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Sony FY2015 Earnings ($1.3b profit; 40m PS4 Shipped)
- Thread starter ethomaz
- Start date
I understand the frustration, but it's a business. Their first priority is the bottom line and shareholders, it has to be. If they were a 100% privately owned company they could do whatever they want but they're not.
CrispyBoar
Banned
The PS3 had costed them a lot of billions due to Sony making the console so expensive (especially with both Blu-Ray & the Cell Processor) & taking a $200+ loss off of each PS3 console sold, not to mention constantly lowering the prices by trying to get more PS3's to sell, resulting in even more huge losses.
With the R&D for PS4, they took a look at what they did wrong with the PS3, & made a lot of changes such as ditching the Cell Processor (& the Blu-Ray drives were much cheaper than before) & making the console developer friendly for 3rd party publishers/developers. Thus, they started to break even off of each PS4 console sold along with a game. After a while, the prices of the components dropped & from there, Sony started to make a profit off of each PS4 console sold.
DannyDanger
Member
Journalists/Execs saying things that comeback to make them look like dummies is at an all time high this gen? Any charts/data on this?
Mass_Pincup
Banned
Shenmue had to do a kickstarter so surely Sony isn't investing a whole lot into it. Yoshida gone on the record to say that TLG didn't cost all that much, Everyone wanted Kojima and his last game sold several millions units, that's not a massive financial risks. And really the sequel to their best selling franchise is a financial risk now?
Now something like Dreams and Gravity Rush 2 I can see has big risks.
What's devices here?
Why would Dreams or Gravity Rush 2 be a risk when The Last Guardian isn't a risk?
PdotMichael
Banned
The Devices segment includes the Semiconductors and Components categories. Semiconductors includes image sensors. Components includes batteries, recording media and data recording systems.
Can somebody be kind enough to dumb some things down for me?:
Is it Sony's PlayStation only that has been making profits?
Does that make Sony as the multi-market entity now in the black, or just the SCE division?
Is this 40 million the total cumulative sales since launch?
Thank you kindly in advance.
Is it Sony's PlayStation only that has been making profits?
Does that make Sony as the multi-market entity now in the black, or just the SCE division?
Is this 40 million the total cumulative sales since launch?
Thank you kindly in advance.
Live Free or Die
Banned
Came for this and to post this. Well...there it is. Boom.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
Last gen when they were in the last place, they went out and bought a lot of talented studios like Evolution Studios, Media Molecule and Guerrila Games. They didnt shut down Naughty Dog after Uncharted sold 111k copies in its first month. They trusted the studios abilities and gave them another chance.
Sony first party games never sold millions upon millions of copies, but they created this rich portfolio that made sure their consumers had an amazing line up of games to choose from. They have forgotten what made them successful in the first place. Remember this pic? How many fo these games sold well?
My point is that Sony invested in games and studios last gen when they were losing billions. Now they are making billions and shutting down studios?
I would say Sony fucked up by not doing an open beta. I dont think it was Evolution's call to make. Regardless, one fuck up and you are done?
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
It was 1.3 Billion
PdotMichael
Banned
They were shutting down studios and investing into new ones all the time.
Evolution Studios didn't produce great selling games nor critically acclaimed ones. Only a company like Sony would gave them 10 years of AAA treatment in the first place.
It looks like about 40% of the profit in 2015 came from their videogame division, with the other 60% spread across Financial Services, Cameras, TVs, etc. They took heavy losses in "Corporate" and Phones, although the phone division lost SIGNIFICANTLY less than it has in the past
Mass_Pincup
Banned
I think that what killed Driveclub was the PS+ Edition announcement, with the delay it created a "wait till that version comes out" attitude.
Spiral Insanity
Banned
Yes. Regardless, long term I believe Sony made a mistake. They are a talented team and exclusives matter.
SneakersSO
Member
The racing genre, as a whole, has been on a steady decline on consoles for a few years now, and every racing franchise on console has been affected. The only racing title that may actually have a shot at generating some note-worthy sales, and even this is a big question nowadays, is a full-fledged Gran Turismo title on PS4. GTSport won't be that game.
Closing Evolution is just a natural extension of the market reality the genre faces on consoles currently. Sony probably had to make the hard decision between funding two racing game studios, and chose Polyphony over Evolution.
They shot down studios last gen too.
And you should check how many games Sony launched in the 30months ps4 has been on the market, it's not really very different from that pic.
About third party exclusives, that's not a call for Sony to make unless you want them to pay for them, those in the pic were exclusives because their publishers didn't see oportunities in other platforms.
One fuck up? Evolution has never produced anything worthwhile. This was alot more the last straw than anything.
People are desperately trying to overblow this evolution thing into some stupid narrative for whatever reason and its annoying.
Sony does still have a first party racing series though. I'm sure the redundancy of both went into the decision (not saying the two titles are the same, just that GT and Driveclub might not need to exist as franchises in the Board's eyes)
Thanks, I was looking at the pdf and couldn't find it.
Keeping a random studio alive that for whatever reason you care a lot has nothing to do with caring about their consumers.
PlatypusDude
Member
I'm still waiting for them to release the PS2 games on PSN since they were rerated before the feature was announced. Still glad to see PS4 doing well.
NoctisVsStar
Member
It's all about making money.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
the first three motorstorm games were all received well, and are at 84, 82 and 77 on metacritic respectively. DriveClub was unfairly judged and has a huge online following. If Sony was going by quality instead of sales, Evolution Studios would still be alive.
As for Sony investing in new studios and shutting down studios every gen. Look at this IGN article from 2012. 16 studios back then. Here are the studios they have shutdown since then.
