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[Jigsaah]

I feel a backstab incoming

 

[Bryank75]

Sony doesn't represent the whole of the console market. And besides, even if you want to play that one. they made 2.8B in operating profits. You still need to revenue taxes are others deductions to get to neet income.
EA, by themselves, had a neet income of 1.4B from 5B in total revenue. Sony game division had 20B in total revenue.

The NET Profit is actually higher than operating profit, due to EBITA and continuing operations. Sony's net profit was approx. 8.23 Billion for the last fiscal year or 916.2 billion yen.

 

[kevin_trinh]

I am talking about choosing a game streaming platform.

MS will own the hardware and software and will demand a money for Sony's use of that. So, why would i pay $60 per year for ps+ and pay sony a 30% cut of third party games and pay money to MS for a sony streaming service when i can just cut out the Sony middleman and go strait to Google or MS? Google and MS will have better and or cheaper offerings. If I own the mall, my stores will be able to offer better prices and services than the stores that have to pay rent to me.

I'll still stream some of their first party stuff, as long as it isn't depressing, with dead moms, daughters, and torture sequences. But using it as a platform? Why? Trophies? Lol. And as far as hardware goes, why bother with PS5 if i can stream their games with no upfront cost? I guess vr experiences?

I dont see how this is a good long term strategy if they believe in streaming. It looks,like they want to ride out the ps profit wave. And stock buy backs says to me they dont know where to invest their money and are using the worst way imaginable to pump up share prices so execs can get their bonuses.

You sound like the streaming fee of Sony is more expensive? Are you another fortune teller?

In addition i dont think you can stream Sony game on MS hardware or viceversa, so which hardware has better game still win, this deal mean only 1 thing: anyone can use Azure as long as they have money, its not build for Xbox only like some Gaf said

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Microsoft =/= Xbox

This can ultimately kill Xbox even faster.

This move means they see Amazon and Google as a bigger threat than xCloud.

 

[Shifty]

Sony: Niche

ConsoleGAF:

 

[SlashBringingHasher]

I mean its just talk to make sure they stress the streaming buzzword, there is no way he can seriously call consoles niche while on the same day reporting nearly 100 million PS4s sold lol

Like I can't tell if these companies are scared of Stadia, or if they are scared that investors are scared of Stadia.

Those are WW numbers. There are over 7 bn ppl. That's what. 1 in 70 people with a console. That's actually not bad

 

[Rugabuga]

The NET Profit is actually higher than operating profit, due to EBITA and continuing operations. Sony's net profit was approx. 8.23 Billion for the last fiscal year or 916.2 billion yen.

You're agreeing with me though.
Sony's gaming division net profit is sub 2.8Billion. Less than twice that of EAs, despite having more than four times the total revenue. Not sure why other areas from Sony would be relevant to the discussion.
It's because hardware, outside of seperate sold gamepad, don't make money. Subscriptions, 30% cuts and in-house games and DLC/MTX do. And aslong as all of those are only possible in a console (compared to Steam, app store, etc), you limit you potential revenue stream.

 

[Bryank75]

You're agreeing with me though.
Sony's gaming division net profit is sub 2.8Billion. Less than twice that of EAs, despite having more than four times the total revenue. Not sure why other areas from Sony would be relevant to the discussion.
It's because hardware, outside of seperate sold gamepad, don't make money. Subscriptions, 30% cuts and in-house games and DLC/MTX do. And aslong as all of those are only possible in a console (compared to Steam, app store, etc), you limit you potential revenue stream.

I'm not agreeing with your statement... you said that "Neet" Net profit would be less than Operating profit.... that is not always true, especially in a corporation with huge "continuing operations". I simply highlighted this, as it can be seen in their financial report.

We will see how much money EA is earning when Microtransactions and loot boxes are banned across most of the world.

What you are saying is, because PlayStation has better ethics, they are earning less but there can be consequences to being unethical to the point where EA is.

Sustainability, trust, and quality are what PlayStation is all about, not the quick buck!

 

[DeepEnigma]

He used that word in a business sense to Japanese translation, it makes perfect sense with what he's trying to convey.

