Sony blamed the global economic slowdown, increased competition and an appreciating yen for a 95 percent drop in third-quarter profits, as the company announced its results Thursday.
Profits for the quarter, which ended December 31, fell from nearly 200 billion yen ($2.2 billion) in 2007 to about 10 billion yen ($110 million) in 2008.
Across the company, sales were down 25 percent, but electronics and games sales were especially hard hit.
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Sales of games, including the company’s popular PlayStation series, fell 32 percent over the year. Sales of electronics decreased by nearly 30 percent.
January 29th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Two main reasons why Sony is in trouble:
First and foremost, their evil DRM (Digital Rights Management) system, mostly Securom. The people over at reclaimyourgame.com have been fighting it a lot. Result is mostly popularity loss.
Second main reason is that they have failed to bring enough quality products out for their Playstation 3. Only a few games seem worth playing and ever since 2006 their CEOs have been making weird boasting remarks based on nothing; boasting the PS3 would beat all the other consoles.
There are more problems though, such as way too high pricing on their laptop market and many weird decisions.
January 29th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Sony has lost a lot of it’s drive. It was the Japanese “Apple” of the sixties, seventies and eighties. Great and innovative products head and shoulder above the rest.
I don’t know what happened to them but I hope they get their mojo back, I for one love their video and audio gear. I don;t own a PS-anything and have no interest in games, but for the rest, Sony has no peer. I have a 14 year old ES series set that still has a better sound, construction and feature set that about anything I see out there for a lot more money.
I just wish they’d start manufacturing more in Japan than China, you can tell the difference in quality between the two. In the US all the headphones are made in China. I bought a Japanese pair at the airport on a stopover. It was pricey but the quality difference was noteworthy.
January 29th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Bleh, that’s depressing. All this shit’s so depressing. I wish I were on another planet. Playstation used to be my way of escaping the world, but eh, can’t really enjoy anything anymore with all this shit happening in the world. But I disagree with the other dude: most the games are the same as 360, and I’ve got a stack of games and thoroughly enjoyed them and still have plenty on my list. So I think the games are awesome, and I’ve been with PS since the beginning. I agree with the dude who mentioned Japan’s manufacturing quality…
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January 29th, 2009 at 11:29 am
it may help you lift your spirits to get a blog going, a small florida company has one called ‘multiply’, i did cursory search to see if they are linked to any big corp, dont see anything, just get a few friends and family on it, dont try to approach it like you are changing the world, just to keep you sane.
as for gaming, its gonna keep driving you into depression, the guilt is real, conscious or not. I was chatting to someone that plays aceonline all day long, its a nation vs nation air combat online game, they give the game free and let you play free, or pay if you want better ‘gear’, its a new thing for NA but its old news in east asia, they just play these massively multiplayer games all day, its very similar to the way AJ takes about how men bleed their life force out wathcing sports, rather than use that energy to actually do something useful.
January 29th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Not just me then said NO TO SONY NO TO DRM.
January 29th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Man that is a huge drop, 95% profit loss, for Sony. Can’t say I’m surprised. They have been taking a beating from competitors for a while, and their lineup of products hasn’t been stellar. I talk of experience on this because I have owned or still own from the early Walkmans to a Sony computer(which was a POS from day one), every Playstation 1-3, tv, PSP, etc… I’m awash in Sony crap.
I think Sony’s days are clearly numbered, especially the PS3. I paid over 500 dollars for that POS, and all it does is collect dust. You can get most games for the 360(which is a lot cheaper,and more fun to play), and the few exclusive games for the PS3 are lackluster. MGS4 was garbage, one of the worst games ever, and I’ve been a MGS fan from way back. It killed the series for me. Considering who has the money to buy such a expensive system, games, etc… in this economy, well the PS3 is toast, so is Sony. This also means the death knell for the video game industry. People will be more interested in finding something to eat than going to Best Buy to buy a 65 dollar game.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Some of these huge corporations are in the know of what is coming down,even a mining concern in australia has closed a nickel plant [opened 2 years ago]with 3300 jobs gone this global collapse/financial meltdown is to bring this NWO to fruition,just how low must the US dollar be brought too, so that americans will gladly except the mexican cash as it’s equilivent when the amero comes into being with the north american union [2010],then of course factor in the one world banking system that “must be” and the “thirty years of riots” that the military has factored into it’s fighting system [in both the USA and britain,read the strategic defence papers] and the ride doesn’t feel like disneyland,folks the time is ripe for growing your own food ,like our fore fathers used to ,independence is growing your own,ask a dope smoker how much he saves if he grows his own?
January 30th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Economic crisis is good way for Sony to mask all of its horrible executive decisions of late years.
The PS3 is the great fail in the history of company, IMHO.
It had the greatest potential that was not realized of any modern gadget or toy. The result, and only result, of “unrealized potential” is loss of money. Vast loss of money.
They tried to make it better than any else, and they did. The effect however was a lack of interest in developing for the platform. Total lack of interest. The few games that were made were simply too expensive for modern kids. Video games are popular but are not ALL the rage as they were 10 years ago. 10 years ago, kids would save up and spend $50+ on one game and think nothing of it. These days, kids try much harder to pirate games or rent them, due to the exessive cost per feature. The games are very narrow and uninteresting, resulting sometimes in about an hour of total gameplay. For $50+.
Anyone remember how many hours you got of Golden Eye, for N64? That $40 game was played in my household for about 6 years, continuously.