- BigBig Studios (Pursuit Force, Motorstorm Arctic Edge)
- Incognito Entertainment (Warhawk, Starhawk)
- Zipper Interactive (Socom, Mag)
- Evolution Studios (Motorstom, Drive Club
- SCE Studio Liverpool (Wipeout guys)
How many new studios have they opened since then?
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/04/03/a-complete-list-of-sony-owned-playstation-devs?page=4
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Funny how they thought getting a non-Japanese person (Otaku) was going to turn the company around. And then it was literally a Japanese person that saved Sony lol.
Obliterator
Member
I'm just going to echo what I said last night. That 4.6 billion dollar's in revenue from PSN is absolutely eye opening and a clear example of the huge shift we are seeing from physical to digital. It's growth is incredible
Guess what? Sony gave Evolution a chance to redeem themselves with all the post launch content for Driveclub. Also, Uncharted 1 went on to be one of their best selling series. Can you say that for driveclub?
Morover, how convenient of you to forget that the last Motorstorm underperformed as well.
What argument are you making though? They cannot afford to make decisions based on quality vs. sales. They're a business (like many have mentioned), and they have investors to answer to. Investors don't care how good Motorstorm is (it's awesome).
Sony as a whole made 294 billion Yen profit. 88.7 billion of that was from gaming. Thats $2.45 total and $738 million from gaming.
The blurb about gaming segment:
Sales: 11.8% increase (FX Impact: +2%)
·(+) Increase in PS4 software sales including sales through the network
·(+) Increase in PS4 hardware unit sales
·(--) Decrease in PS3 software and hardware sales

Operating Income: 40.6 bln yen increase (FX Impact: -47.7 bln yen)
·(+) Increase in PS4 software sales
·(+) PS4 hardware cost reductions
·(+) Absence of 11.2 bln yen write-down of PS Vita and
PS TV components recorded in FY14
·(--) Negative impact of the apprec
iation of the U.S. dollar,
reflecting the high ratio of
U.S. dollar-denominated costs
·(--) Decrease in PS3 software sales
Insane Metal
Member
Wow, this is great for Sony. Good job, Kaz.
Mass_Pincup
Banned
Is it only digital purchase or does that include PS+?
We're going to act like the game wasn't impacted by the tsunami of that year though?
HeWhoWalks
Gold Member
Among other things that you have wrong, this is a glaring one. Gran Turismo has ALWAYS sold "millions upon millions of copies", for example.
They were on the verge of implosion just a few years ago. Financial stability is the number one goal here. Sucks that they can't keep all of their stalls afloat, i agree.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Holy shit, what the fuck am I seeing?! This is Polygon pie chart level of stupid.
Obliterator
Member
It will include PS+ but that doesn't really matter that's all digital revenue.
It's also a 2x increase YoY
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
But the NEO is the PS4. They'd count as the same system.
As unfortunate as that incident was, we have no idea to what extent the game was affected by it. Horrific shooting accidents have happened in the past few years but that didn't stop people from buying shooters. There's also the fact that it wasn't as well received as the last one.
Steep rise and steep fall, but it still peaked in the middle of a solid 5-6 year cycle. Not peaking in the 5th year like 360 did for example. Wii having no post-generation tail was odd for a market leader but it's active cycle was pretty standard.
More consoles resemble Wii's cycle than 360/PS3's cycle, that's all I meant. The only systems I can think of that peaked late like those were more industry builders that started from nothing which was pretty much just NES and PS1. I don't see PS4 or One following that trend but rather a more normal cycle, although these mid-cycle upgrades might throw everything off too.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
Mentioned this earlier in the thread.
That's my point. They answered to shareholders last gen as well. And they were losing billions last gen. Now they are in the position where they can invest in MORE games. And they are doing the opposite. As a publisher their output has been pathetic this gen. The sony i liked was the publisher who made games, not the hardware manufacturer.
Its good to see Sony again in profit but i still think they have lot to do before they become stable.
Their Mobile division is getting worse which is main money maker for most companies
Their Movie division is doing even worse with no main big franchises to rely on
Beside Playstation , Lenses and financial they don't even have a continuous source of profits and anything can happen next gen regarding to PS
Their Mobile division is getting worse which is main money maker for most companies
Their Movie division is doing even worse with no main big franchises to rely on
Beside Playstation , Lenses and financial they don't even have a continuous source of profits and anything can happen next gen regarding to PS
"Never produced anything worth while"
Dismissing Motorstorm makes this statement automatic shitposting
DriftingSpirit
Member
So basically, Sony is doomed.
Mass_Pincup
Banned
Sure but the game was delayed in several countries as well as straight up cancelled in Japan and in New Zealand. They stopped all shipment and marketing in Australia.
That's completely different then a shooting accident.
SamuelSupreme
Banned
Man the difference between the PS4 and PS3 is staggering. The Ps3's shortcomings were necessary for Sony to take a look at themselves and acknowledge what made them so successful in the gaming industry.
Kaz has been the man.
Kaz has been the man.
How old are you? Company don't just keep studio alive for the sake of having it alive. If it doesn't generate profit or even money then why bother? This is business, not some charity organisation mate.
InsaneTiger
Member
The need to dump the mobile division
I'm sure camera sensors will see a jump with the iPhone 7, maybe
The movie division is getting paid by Marvel for Spidey and Marvel is making the next Spidey with Sony getting a huge chunk of those profits.
Financial Division, I don't know
And to quote Ars, "Sony's entertainment division continues to perform well, posting a 6.8 percent jump in annual sales thanks to on-demand and subscription revenue from the likes of television series such as Breaking Bad, The Blacklist and Better Call Saul."
I believe they will make it through but they have to cut the Xperia line, it ain't selling.
ninjablade
Banned
The main problem with ps3 was price, if it was 399$ at Launch it would have did over 100 million easy. Really it was a real easy fix for Sony.
opiate had to take a break and let his hot takes mature a bit.