Niche - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms

A niche is a space that's all your own, from a literal corner or enclosure to some kind of professional specialty. Like finding a niche in the scented soaps market with peanut butter body wash and winning over a loyal, if not nutty, following.

www.vocabulary.com

Hence why both companies are trying to expand beyond just little plastic boxes to a more mainstream and Global Avenue with multiple entertainment ventures connected at its source.

It's just gamers and fanatics like to take everything said as an attack, as if the word 'niche' is such a bad word, when in the vocabulary context above, it's pretty dead on in the business sense.

Us gamers have just bastardized the word when it it comes to select franchises or genres when they don't perform to their fullest potential like we want them to. It's NOT a negative connotation when used in business.

 

[Breakfast at Noon]

I wonder if he realizes the niche market is keeping his company afloat?

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Around 90 million PS4s, around 40 million Xbox Ones and near 30 million Switches are considered niche? Isn't that niche console really helping Sony now? Well, maybe streaming can save these lackluster sales. Yeah, I'm calling clickbait.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I wonder if he realizes the niche market is keeping his company afloat?

Of course he does, why do you think they want to expand beyond just that sector, just as Microsoft is doing with their console gaming division as well.

Why do people hear the word in business and think niche is negative? It's not negative, it means they recognize that they carved out a part all to their own and in an order for business to grow, you have to expand upon it otherwise you become stagnant and too reliable on your "niche".

 

[Daymos]

"but depending on the game, one could be played for fifty or a hundred hours and for someone playing one game like this, what is the advantage of a subscription service per month "

I never thought about that! I mainly play RPGs and it usually takes me 2 months to beat a game, sometimes I might do 'new game plus' and extend that to 3 or even 4 months (xenoblade 2= 375 hours). If I paid a $15 a month subscription rate that 1 game "rental" would be costing me $30-$60.. no point in streaming for me.

I kind of welcome the end of traditional physical gaming though. I may well be dead in 30 years and to stop buying new games (and following the industry) and just play 1000s of old discs/cartridges/digital downloads for the last 15 or 20 years would be nice.

 

[mejin]

Sony CEO is not dumb it seems.

 

[SonGoku]

Click bait trash? Must be gamingbolt
There is no gaming future without consoles

 

[devilNprada]

The NET Profit is actually higher than operating profit, due to EBITA and continuing operations. Sony's net profit was approx. 8.23 Billion for the last fiscal year or 916.2 billion yen.

You're confused you add back interest tax and depreciation to "net income" to arrive at ebitda.
You are correct though net income can be higher than income from opperations.. If you are making income on interest or other intangible assets like royalties etc.

 

[petran79]

he means niche in Japan probably

 

[Jigsaah]

Yoshida is right.

The console market has been Niche ever since the mobile market took off. It's not an slant on how popular the Playstation has been. It's just when you look at the big picture there are larger horizons that other companies like Tencent are already conquering, while Playstation revels in it's relatively small corner eating it's little piece of the proverbial pie.

All he's saying is that, there's more to be had, and right now, they aren't in that market. This is why they teamed up with Microsoft. They were not prepared to get into this market and are now playing catch up to the likes of Microsoft, Google and Amazon in a race to corner the mobile market. I been saying this shit for months.

 

[petran79]

All he's saying is that, there's more to be had, and right now, they aren't in that market. This is why they teamed up with Microsoft. They were not prepared to get into this market and are now playing catch up to the likes of Microsoft, Google and Amazon in a race to corner the mobile market. I been saying this shit for months.

They have to look ahead. Digital video game sales are close in surpassing physical media even for AAA games. Physical media is destined to become niche, if not extinct, like on PC.

He also told things even prior to the agreement in February:

PlayStation has huge digital Q3 as hardware and physical sales slow - MCV/DEVELOP

The PS4 may be nearing the end of its reign, but it’s still pulling in huge numbers

mcvuk.com

"Although we need to be conscious of potential volatility in profitability due to the console cycle going forward, we are working to mitigate that volatility by leveraging the more-than 91.6 million unit cumulative install base of PS4 to benefit from the new business model created by network services and add-on content sales."

