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[StevieP]

huh?

I'm pretty sure next gen is NOT going to sell anywhere near as much as this gen did, and I'm also pretty sure that budgets as a whole for "AAA" software production are going to be going up as they always have every other generation.

It's actually pretty dumb to buy yourself into the dedicated console market at this point. Samsung isn't that dumb.

Sony's already there and has long sunk the billions necessary, and people should hope they stay that way.

 

[Big-ass Ramp]

Well this couldn't happen to a poorer managed company.

 

[Triple U]

No, it says short term borrowings are $3,662 million, but that is not all that short term liabilities or debt are made of.

Its the only actual debt thats coming off the books within the fiscal year. Edit: Didn't see the current portion of long-time debt, add that to

Accounts payable are liquidated at a later date.

 

[Triple U]

I'm pretty sure next gen is NOT going to sell anywhere near as much as this gen did, and I'm also pretty sure that budgets as a whole for "AAA" software production are going to be going up as they always have every other generation.

It's actually pretty dumb to buy yourself into the dedicated console market at this point. Samsung isn't that dumb.

Sony's already there and has long sunk the billions necessary, and people should hope they stay that way.

Based on what?

 

[lupinko]

If Sony leaves the console market, which they won't, it will be done by selling the whole division to another company, possibly Apple, Google or Samsung. PlayStation will live on to fight another day regardless of Sony's own problems as the brand is valuable.

In fact all of Sony's brands are valuable, Vaio, Bravia, PlayStation, Xperia, Walkman and basically all of them are saleable or licenceable. The right management could work wonders with that kind of strong branding, Sony's management has been incompetent for the better part of 10 years though...

I'm surprised Sony hasn't really pushed the modern Walkman as a serious competitor to the iPod Touch.

Since it is pretty much the Android equivalent to the iPod Touch.

 

[StevieP]

Based on what?

The growth this generation was almost entirely on the backs of the DS and Wii. Neither of their sequels are going to sell as well in my opinion and I don't think any platform is going to reach 100 million based on the competition to the console market and the scarcity of money being spent on disposable entertainment going to other markets.

I could very well be wrong, but the sales figures indicate that the health of the industry is on a downward slope, and that it's more than just end-generational fatigue.

 

[thehypocrite]

Based on what?

Gut feeling is the best that I can come up with.

 

[Triple U]

The growth this generation was almost entirely on the backs of the DS and Wii. Neither of their sequels are going to sell as well in my opinion and I don't think any platform is going to reach 100 million based on the competition to the console market and the scarcity of money being spent on disposable entertainment going to other markets.

I could very well be wrong, but the sales figures indicate that the health of the industry is on a downward slope, and that it's more than just end-generational fatigue.

I don't see how you can reach this conclusion when this gen has dragged on longer than almost any one previous. I don't see the 360 nor PS3 dying anytime soon, do you have numbers comparative to this time last generation?

 

[Freezie KO]

I'm worried about their film division. Sony Pictures Classics puts out some good stuff.

 

[nhlducks35]

The growth this generation was almost entirely on the backs of the DS and Wii. Neither of their sequels are going to sell as well in my opinion and I don't think any platform is going to reach 100 million based on the competition to the console market and the scarcity of money being spent on disposable entertainment going to other markets.

I could very well be wrong, but the sales figures indicate that the health of the industry is on a downward slope, and that it's more than just end-generational fatigue.

StevieP
Doesn't actually understand technology or have insider info.
(Today, 01:05 AM)

 

[Erethian]

The biggest problem is that total userbase growth has never been able to get anywhere close to matching development budget growth.

And I can see why someone could reasonably predict the dedicated console space will contract next generation, as competition from other gaming-enabled devices increases.

 

[Schlachtor]

I'm worried about their film division. Sony Pictures Classics puts out some good stuff.

Why?

And, and btw.:

Sony Becomes World’s Third Largest Smartphone Maker

Japanese electronics maker Sony has cracked the top five in worldwide smartphone sales for the first time since 2006. It now stands ahead of RIM's Blackberry and Taiwan's HTC to claim the number three spot in worldwide popularity.

Sony's advance came as a surprise, though it was no surprise who was number one or two in worldwide sales. Samsung claimed the top spot because of the wide popularity of its range of Android phones. Apple is second in worldwide sales however, in terms of having the single most popular model, the iPhone wins hands-down.

