Sony loses $2.8bn in Consumer Products & Services

[Finsbury Girl]

Recent press suggests Kaz is making the gaming/network/content side of the business a key plank in his strategy going forward. He is trying to emulate Apple in this regard, with the added advantage of owning a lot of the content.

So one would think that this should be good for the gamer, as they pour serious R&D dollars into the business. This could lead to an amazing console next gen along with some amazing games. A 60+ inch 4k set, pumping out passive 1080p 3D content to each eye, is actually technologically possible now so you could see gaming content coming out of a next gen console in the not too distant future.

[Brad]

Yeah, I know a lot of this is Sony's fault, I'm just saying that in a year when Nintendo lose money it's not surprising that Sony have big (ok, MASSIVE) losses too. Sony's biggest problem is that once upon a time their stuff was better than everyone else's. They charged more and you paid more because you wanted a Sony Trinitron screen for example. Now though there are loads of companies that make stuff that's as good or better than Sony but Sony still think they can charge more for their stuff and the likes of Samsung come in and just steal their market share without really even trying. If it wasn't for J0e their losses would be even bigger.

[Finsbury Girl]

It does worry me , i think the PS3 is a good machine, and i will play my vita with sticks above my i pad any day, so i really want the brand to continiue, its scary when you think they made a load of money from the ps one days in its boom , in the end maybe production costs have cost them to much per unit , i mean when apply sell an i pad for ?500 i wonder wont profit margin is in it for them.

Last I saw, Apple's margins are 40+%, which is fugging amazing. That's why peeps are committing suicide in China, they're worked like children in the mines and paid about the same.

[charlesr]

I based my $2.8bn on the kotaku headline, but reading through the earnings statement, I can't actually figure out how they came to that number. Anyone else?

[Brad]

They put the figures into their kotakulator

[Finsbury Girl]

I based my $2.8bn on the kotaku headline, but reading through the earnings statement, I can't actually figure out how they came to that number. Anyone else?

The $2.8bn is the total operating loss for the CPS segment of the business. See page 5 of the results.

[Neon Ignition]

Yup, there's several factors that will have contributed to it too: The launch of the Vita, R&D on PS4, the April PSN hack, Sony's internal restructure etc. They expected it to be worse so it's fine generally.

Their biggest concern is that they expect to sell 10m Vita's which is more on average than they were selling before sales heavily declined, they're going to need a major selling point to achieve it.

They might consider another revised PS3 model too, sales always peak with a PS redesign

[charlesr]

So that loss includes TVs? In which case we are none the wiser?

[smouty]

They are going down as there are better and more reasonable companies to take customers away.
I gave up on them years ago after ridiculous episodes such as the CD rootkit debacle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BM...ootkit_scandal
They are more interested in letting their lawyers do the talking than their products these days.

[speedlolita]

On the other hand they created the PlayStation.

[smouty]

And Sega created the Dreamcast. IBM the PC etc. You can't rest on your laurels or abuse your position.
What appear minor acts to a corporate may have massive consequences.
Another recent example - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/26dad662-9...#axzz1uTjOwLkb

[Brad]

There was a serious misjudgement by Diageo staff at the awards dinner on Sunday evening in relation to the Bar Operator of the Year Award, which does not reflect in anyway Diageo's corporate values and behaviour

Lol. Yes it does. It reflects really REALLY badly you arseholes.

[charlesr]

First post updated.

[Phar]

The Japanese electronics industry as a whole is in a mess right now, haven't Panasonic reported even bigger losses than Sony?, don't think Sharp are far behind either.

[saturn-gamer]

Sony's biggest problem is that they believe they still deliver premier products, and worse yet, think they can demand a premium price for them. Added on top of that is a use of alienating proprietary stuff that doesn't work out well.

This isn't the 90's where the Sony Walkman was indeed the best. And the Trinitron too, perhaps. There's iPods in the portable music market, there are cheaper Samsung TV's that manage to outscore Sony on a regular basis. And the Vaio... its a freaking Windows notebook. Nothing more. There is just a lot of reasons not to buy Sony products anymore. But, its all a bit funny. People hated Sony when they drove Sega out of the market, and when they put Bleem! out of business. Now it seems Sony gets a lot of sympathy themselves. Because they are being seen as rather poor nowadays.

On the Vita I'm rather clear; its not going to be succesful. Its not the device the people want. Its losing out to the 3DS and even that is starting to struggle against the Apples and Androids of this world. Vita is a great product for hardcore gamers, it won't attract anyone else. Killer app software is not on the horizon and once Vita gets hacked... well.