 

[Pallas]

He used that word in a business sense to Japanese translation, it makes perfect sense with what he's trying to convey.

Niche - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms

A niche is a space that's all your own, from a literal corner or enclosure to some kind of professional specialty. Like finding a niche in the scented soaps market with peanut butter body wash and winning over a loyal, if not nutty, following.

www.vocabulary.com

Hence why both companies are trying to expand beyond just little plastic boxes to a more mainstream and Global Avenue with multiple entertainment ventures connected at its source.

It's just gamers and fanatics like to take everything said as an attack, as if the word 'niche' is such a bad word, when in the vocabulary context above, it's pretty dead on in the business sense.

Us gamers have just bastardized the word when it it comes to select franchises or genres when they don't perform to their fullest potential like we want them to. It's NOT a negative connotation when used in business.

I get what you're saying and I knew what the definition meant but in the context it's used in nowadays, it's usually used to describe something that isn't mainstream or not casual yet n a sense. Such as you'll hear that a lot of JRPG's are niche, because the fan base isn't as wide or engaging as something like sports or CoD games. It doesn't take away if they are successful or not.

That's why I was perplexed when the CEO used that term to describe console gaming as a whole. He didn't use it incorrectly but clearly in gaming society the term has metamorphosis into something different, that I wouldn't say is incorrect usage of the term but more specific than the literal dictionary definition.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I get what you're saying and I knew what the definition meant but in the context it's used in nowadays, it's usually used to describe something that isn't mainstream or not casual yet n a sense. Such as you'll hear that a lot of JRPG's are niche, because the fan base isn't as wide or engaging as something like sports or CoD games. It doesn't take away if they are successful or not.

That's why I was perplexed when the CEO used that term to describe console gaming as a whole. He didn't use it incorrectly but clearly in gaming society the term has metamorphosis into something different, that I wouldn't say is incorrect usage of the term but more specific than the literal dictionary definition.

It is not used that way in the business world. We use it all the time to have our agents carve out a niche for their brand.

He is using it in the correct context of the business world, and this is just a typical GamingBolt clickbait based off consumer and fandom usage.

 

[Afro Republican]

Gamingbolt threads are Kains thing Op. He will surely come after you when he returns in 8 days.

 

[Jigsaah]

Gamingbolt threads are Kains thing Op. He will surely come after you when he returns in 8 days.

Wait...Is Afro Voost Kain? No...Impossibruuuuuuuu!

Seriously though, how you know he's coming back in a few days, hmmmmm!?

 

[LOLCats]

we know what these CEOs want. they want you to buy a 60$ license to a game you stream to your TV set without any other hardware. You wont really own the game and they don't have to make any physical hardware, just software.

we all know it... just like that mobile app market and vudu. You don't own shit, your "licenses" are tied to fucking crappy app and digital account and you just throw your fucking money away (at them).

Speaking of Vudu (digital vs disc) i laugh at those people "oooh i upgrade my HDX copy of shitty movie to UHD at Vudu for 12$ more!!!? ) " Really bro, you're excited about a 15mbps UHD stream...? honestly its total fucking ignorance and just embarrassing.

 

[TheKingKRoach]

What really scares me about Games as a Service and streaming is that games like fighting games, rhythm games, and action games are not going to work with streaming, when input latency is going to take a massive hit.

You can say goodbye to game preservation and actually having a license to play your games (physically or digitally).

8K 120FPS doesn't mean anything for Stadia, when the input latency is more than 33.3ms, and the image is compressed.

 

[Klayzer]

we know what these CEOs want. they want you to buy a 60$ license to a game you stream to your TV set without any other hardware. You wont really own the game and they don't have to make any physical hardware, just software.

we all know it... just like that mobile app market and vudu. You don't own shit, your "licenses" are tied to fucking crappy app and digital account and you just throw your fucking money away (at them).

Speaking of Vudu (digital vs disc) i laugh at those people "oooh i upgrade my HDX copy of shitty movie to UHD at Vudu for 12$ more!!!? ) " Really bro, you're excited about a 15mbps UHD stream...? honestly its total fucking ignorance and just embarrassing.