According to market research company Canalys, 173.7 million smartphones were shipped in the third quarter of 2012. That's a 44 per cent year-to-year increase. Samsung shipped 55.5 million handsets followed by Apple with 26.9 million.

An effective new marketing campaign and some strong products such as the Xperia P are credited for propelling Sony to the third spot. It sold 8.8 million units and gained 5.1 per cent in market share. Canalys' equates that increase to an amazing 41.1 per cent gain year-on-year.

Sony may get another windfall from the movie, Skyfall. In the new "James Bond" film, the British agent 007, played by actor Daniel Craig is seen using the Xperia and the added cachet from product placement could boost sales even higher in the fourth quarter.

The top five was rounded out with HTC, which saw its share fall by 36.1 per cent and RIM, which, despite its well publicised struggles (largely because of its Blackberry popularity in Asia), managed to sell 7.3 million handsets in the third quarter, giving it a 4.2 per cent market share.

LG will be expected to move further up the table next quarter following the launch of its Google-branded LG Nexus smartphone, which went on sale in November. Reviewers have praised it, though it only comes in 3G and is not 4G compatible.

Separate data from IDC published on November 2 revealed that 75 per cent of all smartphones shipped (136 million) in the third quarter ran Android compared with 14.9 per cent running Apple's iOS and 2 per cent using Windows Phone 7 or Windows Mobile.

 

[Busty]

I'm worried about their film division. Sony Pictures Classics puts out some good stuff.

Why?

Sony Pictures has indeed had a great year at the box office but it's struggling (like most of Sony) to make a profit. People don't realise just how radical a change SPE will be undergoing in the next year to make it more profitable.

The days of Sony Pictures being a 'big studio player' like a Warners, Disney or Fox are over. They simply don't have the deep pockets for it anymore.

Personally I wouldn't be surprised if Sony did shutter it's Classic/Indy division at some point to save costs which would, for many reasons, be a real shame.

 

[Mael]

I don't see how you can reach this conclusion when this gen has dragged on longer than almost any one previous. I don't see the 360 nor PS3 dying anytime soon, do you have numbers comparative to this time last generation?

Actually if you remove Nintendo, the hd twins have literally no growth over last gen one could even argue that msft's numbers are inflated due to 360's initial problems, msft only ate a huge part of Sony s share.
Software may be different but I don't have the numbers...
Btw this is bad because the target population is growing.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Sony Pictures has indeed had a great year at the box office but it's struggling (like most of Sony) to make a profit. People don't realise just how radical a change SPE will be undergoing in the next year to make it more profitable.

The days of Sony Pictures being a 'big studio player' like a Warners, Disney or Fox are over. They simply don't have the deep pockets for it anymore.

Personally I wouldn't be surprised if Sony did shutter it's Classic/Indy division at some point to save costs which would, for many reasons, be a real shame.

Busty, I think SPC won't be shuttered, it's a very stable money maker, and basically the only part of SPE that has some kind of cost control.

However, the days of unlimited budgets from SPE are over, you are definitely right there. The fact that they are now having to tap up outside finance means that business at SPE is going to change pretty radically.

 

[Triple U]

Actually if you remove Nintendo, the hd twins have literally no growth over last gen, msft only ate a huge part of Sony s share.
Software may be different but I don't have the numbers...
Btw this is bad because the target population is growing.

It doesn't really work like that. Remove either MS or Sony from the equation and there is literally no growth over last gen.

 

[Busty]

Busty, I think SPC won't be shuttered, it's a very stable money maker, and basically the only part of SPE that has some kind of cost control.

However, the days of unlimited budgets from SPE are over, you are definitely right there. The fact that they are now having to tap up outside finance means that business at SPE is going to change pretty radically.

I do hope you're right. Sony Classics actually does a lot of good. But for SPE the main shocker isn't that it's tapping outside finance (this has been a mainstay at Warners for years) but the way that they are doing it.

I know for a fact that Sony have already out and out cancelled one very expensive event movie scheduled for 2014 and barring the 'big hitters' such as Spider-Man etc there could be more major projects being cut loose and abandoned.

With the Relativity co-financing deal nearly expired (if not already done) the biggest shocker among the film community was Sony making tentative steps to sell some international rights to some titles on their slate at AFM.

This isn't just seeking outside finance they are actively shrinking their output on a global stage. It's going to be eye opening to see what SPE does next to say the least.

