member
400k for PS3. Dayum. I mean that in a good way.

As long as they still offer deals, sales, and games on PS+ I will continue to use mine. It gets played less now that I have a PS4 but still.

Dayum.

And I just got a 12GB model to replace a 2008 model. That thing was a tank....had it since 2008..surviving numerous drops, power outages, etc.

Yeah that's pretty good.
I just want them to finally drop the prices of the PS3 now. Of course they can't do that as much as I'd want (thanks Cell), and it made sense to not do it last year (PS4), but now that the PS4 is a success, it shouldn't be a problem...
 

pastrami

Member
Anyone have an arstechnica account and want to correct their reporting? They say Sony shipped 22m+ PS4s, not sold to consumers.

Also, I would really love if Sony put some of the effort they are talking about into the Vita. It would make me and the approximately 11m owners happy.

These numbers are shipped. These numbers are sold-in to retailers, not sold-through to consumers. Only the numbers we get from Sony PR have been sold-through numbers.
 

Javin98

Banned
sony_game_2015twjyn.png


FY2015 is Game & Network Services (Video Unlimited, Music Unlimited, Internet TV etc.), but it's all we have and video games are the majority anyway.
Pretty shocking to see the losses they made back in 2006-2009. Nice to see them making profits in the division again. It could only mean good things for us gamers.

Anyone have an arstechnica account and want to correct their reporting? They say Sony shipped 22m+ PS4s, not sold to consumers.

Also, I would really love if Sony put some of the effort they are talking about into the Vita. It would make me and the approximately 11m owners happy.
Obviously the 22.3 million figure is for shipments. We know the PS4 sold through 20.2 million by the first few days of March. It's likely that the PS4 sold through 1 million units in March, so that puts the sold through figure at around 21.2 million by the start of April.
 

BadWolf

Member
Yeah that's pretty good.
I just want them to finally drop the prices of the PS3 now. Of course they can't do that as much as I'd want (thanks Cell), and it made sense to not do it last year (PS4), but now that the PS4 is a success, it shouldn't be a problem...

They should do a general price drop for all three platforms.
 
Sony as a whole seems to be on the road to recovery, and the decision to either downsize or even abandon the business segments that were more of a handicap is starting to bear fruits. I guess the best news for us gamers is that the success of the PS4 will make them double down on the division...
 
These numbers are shipped. These numbers are sold-in to retailers, not sold-through to consumers. Only the numbers we get from Sony PR have been sold-through numbers.

They were at 20.2 million sold to consumers as of March the 4th. The must certainly be around 22 millions right now.
 

Marlenus

Member
From what we can hear/read already (results, interviews, linkedin, etc), the "official" next cycle will begin in 2017 if you count Nintendo (or even a bit earlier) and not counting handhelds, Fall 2018 for the others (with obviously a window where they could wait a year depending on strategies and manufacturing/design problems).
I think that in terms of games, crossgen will end around 2020 (a bit like we're finally starting to not have crossgen titles anymore this year).

For the "wow" factor, it's a bit more complicated.
I doubt Nintendo will release a really powerful console, but still noticeably more powerful than the PS4/X1 (but sadly having a different architecture once again, damaging the final port quality), and Iwata already confirmed some sort of "gimmick" (not a fan of the term, but to understand better) to go with it.
For the PS5/Xsomething, I think it will mainly be perfecting what they tried to do this gen (focus on online, sharing with others, "all in one entertainment system", bigger space drive for more digital games from start, 1080p, etc), while allowing more options for the consumer. Basically streamlining PCs. More control options (KB+M), even easier for devs (indie or not), VR at good quality, things like that.

Not a Wow factor, but perfecting it. Didn't see a wow factor for this gen either tbh, apart from a good sharing UX.

Last gen was an anomaly and lasted way too long for good reasons (expensive architectures, start of HD development, industry behaving differently than before, studios disappearing, digital games, indies, etc), this gen is there to get back money, and the architecture is simple enough to get great results from start.

I agree regarding Nintendo that 2017 seems likely. I would also expect them to make the switch to x86 and GCN just to help reduce their BoM. Spec wise it will be more powerful than the PS4 but I doubt the difference will be bigger than the Xbox One -> PS4 gap so around 50%. I could see something like an 8 core Jaguar iteration at around 2Ghz for the CPU and a 24 CU, 96 TMU 32 ROP GPU based on GCN 1.3 or newer clocked at around 900 Mhz. By 2017, something like that on 14nm will be pretty cheap and definitely low end compared to PC hardware but good enough for decent 1080p gaming.

As far as the PS5 and the next Xbox go I really feel they will target a 2019 launch. That would be a 6 year cycle which is not too long IMO and the hardware, if the node switchovers go well, might be there for 4k at a slightly higher subsidy than the PS4 (3 games and PS+ to break even). I expect MS will not want to have the weaker hardware next time around so will make sure they target 4k and might be willing to subsidise the hardware more but it depends if they can show investors it is worth it.

I just think 2018 is too early but maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.
 