No doubt. When streaming becomes the only way to game, I'll spend my entertainment dollar elsewhere.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

What really scares me about Games as a Service and streaming is that games like fighting games, rhythm games, and action games are not going to work with streaming, when input latency is going to take a massive hit.

You can say goodbye to game preservation and actually having a license to play your games (physically or digitally).

8K 120FPS doesn't mean anything for Stadia, when the input latency is more than 33.3ms, and the image is compressed.

Only the word Games as Service... is enough to be scared.

 

[Klayzer]

Only the word Games as Service... is enough to be scared.

Awesome post.

 

[Kacho]

Yeah all this talk about services and streaming is definitely alarming. I worry about the future of the industry if that stuff catches on.

It's like right when I start feeling we've reached the saturation point with video and music streaming services, now gaming is trying to go that route and which means more subscriptions to manage and pay for each month. Plus with game streaming there are so many caveats. Hard to care.

 

[Endless Fluff]

Console market has been stagnant? If anything it's stronger than ever after this current gen.

The console market has pretty much stopped growing since the PS2 era. Just count all console sales each gen.

100m SNES/Mega drive
160m PS1/N64/Saturn
210m PS2/Xbox/Dreamcast/Gamecube
180m PS3/360s - 280m with Wii which was an exception.
150m PS4/XO/WiiU - 175ish with the Switch.

It seems like the customer base stays the same with around 150-200m gamers which split up on each system each generation (and this is assuming that everyone only buys one console) for the past 15 years. There was pretty much no growth, except for when the Wii became popular with old people. It's pretty fair to say that the console market has been stagnant for a while.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Sony CEO: "I think it's time we partnered with MS with cloud. They are offering a good service at a good price better than other cloud providers. And financially it helps our bottom line too"

Gaming Exec: "Well fine. If you want to be the devil and partner with MS, sure"

Sony CEO: "Ok, in prep of PS5 and future cloud services, let's tell our internal teams and third party devs what's coming soon from us and MS"

Gaming Exec: "But if we tell our devs teams, they will think you're a traitor, morale will drop, and third party devs might spill the beans to the internet. You what that means right?"

Sony CEO: "What does it mean?"

Gaming Exec: "It means PS gamers will think Sony is a traitor too. You know Sony fans are. It shows Sony in a sign of weakness and MS and Xbox is better"

Sony CEO: "We can't hide it forever. How should we communicate it?"

Gaming Exec: "If we bury a two paragraph line in our investor's day powerpoint slides, maybe nobody will notice except for trustworthy industry people"

...... PEOPLE NOTICE POWERPOINT SLIDES SAY MS PARTNERSHIP......

Sony CEO: "Everyone noticed and people are going apeshit, now what?"

Gaming Exec: "Don't worry, I know what to do............"

....... To all gamers, the partnership deal we struck with MS is not actually a partnership, nor a deal. It's just a subjective and loosey goosey agreement that says we "may" agree to do business together. So for all you worry warts, relax..........

Sony CEO: "I think it worked. Everything has toned down the last few days. I think people bought your bogus explanation"

Gaming Exec: "Good. Ok, as we planned let's hurry up and get going to the airport. We land in Redmond at 1:00 pm. MS said they are going to show a demo of Azure services on PSN at 3:00 pm sharp. And after that were going to meet Phil at a restaurant for dinner"

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The console market has pretty much stopped growing since the PS2 era. Just count all console sales each gen.

100m SNES/Mega drive
160m PS1/N64/Saturn
210m PS2/Xbox/Dreamcast/Gamecube
180m PS3/360s - 280m with Wii which was an exception.
150m PS4/XO/WiiU - 175ish with the Switch.

It seems like the customer base stays the same with around 150-200m gamers which split up on each system each generation (and this is assuming that everyone only buys one console) for the past 15 years. There was pretty much no growth, except for when the Wii became popular with old people. It's pretty fair to say that the console market has been stagnant for a while.

That PS2 era was probably overinflated due to the whole DVD era, where people were buying PS2's over DVD players. Also that gen, PS2 and GC were being dumped late in the generation at $100.

