GabeTheGrouch76
Member
Better get the ice pack.
I thought this was a joke / reference towards the "desperate Nintendo is best Nintendo" comments.
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Eurogamer: Sony's PSN made more money than all of Nintendo last fiscal year
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Better get the ice pack.
I thought this was a joke / reference towards the "desperate Nintendo is best Nintendo" comments.
texhnolyze
Banned
So, with this I assume that we won't see PSN connection/download/etc problems threads on here anymore, right?
KillerMan91
Member
Nintendo doesn't take FX impact on account when they report operating income (that 303 million figure). Their real profit amount was 16.5 billion yen ($148 million). Sony takes FX impact on account when they report operating income of games division so that 785 million is also profit figure of games division. 785 million is over 5 times more than 148 million and even their margin is better when compared to revenue.
Nintendo is very stingy with their money, only way to make profit when your hardware is selling like shit I guess
They been making money for a while now, they posted their biggest profit in 8 years, 1.3 billion dollars
R_thanatos
Member
Really ? because it was that way with the wii and the 3DS both consoles certainly didn't sell bad.
i'm not buying this escuse
PdotMichael
Banned
But but the completly pointless goalpost moving nonsense of being more effective!
D.Lo
Member
This industry has to change eventually, it's too unstable to have massive resets on who is winning/profitable each generation.
Have to give it to Sony for doubling down on the PS3 to have some momentum to bring to the PS4.
Nintendo and MS both screwed themselves at the start of this gen with bad products and/or positioning, and Sony cleaned up basically.
Have to give it to Sony for doubling down on the PS3 to have some momentum to bring to the PS4.
Nintendo and MS both screwed themselves at the start of this gen with bad products and/or positioning, and Sony cleaned up basically.
PdotMichael
Banned
Well, the only market Sony improved was the US market. Rest of the world was basically business as usual.
Nintendo can't read the markets anymore and the Microsoft brand is quite toxic in many places in the world - see how even the earlier released and cheaper Xbox 360 couldn't beat the Playstation 3.
The first part is completely wrong.
There was not a single market last gen where Sony even came close to the market-share they have today.
D.Lo
Member
That's not really true. Sony have always been strong in Europe (primarily because they were the first video game company with a big enough parent to have an actual euro-wide presence instead of sub-distribution), but the Wii dominated the PS3 for 4-5 years in all markets before it died prematurely.
Wii also sold far more overall than the PS3 in Japan, and even now even the maligned Wii U has still outsold the PS4 in Japan. Now Japan is handheld land, but Nintendo has obviously dominated that too in Japan for both generations Sony competed with them in that space.
Sony have actually turned around massively in market share. And they did it with a 'steady as she goes' approach to the mid/late PS3 (after the launch disaster) to re-build trust, then releasing a 'no surprises' PS4.
Nintendo and MS tripped out of the gate (both with PR and hardware) and Sony have cleaned up, simply by being a half decent system at the right price at the right time. Which is all you need when your competitors screw up (see also Saturn/N64/PS1).
PdotMichael
Banned
That Sony improved in the USA?
And Sony has a history of selling extremly well in the European markets. It happened with the PS1, 2, 3 and 4 now.
The performance of its competition isn't really in the hands of Sony. But there was no crazy turning the tables for Sony.
D.Lo
Member
No, but them being competitors their performance affects Sony's fortunes.
To win a race (especially one like this where much of the prize money comes from licences of other people's [third parties'] games), you only need to do better than the other competitors.
From mid-gen PS3 to mid gen PS4, they've gone from distant last to first in the US, and distant second (third? can't remember) to first in Europe. Sure Japan has stayed Nintendo (plus Sony as a side dish), but that is overall a crazy table turn to me.
Now they (and the others) face another bigger obstacle - the massively contracting industry. The PS3 was their first console to sell worse than the last, and the PS4 will likely sell less again.
That they only improved in the US.
They improved everywhere - in market-share and in volume (except Japan).
Teletraan1
Banned
This is a false narrative. it ALWAYS takes a few years for the good games to come out of Sony first party every generation. Add to the fact that games are way more complex and that cycle has extended itself over time. The big reason is that Sony supports their previous hardware late in its life to the absolute detriment of their new hardware. This pushes back development of those big hitters even further. The competition has a 2 year lull in software releases at the end of the previous generation and has heavy hitter games available in year 1-2 on new Hardware, while Sony releases late gen games like GoW2 and GT6. This doesn't change if they are market leader or playing catchup.
PdotMichael
Banned
Launch aligned. Sony sold more Playstation 3 than Microsoft sold Xbox 360 consoles.
All the talk about market share volumes etc is just silly goalpost moving nonsense. Sony has historical an extremly strong presence in all markets, especially in Europe.