 

[Mael]

It doesn't really work like that. Remove either MS or Sony from the equation and there is literally no growth over last gen.

Actually if you remove only Sony there's q tremendous growth.
Also Sony and msft are after the samemarket when PS3 grew 360 wasn't doing as well as should be.
Wii was on a total different plane unaffected by both but very sensitive to whether or not Nintendo provided support or not.
After all if the growth was in the upmarket, kinect wouldn't exist and pc would be flourishing and have most of the support but that's kind of ot at this point.

 

[ForzaFerrari]

And how exactly "Fitch" serves to humanity?

 

[Mael]

And how exactly "Fitch" serves to humanity?

Is that a real question?

 

[Triple U]

Actually if you remove only Sony there's q tremendous growth.
Also Sony and msft are after the samemarket when PS3 grew 360 wasn't doing as well as should be.
Wii was on a total different plane unaffected by both but very sensitive to whether or not Nintendo provided support or not.
After all if the growth was in the upmarket, kinect wouldn't exist and pc would be flourishing and have most of the support but that's kind of ot at this point.

No, there isn't.

PS2 has shipped 150mill+ units . Nintendo sold 25million+ GCNs and MS 25 million+ Xboxs.

Both MS and Sony have shipped 70mill a piece this gen. Nintendo less than a 100 mill.

Its simple math.

 

[Mael]

No, there isn't.

PS2 has shipped 150mill+ units . Nintendo sold 25million+ GCNs and MS 25 million+ Xboxs.

Both MS and Sony have shipped 70mill a piece this gen. Nintendo less than a 100 mill.

Its simple math.

What?
70 + 90 << 25 + 25 ????

 

[zomgbbqftw]

I do hope you're right. Sony Classics actually does a lot of good. But for SPE the main shocker isn't that it's tapping outside finance (this has been a mainstay at Warners for years) but the way that they are doing it.

I know for a fact that Sony have already out and out cancelled one very expensive event movie scheduled for 2014 and barring the 'big hitters' such as Spider-Man etc there could be more major projects being cut loose and abandoned.

With the Relativity co-financing deal nearly expired (if not already done) the biggest shocker among the film community was Sony making tentative steps to sell some international rights to some titles on their slate at AFM.

This isn't just seeking outside finance they are actively shrinking their output on a global stage. It's going to be eye opening to see what SPE does next to say the least.

Well credit ratings downgrades are not very helpful for SPE and Sony have been working on movie financing not reliant on regular capital markets or the traditional brokers, when they approached us last year it was pretty odd as their plan didn't make sense with their BBB+ rating, but now it does.

Related to the cancelled project, if I have it right, Imageworks is going to take a big hit next year which is a shame since their work has been a lot better than in the past and Hotel Transylvania was a big turning point for them as they were able to get a fully animated picture out for around $100m and though the quality of animation is around Pixar's 2009 standard the fact that they didn't blow the budget up to $200m for a movie that would gross under $400m WW is a sign of progress. Again, if I have it right, Sony are looking to cancel a couple of CG heavy tenpoles for 2014 and 2015 and will downsize Imageworks to save money.

On the Relativity deal, I think Zombieland 2 could be the final movie of the deal, but there are a lot of details to work out. Both Emma Stone and Jesse Eisenberg are much bigger stars now and will command a higher price. I'm sure Emma Stone will fall in line for Sony, but I'm not sure if Eisenberg will be come back for a cut price salary.

But yeah, from $4bn global box office takings, SPE will basically break even once profits from asset disposals are taken out. That's pretty eye-opening.

 

[Triple U]

What?
70 + 90 << 25 + 25 ????

Uh how did you get that?

70 + 90 << 25 + 25 +150

 

[wizzbang]

I'm sure this has been asked - but is Sony Computer / Sony Gaming profitable though? I mean I couldn't care less about digital cameras, walkmans, home theatre recievers and so on. Is the gaming side of thing a profitable and sustainable business?

I know fanboys are frowned upon here and the PS3 is by no means perfect but I just found the 360 experience very 'nickel and dimish', I found the reliability, noise of the early console ugly and I found the games to be either cross platform with PC or what was unique to the 360, simply 'felt like PC games on a console' - they seem to not be the unique experiences I want
So TLDR: my point here is that I'd buy a PS4 over an "Xbox 720" pretty much regardless. - I just love my PS3 so much, a true surprise (I expected it to be the opposite when I got both about 5 years ago)


Finally, god help me Panasonic stay alive there's not many plasma manufacturers left, I would be completely lost without plasma TV's still being produced.