But as you compiled, t looks like the core gamer user base is around 200M as the Wii was a fad.

This is just consoles though Gaming has a got a lot bigger with Steam and mobile. The gaming pie is getting bigger, but the console slice is staying the same size.

 

[petran79]

That PS2 era was probably overinflated due to the whole DVD era, where people were buying PS2's over DVD players. Also that gen, PS2 and GC were being dumped late in the generation at $100.

But as you compiled, t looks like the core gamer user base is around 200M as the Wii was a fad.

This is just consoles though Gaming has a got a lot bigger with Steam and mobile. The gaming pie is getting bigger, but the console slice is staying the same size.

Also userbase of consoles up to the PS1 era mostly consisted of kids and teens. Older ages played mostly on computers or arcades. It was with PS2 and arcade parity that the userbase grew, adding also youths and adults, while wii expanded the ages even further, adding also female players, counting also NDS.

Difference is that the above users grew with the traditional gaming model, eg owning a pc, desktop console, portable etc Even Warcraft was played by older teens and up because PCs were still expensive
Newer generation gaming with those cheap or free mobile, browser and f2p computer games entered the field and is in stark contrast to the traditional model. Who knows the gaming habits once they grow older.

The major 3 have lost that playerbase long ago.

 

[Bryank75]

You're confused you add back interest tax and depreciation to "net income" to arrive at ebitda.
You are correct though net income can be higher than income from opperations.. If you are making income on interest or other intangible assets like royalties etc.

Well, it has been a while since I've done traditional accounting.... nearly 10 years.

 

[Bryank75]

The console market has pretty much stopped growing since the PS2 era. Just count all console sales each gen.

100m SNES/Mega drive
160m PS1/N64/Saturn
210m PS2/Xbox/Dreamcast/Gamecube
180m PS3/360s - 280m with Wii which was an exception.
150m PS4/XO/WiiU - 175ish with the Switch.

It seems like the customer base stays the same with around 150-200m gamers which split up on each system each generation (and this is assuming that everyone only buys one console) for the past 15 years. There was pretty much no growth, except for when the Wii became popular with old people. It's pretty fair to say that the console market has been stagnant for a while.

I think you MUST include Wii, I mean what is it but a console? That makes it look like consistent growth up to the 7th Generation...
and this generation isn't over yet with plenty of momentum and at least 3 years left till it really stops.
I think they will get close to 280 again... maybe pass it if Xbox pushes some units.

 

[FranXico]

Gaming Exec: "It means PS gamers will think Sony is a traitor too. You know Sony fans are. It shows Sony in a sign of weakness and MS and Xbox is better"

It's not Sony fans who think like that...

 

[joe_zazen]

I think you MUST include Wii, I mean what is it but a console? That makes it look like consistent growth up to the 7th Generation...
and this generation isn't over yet with plenty of momentum and at least 3 years left till it really stops.
I think they will get close to 280 again... maybe pass it if Xbox pushes some units.

People buy consoles for a variety of reasons. If you are looking at the core audience who buys consoles to shoot, stab, kill, and (in the case of nintendo) jump; then you can most definately discount part of the wii gen—namely thise folks who bought it as a workout device/weight loss device. The global core audience tops out at 2-300 millions or so, and of that maybe 100 millions is going to pay $70 for gold or ps+ and buy $1700 (upfront cost) worth of games over the generation.

Thinking the audience is much larger than that and if you could only tap into it is wrong imho. The super high value customers already have hardware and buy games. Making a cheapo streaming service isnt going to turn non high value people into the types that are going to spend $60+ upfront on games and sub to services that cost $10+ per month.

No, what cheap options will do will be to get those people who are not high value customers to participate. This will put pressure on AAA game companies to make games that have no upfront cost....kinda like mobile. This is why streaming could be the death of traditional console gaming—not because the people willing and able to buy hardware and pay upfront for premium games disappear, rather because games companies stop making those games because f2p makes more money.

Apex legends, for example, has made way more money than both TF games combined. And when the streaming audience comes online, that potential number for f2p hits will be way larger. The profit potential for single player AAA gaming will not grow because non high value customers will not pay for premium games.