Biker19

Banned
Best versions of multiplats are more useful than exclusives during the X-mas season.

When you think about it, with Sony putting their exclusives during the slow periods and then rely on the annual multiplats during the X-mas season would probably be more effective then putting all of their games during the Oct-Dec period.

Exactly, it's a smart strategy. If you put something like Uncharted 4 during Q3/Q4 this year, it's going to get completely overshadowed by the big 3rd party heavy hitters. Just look at what happened to games like LBP3.

I get that however I am just stating ndp but also the world is going to catch halo fever its, one of those games that just sell, this holiday im not so sure sony has one of those.

Really? Halo already has more brutal competition than back in it's early days of Halo 1-3 now. If anything, COD, BF, & even the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront game will certainly get a lot more attention than Halo 5 will. And it doesn't help that the franchise is being squandered thanks to 343i messing up both Halo 4 & Halo: MCC.
 

pastrami

Member
They were at 20.2 million sold to consumers as of March the 4th. The must certainly be around 22 millions right now.

So? Do you wany Arstechnica to report facts or speculation? We know two things. Sony has shipped 22.3 million PS4s by the end of March. And Sony has sold to consumers 20.2 million PS4s by March 1.

According to that poster (I have not read the article), Arstechnica is reporting that Sony has shipped over 22 million PS4s. What needs correcting?
 

Celine

Member
It is a stretch to believe that the PS2 took up most of those sales for the quarter because Sony stopped making them in January of that year. But without Sony actually listing the last sales number who know. I mean even MC for Japan did not list the PS2 at the time.
?
My post doesn't contain PS2 figures so I don't understand your reply.
 

Death2494

Member
It's either flat or up. 360 is going out the door faster than some people think. Either both the PS3 and 360 shipped 400k last quarter, or the PS3 is ahead.
last gen is in decline.

PS3 also has a higher price point compared to Xbox 360.

I don't think Xbox one is up YOY. But there is a high chance of it being flat.
 

Eolz

Member
I agree regarding Nintendo that 2017 seems likely. I would also expect them to make the switch to x86 and GCN just to help reduce their BoM. Spec wise it will be more powerful than the PS4 but I doubt the difference will be bigger than the Xbox One -> PS4 gap so around 50%. I could see something like an 8 core Jaguar iteration at around 2Ghz for the CPU and a 24 CU, 96 TMU 32 ROP GPU based on GCN 1.3 or newer clocked at around 900 Mhz. By 2017, something like that on 14nm will be pretty cheap and definitely low end compared to PC hardware but good enough for decent 1080p gaming.

As far as the PS5 and the next Xbox go I really feel they will target a 2019 launch. That would be a 6 year cycle which is not too long IMO and the hardware, if the node switchovers go well, might be there for 4k at a slightly higher subsidy than the PS4 (3 games and PS+ to break even). I expect MS will not want to have the weaker hardware next time around so will make sure they target 4k and might be willing to subsidise the hardware more but it depends if they can show investors it is worth it.

I just think 2018 is too early but maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.

Yeah, it really depends on how sales go, and their strategies. Said 2018 mostly if Microsoft continues and want to get an headstart with something really expensive & powerful. Hard to say with Sony right now.
 

LordofPwn

Member
Great looking results. Nice to see they've been able to steer a big ship. out of all the results though i'm more interested in why they're projecting to double capital expenditures this current FY. Sony got some money and wants to go spending apparently.
 

Papacheeks

Banned
I don't like seeing the game division cash cowed. It's obvious that crazy experimental PS3 Sony has become Microsoft-ish in some ways. They've consolidated studios and are relying far more on tent pole releases. I guess I blame last gen where they got the shit kicked out of them financially. Still, they make some great games...but have to feel for things like Afrika and Tokyo Jungle that will probably never happen again.

Oh and obviously stellar performance.

The issue is with all the money that was lost last generation because of their screw ups, a lot of unique games suffered. And they still were trying to contribute to their legacy with new IP's but unfortunatley those new IP's never sold well.
Starhawk, MAG, The puppeteer, sequels to Resistance, Yakuza games in US, SOCOM 4 among many other's.


It sucks, because I like it when SOny comes out swinging with all these games, yea not all of them are created equal, or maybe find their audience.
But it's more about them taking huge risk's with new Idea's. That's something Microsoft stopped doing a long time ago.

I think now they understand that Obscure games unless having a huge backing by a community won't sell well.
I think games Like Ni No Kuni, and Bloodborne are a step in the right direction. Hopefully they see that, and understand that if the game is communicated well, and promoted well it can have a audience. I see now comapred to PS3 days why a lot of their games are doing better than some of their new IP's on PS3.(Minus The order)

Hopefully we see some of that this E3 with Project Horizon an what not. They are still in a financial pickle. And are just in the past year slowly coming out of it.

So it makes sense that their goal now is profit, which means streamlining your game lineup.

Just hope like you said, they don't rely heavily on their big franchises.

Only time will tell.
 
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