SONY restructures to avoid routine losses

[Breccia]

Posted on Reuters:

"It forecast those costs will push it into a 50 billion yen net loss for the 2014/15 financial year, its sixth loss in seven years. Combined, these losses amount to nearly 1 trillion yen." (That's about 10 billion $US)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A4D08W20140514

So, what can SONY do to keep from slipping deeper into the hole?

[Edge-]

Considering the PlayStation division is one of the only divisions in the company that's making them money, this really isn't super relevant to video games.

It's their other divisions such as the PC division which they were forced to sell off, and the TV division that are hemorrhaging money.

[Ferocity]

It's their other divisions such as the PC division which they were forced to sell off, and the TV division that are hemorrhaging money.

This bothers me somewhat. I don't know much about how Sony and its divisions operate, but might it have some consequences on their SOE division and EQ MMOs? Or it is that one division which is relatively safe/not a subject to possible changes?

[Katchii]

This bothers me somewhat. I don't know much about how Sony and its divisions operate, but might it have some consequences on their SOE division and EQ MMOs? Or it is that one division which is relatively safe/not a subject to possible changes?

Depends on what the company decides to do, but it would be a safe bet to say that the division bringing in the money is safe and will likely get additional resources from the other divisions to continue bringing in the money with more products being released at an accelerated rate. The divisions weighing it down may get reduced (or the resources moved to the divisions doing well), out-sourced or completely removed depending on what the companys' business plan is.

[Faroth]

They need to continue to liquidate divisions that are no longer competitive, really. PC sales are slumping across the industry, for instance, it's not exclusive to Sony. TVs is simply a series of errors on their part in their planning and staying ahead of the competition.

[OneTripleZero]

This bothers me somewhat. I don't know much about how Sony and its divisions operate, but might it have some consequences on their SOE division and EQ MMOs? Or it is that one division which is relatively safe/not a subject to possible changes?

Sony is absolutely famous for having each of its departments operate almost completely independently of the others, even to the point that they've been known to step on each other's toes. It's a poorly structured corporation. Some parts do very well (PlayStation, Insurance) others very poorly (Computers, TV).

[Deleted]

Re-release older games with shiny new graphics at full price

[barackopala]

PC sales are slumping across the industry, for instance, it's not exclusive to Sony. TVs is simply a series of errors on their part in their planning and staying ahead of the competition.

Sorry but i fail to see how can pc sales slump that much in the last few years, havent found any proof of that yet.

[Edge-]

Sorry but i fail to see how can pc sales slump that much in the last few years, havent found any proof of that yet.

http://www.zdnet.com/the-real-reason...ng-7000013878/

It's from last year. PC sales have slowed down, but that's the physical PC/hardware side of things, not games.

[Faldric]

Sorry for the offtopic but WTF is wrong with that Reuters link. It crashes my firefox with 100% accuracy.

[Deleted]

its the movie part of the business which is keeping them alive atm.. did ps3 make sony any money over its lifetime?

[Faldric]

its the movie part of the business which is keeping them alive atm.. did ps3 make sony any money over its lifetime?

Yes the gaming division is one of those that actually yield cash. Not this year because PS4s are still sold at a loss, but Sony made quite some money with PS3 Hardware and Software in its whole lifetime.

[Deleted]

Yes the gaming division is one of those that actually yield cash. Not this year because PS4s are still sold at a loss, but Sony made quite some money with PS3 Hardware and Software in its whole lifetime.

really how much? i bet its less than a billion. didnt it take like 3 years to get any profits and losses of 3b in the first year..

I never said it doesnt make money but over 7 years its not made them much.. the movie business though is giving them massive profits.

[Shinzai]

The PS3 probably about broke even all in all. It first started turning a profit per console sold in 2010, 4 years after launch and even then, the profit was tiny. Its games sales were always behind the Xbox 360, but it looks like they've turned it around with the PS4 offering profits immediately with every 2 games sold or 1 game + subscription, rather than years down the line:

Sony’s PlayStation division sales up 64% to $4.2 billion

"Sony’s Game segment – the part of the company responsible for the PlayStation business – recorded a 64 percent increase in sales during the third quarter to $4.2 billion.

Operating income skyrocketed almost 300 percent to $172 million compared to the same period last year.

Sony did not break down units sales, instead it noted that it had sold 7.8 million PS4 and PS3 systems combined during the third quarter and 2 million combined PSP and PS Vita systems.

Game software sales topped 126 million, which includes packaged and digital units.

The success of the PlayStation 4 had a wider impact on the whole business, with Sony Corp recording quarterly sales of $22.9 billion and net profits of $257 million.

The company had sold 2.1 million PS4 units less than a month after release, with that number rising to 4.2 million at the start of this year."

[apepi]

Nintendo is losing money....Sony is loses....Microsoft is losing....It seems like everyone is losing the console wars to me. Seems like the gaming bubble is finally coming down?

[Faldric]

Nintendo is losing money....Sony is loses....Microsoft is losing....It seems like everyone is losing the console wars to me. Seems like the gaming bubble is finally coming down?

It certainly got worse for everyone in recent years but its not all doom and gloom. We just reached a point where the whole industry is stagnating and everyone is trying to find a way out and the attempts are often failing.

[N-7]

Nintendo is losing money....Sony is loses....Microsoft is losing....It seems like everyone is losing the console wars to me. Seems like the gaming bubble is finally coming down?

Valve is making money, so us PC players are safe.

[cherb]

Nintendo is losing money....Sony is loses....Microsoft is losing....It seems like everyone is losing the console wars to me. Seems like the gaming bubble is finally coming down?

Meanwhile companies like Valve and Riot are doing just fine. Gaming will be ok.