Edit: on the positive side, the platform holders may still want to make premium games with upfront cost to get high value customers into their ecosystems. But the giant game pubs will have little to no motivation to do so.

 

[Klayzer]

It's not Sony fans who think like that...

D&D style fan-fiction

 

[SLB1904]

streaming is shit and it will continue to be shit for at least 10 years

 

[ZiriusOne]

>Be Sony
>Sell almost 100 mil PS4's

"Dude, console gaming is niche".

 

[tr1p1ex]

console gaming is niche. I mean an Apple sells ~100 million phones in ~6 months. The PS4 is going to take 7 years to do the same.

And while the entire population purchases mobile hardware, the appeal of consoles is mostly limited to a very specific demographic - the ~13-25 yr old male.

That's what the CEO means by niche.

The "niche" comment underlines the hopes for cloud gaming. The hope is that it expands the audience for console games because a person won't have to buy a console.

The problem with that .... as I see it and others also see it ....is it may very well be the games themselves that make console gaming a niche.

I mean where are they going to find the next $1 billion dollars worth of Call of Duty gamers? Do we really think that so many people want to play CoD but don't because the PS4 is $200? And that moving it to cloud gaming will suddenly double the audience? Not seeing it.

 

[Hideous Snake]

Console is niche when it's the most thing that is bringing them money? What's wrong with the people in the industry...

 

[somerset]

The mainstream media wants to conflate phone twiddling with real gaming on the PC and Consoles. This would be like conflating novel reading with looking at the comic strips in the daily paper. Do *you* think reading Dilbert is the same as reading Far From The Madding Crowd?

Console gaming + PC gaming is pretty much 100% of all gaming- which means hardly any women game- but that is just a *fact*. Yeah women twiddle on their phone, but only the alt-left need this to be included in real gaming for political reasons. To bash another 'male' interest.

Sony, to get into Hollywood, allowed a religious cult to finally take control of them. Sony's 'japanese' leadership are now just puppets- and say what they are instructed to say. Sony is now just another alt-left *American* entity.

Here's the thing. They *know* they cannot eff up AAA console games with too much alt-left crap else they won't sell, and the darwinian nature of capitalist competition in the marketplace will thusly ruin Sony in that sector. So instead they must refocus where SJW stuff does play well- streaming, phones, microtransactions and lootboxes. The alt-left hopes if the 'comic strip' side of the biz makes enough dosh, they can essentially *close down* the 'novel' side that only appeals to males.

The same old, same old attack on males and anything they enjoy. Men shouldn't be gaming, they should be going to war. Early times had era appropriate forms of the same massage.

 

[Afro Republican]

Mobile isn't in the same category and PC-Console gaming and never was until a recent period of time ago.

This is like saying because people play with sex toys that should go with monopoly and Barbie. That's not how these things work, there are still several companies that make little to zero money on mobile and most of their money comes from PC+Consoles, heck, EA's money is mostly coming from that, so is Activisions. For long-lasting mobile success you need to put in the resources, possibly rebuilt parts from the ground up to make your App relevant down the line, take into account whether certain phones can even support it, have good online infrastructure if its a MP game and then expect a return on investment. This is why most of the "games" on mobile are Free, F2p, or games 99Cents or less. No ones playing Mortal Kombat or KOF mobile at Evo on their iPhones, and if they were going to do that they would have controllers plugged into the phones anyway.

Everyone talks about "5 billion gamers" out there but the vast majority are not gamers and the ones that do play slightly more frequently on their phones aren't really "gamers" either. At least not in the traditional sense.

Not to mention a large part of that "5 billion gamers" is a mix between people who throw a game for a few minutes, to a person who has game apps on their phone but may have never even played any of them (some phones have games pre-installed but its still counted in Googles metrics) and the unsustainable casuals that move with the trends.

Last gen on Console and Estimated PC gamers, we had around 600 million gamers. We could have had more, maybe possibly even reached 1 billion real gamers, but:

1. Sony and Microsoft just screwed over the casuals that were bouncing around causing them to basically either stop playing games or to go to mobile.