So, is Sony gaming likely to live, regardless of 'Sony all" ?

 

[Triple U]

I'm sure this has been asked - but is Sony Computer / Sony Gaming profitable though? I mean I couldn't care less about digital cameras, walkmans, home theatre recievers and so on. Is the gaming side of thing a profitable and sustainable business?

I know fanboys are frowned upon here and the PS3 is by no means perfect but I just found the 360 experience very 'nickel and dimish', I found the reliability, noise of the early console ugly and I found the games to be either cross platform with PC or what was unique to the 360, simply 'felt like PC games on a console' - they seem to not be the unique experiences I want
So TLDR: my point here is that I'd buy a PS4 over an "Xbox 720" pretty much regardless. - I just love my PS3 so much, a true surprise (I expected it to be the opposite when I got both about 5 years ago)


Finally, god help me Panasonic stay alive there's not many plasma manufacturers left, I would be completely lost without plasma TV's still being produced.


So, is Sony gaming likely to live, regardless of 'Sony all" ?

Mostly, yes.

 

[twofold]

The growth this generation was almost entirely on the backs of the DS and Wii. Neither of their sequels are going to sell as well in my opinion and I don't think any platform is going to reach 100 million based on the competition to the console market and the scarcity of money being spent on disposable entertainment going to other markets.

I could very well be wrong, but the sales figures indicate that the health of the industry is on a downward slope, and that it's more than just end-generational fatigue.

I'd be very surprised if the next gen consoles perform as well as current gen consoles, too.

People have limited amounts of cash to spend on entertainment devices and limited time to spend playing around with them.

iPads are expensive, but they're selling millions each month. Every person buying an iPad is a person that is far less likely to buy a next gen console because they won't have the money available to buy both.

Speaking anecdotally, since getting an iPad, I also spend a *lot* less time playing games than I used to. I'm reading more, spending more time browsing the internet and, yes, playing games on my iPad. The iPad has directly affected the amount of time I spend playing console games, and so I'm buying far fewer games than I used to a year or two ago. I've noticed the same in my friends, too.

I'm still going to grab the next gen consoles because I have the cash available and I still enjoy gaming. I have my doubts about my more 'casual' gaming friends, though. For them, I think their other toys will be more than good enough.

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

I'm sure this has been asked - but is Sony Computer / Sony Gaming profitable though? I mean I couldn't care less about digital cameras, walkmans, home theatre recievers and so on. Is the gaming side of thing a profitable and sustainable business?

It seems to be profitable at the moment, but it wasn't for the biggest part of the generation and they'll probably never make the money they invested in PS3 back. So whether that business is sustainable depends firmly on the direction they take in the future. They can't afford another big flop, but if they temporarily lower their ambitions (or if they get lucky, but it's way too risky to rely on luck as a business strategy), they could probably keep the operation going and live to fight another day.

 

[Clear]

What?
70 + 90 << 25 + 25 ????

The problem is that the 150m total for PS2 sales happens to include ~50m units shipped concurrently with this generation.

Sony announced they reached the 100m mark for PS2 on Nov 29 2005.

That's 9 days AFTER 360 launched.

Bear in mind PSP launched less than 12 months earlier in Japan (10-DEC-2004), less than 9 months earlier in NA (24-MARCH-2005), and a bare 2 months plus (10-SEPT-2005) in PAL territories and still has managed to shift 71m+ units since then.

Sony have shifted comfortably north of 180million units of Playstation branded hardware since this generation notionally started in Nov 2005.

 

[Triple U]

I'd be very surprised if the next gen consoles perform as well as current gen consoles, too.

People have limited amounts of cash to spend on entertainment devices and limited time to spend playing around with them.

iPads are expensive, but they're selling millions each month. Every person buying an iPad is a person that is far less likely to buy a next gen console because they won't have the money available to buy both.

Speaking anecdotally, since getting an iPad, I also spend a *lot* less time playing games than I used to. I'm reading more, spending more time browsing the internet and, yes, playing games on my iPad. The iPad has directly affected the amount of time I spend playing games, and so I'm buying far fewer games than I used to a year or two ago. I've noticed the same in my friends, too.