Trying to reduce Sony's success as a result of Microsoft DRM/always online disaster isn't telling the truth. It was something that affected Microsoft's own performance more than it did Sony's - Sony was already selling more consoles than Microsoft (and Nintendo) at that point.
D.Lo
Member
Only because of Japan, and launch aligned is a false metric and irrelevant, the market situation is the environment in which sales happen and cannot be ignored.
They had a weak presence everywhere early/mid PS3.
Sony has done well to pick it back up from the -$4 billion PS3 disaster.
But it's ridiculous to pretend that competitors have no bearing on your sales. MS's performance has a lot to do with Sony's performance. If they'd released as equivalent product without any PR issues (DRM, forced Kinect) , MS would definitely have affected Sony's sales. Xbox, especially Xbox Live, was a stronger brand in the west overall mid/late last generation. They stumbled, and Sony picked up the slack.
Poimandres
Member
Saying the PS4 is going to sell less than the PS3 is a bold prediction! I think PS4 is heading for at least 100 million, but I guess we'll check back on this one in a few years.
LordRaptor
Member
I'd have agreed prior to PS4K being almost certainly a thing.
Post PS4K, 'vanilla' PS4 sales are going to fall off a cliff.
PdotMichael
Banned
To break it down again.
Sony was already selling more consoles than Microsoft and Nintendo before the PS4 launch and Microsoft's always online disaster and the infamous E3. The only larger market where Microsoft was ahead was the North America home market.
Also even if we ignore that launch aligned thing. The gap between PS3 and 360 was closing since 2007.
I know people like the narrative that the Xbox 360 performed significantly better and was easily outselling the Playstation 3 for the longest time but that's a baseless narrative and mostlikely a result of being to USA biased - which is also the only explenation for that infamous prediction thread.
unapersson
Member
Why? The PS4K is likely to be a lot more expensive, if anything the PS4 should continue to get cheaper.
LordRaptor
Member
We'll see.
I don't expect mass market pricing of PS4 to arrive based on mass market pricing of PS3 never arriving.
Holy shit /dead
I hope Nintendo can turn this around but I'm not holding my breath. They need to catch up specially in regards to their online service.
D.Lo
Member
So you're defining 'business as usual for Sony' by comparing it only to the final 1-1.5 years of the PS3? The tail end of a generation that vastly outstayed its welcome?
Only because of Japan!
Take away Japanese sales and the 360 outsold the PS3 by something like 10 million consoles.
And of course in Japan Sony is has had massive declines three generations in a row, so they overall have done very poorly there.
Your original argument that started this was:
You're peddling some kind of narrative that Sony was easily leading in sales everywhere the entire time except in the US.
The PS3 outsold the 360 (but not the Wii) in Europe. But the PS3 sold far less then the PS2 in Europe, primarily because the Wii and 360 sold well enough to eat Sony's lunch.
Wii U and XBO are now selling poorly, and Sony is back to winning Europe.
It's the exact same story with slightly different ratios in the US, the PS3 sold far less than the PS2 not because the market declined, but because the Wii and 360 sold better and took more of the market. PS4 is now doing well because the competition is weaker.
There's no 'rest of the world business as usual'. PS4 has improved Sony's standing in both Europe and the US, for the exact same reasons. It's done well, but the weak competition is one of the reasons why.
PdotMichael
Banned
Why is Japan not a market anymore or should be excluded? Today, Sony sold 10,4 million PS3 consoles in Japan, while the Xbox 360 is somewhere at 1,6 million in Japan.
It's fact that Sony was closing the one year head start against Microsoft since 2007, the narrative that the 360 was outselling the Playstaton 3 until mid-gen or whatever is just plain wrong.
Sony left last gen as the company which was selling the most consoles for some years and entered this gen as the company which is selling the most consoles. The only market that changed significantly was the North American market where Microsoft was still stronger than Sony last gen.
There isn't really much to discuss about it.
True. It has improved on that front from last gen with the occasional good flash sale. However, it is light years behind Steam.
KillerMan91
Member
New games on Steam are just as overpriced as PSN titles if you buy directly from Steam.
Why does Japan not count? If we can remove countries just like that, I nominate America to be out as well. Now the PS3 has sold twice as much as the 360.
Non new games are significantly cheaper on Steam, even without the crazy sales.
MS did make a subscription for online play the "gold" standard the gen prior, and Sony's free online was ripped into often, so... Yeah, also the pool of people complaining about paid for online diminishes on the PlayStation side as well side because PS+ was a thing before PS4.
Basically if I wasn't a PS+ subscriber before they moved the online play behind a paywall I'd be raising pitchforks to, but all I can do is acknowledge it was a dick move, but you can see why they did it because competition.
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