2. Sony and Microsoft didn't do anything to attract more real gamers and basically played it safe this gen and only just changed the split between the two last gen.

3. Microsoft and Sony wasted a good amount of resources chasing after Mobile or Mobile compatibility instead of going all out on their consoles.

4. Sony continues to try and chase the imaginary pot of gold despite their mobile division constantly failing and erasing large amounts of their profits in other areas for years and years.

5. Microsoft continues to try and chase the imaginary pot of gold by trying to link Xbox Live and arcade style games on phones but has constantly been failing at that since WIndows Phone 7 years ago.

6. Nintendo always coasts when initial lightning strikes, and the Wii U was abandoned quite early with no real effort to salvage it leading to a drop.

7. PC gaming store competition is splitting userbases.

Compared to the estimated 600-650 million gamers last gen, this gen we are looking at 250 million at the current rate and Sony and MS are focusing more on studio control, mobile, and going after this "demographics" that don't even play games. On top of that Sony has censorship.

This ill talk of console gaming from Sony executives is a sign of poor choices that will likely lead to another drop in the real gaming market next gen. It mya actually be the last one, I'm expecting hardware platforms housing games on demand and upscaled indie/mobile games next generation for device "cross-compatibility" and to lower the strain on streaming. What a roller coaster the last 2 years have been.

 

[Bryank75]

console gaming is niche. I mean an Apple sells ~100 million phones in ~6 months. The PS4 is going to take 7 years to do the same.

And while the entire population purchases mobile hardware, the appeal of consoles is mostly limited to a very specific demographic - the ~13-25 yr old male.

That's what the CEO means by niche.

The "niche" comment underlines the hopes for cloud gaming. The hope is that it expands the audience for console games because a person won't have to buy a console.

The problem with that .... as I see it and others also see it ....is it may very well be the games themselves that make console gaming a niche.

I mean where are they going to find the next $1 billion dollars worth of Call of Duty gamers? Do we really think that so many people want to play CoD but don't because the PS4 is $200? And that moving it to cloud gaming will suddenly double the audience? Not seeing it.

The demographics are wider than that now. Many gamers all the way up to 50 and as low as 4 or 5.

 

[tr1p1ex]

The demographics are wider than that now. Many gamers all the way up to 50 and as low as 4 or 5.

keywords in the post you quoted were "mostly limited to a very specific demographic - the ~13-25 yr old male."

 

[PistolGrip]

MS is in direct competition with sony, so aws comparison doesn't work. This is more like Netscape trying to carve out a niche on Windows while competing with IE. And it sounds like sony is going to be using ms owned data centers and ms owned streaming software, however, the patent situation might give sony some nice licensing fees for a time if they own a bunch more than MS.

But yes, this is all conjecture.

Netflix uses AWS and it's the largest AWS client. Amazon has it's own streaming services....

I don't think you should worry much about this. Unlike Windows, cloud infrastructure has low switching cost and the underlying platform is detached from the customer. SONY can switch tomorrow and customers will not care, but Netscape wouldn't be able to change their customers from Windows to Linux. SONY is probably working on a really good deal with MS Azure. The MS cloud group doesn't care about the Xbox business. It is trying to compete with two other giants in this space, AWS, and Google.

Further, streaming will disrupt the gaming industry. It is a matter of time. SONY is smart to have a foot in the door before their console business really does become niche and begins to service only the truly hardcore gamers.

The good news is that gaming overall should become less expensive as you remove hardware and the retailers who take a big part of the gaming revenue pie.

 

[Bryank75]

keywords in the post you quoted were "mostly limited to a very specific demographic - the ~13-25 yr old male."

still, disagree to the narrowness.

 

[tr1p1ex]

still, disagree to the narrowness.

Saying there are gamers are young as 5 and as old as 50 doesn't disagree with what I said.

 

[Dthomp]

Around 90 million PS4s, around 40 million Xbox Ones and near 30 million Switches are considered niche? Isn't that niche console really helping Sony now? Well, maybe streaming can save these lackluster sales. Yeah, I'm calling clickbait.

"You guys don't have smartphones?" Clearly the future of gaming is trash mobile games