I'm still going to grab the next gen consoles because I have the cash available and I still enjoy gaming. I have my doubts about my more 'casual' gaming friends, though. For them, I think their other toys will be more than good enough.

ipad demographics skew towards people over the age of 25, with more than 100k income a year. Not really the same demographic for video games.

The problem is that the 150m total for PS2 sales happens to include ~50m units shipped concurrently with this generation.

Sony announced they reached the 100m mark for PS2 on Nov 29 2005.

That's 9 days AFTER 360 launched.

Bear in mind PSP launched less than 12 months earlier in Japan (10-DEC-2004), less than 9 months earlier in NA (24-MARCH-2005), and a bare 2 months plus (10-SEPT-2005) in PAL territories and still has managed to shift 71m+ units since then.

Sony have shifted comfortably north of 180million units of Playstation branded hardware since this generation notionally started in Nov 2005.

Indeed.

By that logic, Sony is handily the leader of home consoles moved this gen, a point I'm sure many wouldn't concede.

 

[Brimstone]

If I was running Sony I'd try to sell the Spiderman movie rights to Disney for a hefty sum.

 

[Clear]

By that logic, Sony is handily the leader of home consoles moved this gen, a point I'm sure many wouldn't concede.

It's not logic, its plain, easily verifiable fact that simply flies in the face of the way this generation's "winners and losers" have been presented by the media.

The 3 key points you can take from it are:

1. The Playstation brand is not "dying".
2. Sony have never been seriously competitive in the handheld space, Nintendo's sales have always dwarfed Sony's, so expecting Vita and 3DS performance to be comparable was never realistic.
3. XBox, as a brand, is nowhere near as globalized as either Nintendo or Sony. Their success is firmly localized in the English speaking territories, and expectations for its future competitiveness needs to be contextualized by that fact.

 

[Mael]

Uh how did you get that?

70 + 90 << 25 + 25 +150

When I say remove <company> from the equation I mean remove its product from past gen AND this gen.
Yeah if you compare 360 to PS2, Gc and Xbox it won't look good but that's disingenuous.
If you remove Sony, you're comparing Xbox +Gc to Wii+360.

e: and I'm back on a comp because my mobile connection somehow can't handle it...

Indeed.

By that logic, Sony is handily the leader of home consoles moved this gen, a point I'm sure many wouldn't concede.

Wut?
Nintendo in the same amount of time shifted tremendously more systems even by that logic.
Heck or we might as well divide each revision of the psp and declare psp to be a failure or something.

And the maker of the Walkman not seriously competing in the embedded devices?
Are we also to consider that Nintendo wasn't really seriously competing with the GC and while we're at it Sega totally wanted Saturn to ended up the way it did?

 

[RiverBed]

Serious question: what does this mean regarding PS4 specifically, and Sony as a whole? Are we talking about possibilities that PS4 would be the 'last shot'? or calling everything off and liquefying the company? or are we talking business as usual for the next decade (of the same ol' 'losing money' till the company finally buckles)?
I always thought it won't be serious till I see major Sony divisions closing up (and I am talking TV, camera, music, etc.).

 

[Triple U]

When I say remove <company> from the equation I mean remove its product from past gen AND this gen.
Yeah if you compare 360 to PS2, Gc and Xbox it won't look good but that's disingenuous.
If you remove Sony, you're comparing Xbox +Gc to Wii+360.

Why would you remove sony from the equation last gen, if not, only to extremely skew reality and push whatever narrative you are trying to create. The topic is growth from last gen, and the example given was "well if you remove Nintendo there is no growth from the hd twins" That is disingenuous, considering that if you removed one of either hd console and still count nintendo you would still reach the same result. The fact that you are now moving the goal posts back even further to say"but if you remove 3/4ths of the GEN7 consoles sold(ie the PS2) the you have enormous growth" is ridiculous and incoherrent.

Wut?
Nintendo in the same amount of time shifted tremendously more systems even by that logic.
Heck or we might as well divide each revision of the psp and declare psp to be a failure or something.

You seem to struggle with basic algebraic equations and reasoning.

Home Consoles since Nov 2005:

Sony=50million PS2s + 70million PS3s

Nintendo= 90 million Wiis + __(whatever GCN sold)

Note that GCN only sold 25 million its entire life.

 

[Schlachtor]

I know for a fact that Sony have already out and out cancelled one very expensive event movie scheduled for 2014

Source or it didn't happen

 

[FishyJoe]

Its says pretty clearly that short term debt is $3,662 million



huh?

First of all, the figures presented are in millions of dollars.

On page F-11 it states:

Sony without financial services:
Short term borrowings: $5.163 billion
Notes, accounts payable, trade: $8.6 billion

Which leaves you with over $13.7 billlion in short term liabilities.

 

[Mael]

nvm I have more productive things to do.
See ya gaf

 

[Rentahamster]

“This wasn’t an easy decision,” said Matt Jamieson, Seoul-based head of corporate research.

dramaticgroundhog.gif

 

[gofreak]

or calling everything off and liquefying the company? or are we talking business as usual for the next decade (of the same ol' 'losing money' till the company finally buckles)?

What this means is that if Sony ever needs to go to the credit markets for money, it will be more expensive to do so - as long as their credit rating remains poor anyway.

This is not a major issue at the moment because their banks are supporting them so they typically shouldn't need to tap credit markets. It would have an operational impact if they lost the support of their banks. Then you might see them selling down assets or the like to keep their cash base reasonable rather than looking for credit.

That's 'all' at the moment.

 

[Triple U]

First of all, the figures presented are in millions of dollars.

On page F-11 it states:

Sony without financial services:
Short term borrowings: $5.163 billion
Notes, accounts payable, trade: $8.6 billion

Which leaves you with over $13.7 billlion in short term liabilities.

Which is what I put the figures in?

Also page F-11 is Financial services.

WTF are you even talking about?
I'm pretty clear about what I'm talking about.
Did Sony sell way less hardware than last gen?
Did MSFT sell way more?
Did Nintendo?

We have :
Sony (100) + MSFT (23) + Nintendo (21)
and compare it to
Sony(70) + MSFT (80) + Nintendo (90)
It's pretty clear that if Nintendo did a 2nd Gamecube they wouldn't have sold nearly as much as they did now (heck chances are they would have been out of the market by now and probably bankrupt since DS was really a preparation to Wii so no Wii means no DS either meaning that with a less competitive Nintendo Psp might have had decent support and sold even more).
=> the market would have cratered and we would be discussing why no one wants to make game systems anymore.

lol im done dude. You are on a tangent right now that is completely unrelated, incoherrent and not worth my time.

 

[Respawn]

And the U.S was also given a junk rating last year or was it this year lol. give me a break with these threads. Only a few in here even understand these things.

 

[denshuu]

And the U.S was also given a junk rating last year.

You have no idea what 'junk rating' means. Either that you think that the US actually did have its credit rating downgraded to junk. Either way, you're wrong. The US credit rating is AA-.

 

[Data West]

And the U.S was also given a junk rating last year or was it this year lol. give me a break with these threads. Only a few in here even understand these things.

And you clearly aren't one of them.

 

[Triple U]

ITT we learn that there are more than one big credit agencies..

 

[NemesisPrime]

And the U.S was also given a junk rating last year or was it this year lol.

Dude... that would probably mean the end of the world as we know it.

 

[H_Prestige]

By that logic, Sony is handily the leader of home consoles moved this gen, a point I'm sure many wouldn't concede.

Nintendo shipped 150 million DS's and about 100 million Wii's.

 

[FishyJoe]

Which is what I put the figures in?

Also page F-11 is Financial services.


lol im done dude. You are on a tangent right now that is completely unrelated, incoherrent and not worth my time.

Seriously man, crack has fried your brain. Can you even read, on page F-11 it clearly reads "Sony without Financial Services". Financial services is on page F-10.

Obviously Sony can just dump all its money losing bad assets and keep its profit making ones. Companies are eager to take on debt laden businesses that generate no income.

Sony make.believe.

 

[darkwing]

they better cut their tv line and concentrate on their smartphone business since they are now the 3rd in that market

 

[CadetMahoney]

Will people please stop saying that Sony's movie division is doing fine. It is not. At all. People see the '$4 billion gross' press release and assume the majority of that figure will end up in Sony's back pocket. Nope.

SPE made a slender profit of $100m last quarter and a loss the quarter before that. That's a $100m profit on a gross of nearly $4 billion.

Forgive my ignorance but this means they spent 4b and made back the invested 4b then $100m profit right? That's not much considering.

The only Sony product I bought that wasn't a Playstation product in the last decade was an alarm clock.

Apart from PS3 I haven't bought anything Sony in over 20 years.