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"Sony in very real financial trouble with the PS2"

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Wed 23/08/00 at 18:49
Regular
Posts: 787
Recently Sony announced that the PS2 had sold over 3 million units. This is a truly amazing number and- in Japan at least- the Dreamcast has paled into insignificance against this. However, it has been brought to everyone’s attention recently that hardware sales do not create profit. On the contrary, hardware sales act as a burden on games companies as the cost of components often outweighs the high-street selling price. This means that, in order to make profit, a company such as Sony must sell as many games as possible. Sony have worked out that in order to make profit each console owner must own so many games and peripherals- with any future sales to this console owner providing Sony with profit. This is where the PS2 has a huge problem…

You see, in Japan DVD players are relatively new, and very, very expensive (£600). When the PS2 launched for a fraction of this with a DVD player built in, some people bought the console simply for this. This means that these console owners have cost Sony money, and this can only be made back if other owners buy more games. But this is simply not happening. On a month to month basis it has now emerged that Sony are selling more hardware units than software units at this moment in time. In the Japanese sales charts this is very clear with the PS2 usually only taking a few spots in the top 30. This results in Sony having done very badly in financial quarter- the games division posted a 16 billion-Yen loss.

So why has the PS2 failed to sell enough games? The simple reason is that there is yet to be a truly triple-A game that overshadows games coming out on other platforms. Even the original Playstation is beating its bigger brother. There are very few titles coming out on the PS2 this year that will change this situation (notably Squaresoft’s “The Bouncer” will ensure that the PS2 has a Christmas hit).

It’s strange how- for the first time ever- a set top box has found its massive popularity it’s downfall. Maybe Nintendo did well to decide that the DVD player in its “N-Cube” (previously “Dolphin” and “Starcube”) will be an optional extra that will be sold buy its sister company, Panasonic.

Rav
Thu 24/08/00 at 15:19
Posts: 0
16 billion yen, that must be about enough to buy a pint in Japan what with the currency being about 3 billion yen to the pound, jst kidding, interesting article
Thu 24/08/00 at 11:25
Regular
Posts: 23,216
Has anyone noticed how Snoochie reacts to anyone saying ANYTHING about the PS2? Calm down Snoochie, if you do you will be able to type better as well.
Thu 24/08/00 at 09:39
Regular
"Profit of Doom"
Posts: 1,881
Whoops! Made a complete a*se out of myself there hehe..:) GrammAr! There, that's better :)

B/leeders
Kill Piracy!
...And also an avid visitor of DC Guide [http://www.dcguide.co.uk] :)
Thu 24/08/00 at 09:34
Regular
"Profit of Doom"
Posts: 1,881
Snoochy Boochies fatty wrote:
> You headed this article "Sony in very real financial trouble
> with the PS2." What a ridiculous statement. Sony monopolises
> the home entertaainment industry and it is one of the richest
> companis in existance,even if ps2 fail(which i severely doubt)sony
> will still have enough mony to buy up sega and nintendo if they
> wished(notice how i do not use capital letters at the begginning
> of the word sega and nintendo, a lack of respect is shown.

Or it could mean that Rav uses proper grammer and spelling!

But 16 Billion Yen is a hefty chunk out of any company's armour. Thing is, the Japanese public ARE killing Sony. The PlayStation 2 revenues are generated from games and the Japanese public simply aren't buying them.

B/leeders
Kill Piracy!
...And also an avid visitor of DC Guide [http://www.dcguide.co.uk] :)
Wed 23/08/00 at 22:19
Posts: 0
You headed this article "Sony in very real financial trouble with the PS2." What a ridiculous statement. Sony monopolises the home entertaainment industry and it is one of the richest companis in existance,even if ps2 fail(which i severely doubt)sony will still have enough mony to buy up sega and nintendo if they wished(notice how i do not use capital letters at the begginning of the word sega and nintendo, a lack of respect is shown. Do you know sega means w*nker in Italian!)
Wed 23/08/00 at 18:49
Regular
"---SOULJACKER---"
Posts: 5,448
Recently Sony announced that the PS2 had sold over 3 million units. This is a truly amazing number and- in Japan at least- the Dreamcast has paled into insignificance against this. However, it has been brought to everyone’s attention recently that hardware sales do not create profit. On the contrary, hardware sales act as a burden on games companies as the cost of components often outweighs the high-street selling price. This means that, in order to make profit, a company such as Sony must sell as many games as possible. Sony have worked out that in order to make profit each console owner must own so many games and peripherals- with any future sales to this console owner providing Sony with profit. This is where the PS2 has a huge problem…

You see, in Japan DVD players are relatively new, and very, very expensive (£600). When the PS2 launched for a fraction of this with a DVD player built in, some people bought the console simply for this. This means that these console owners have cost Sony money, and this can only be made back if other owners buy more games. But this is simply not happening. On a month to month basis it has now emerged that Sony are selling more hardware units than software units at this moment in time. In the Japanese sales charts this is very clear with the PS2 usually only taking a few spots in the top 30. This results in Sony having done very badly in financial quarter- the games division posted a 16 billion-Yen loss.

So why has the PS2 failed to sell enough games? The simple reason is that there is yet to be a truly triple-A game that overshadows games coming out on other platforms. Even the original Playstation is beating its bigger brother. There are very few titles coming out on the PS2 this year that will change this situation (notably Squaresoft’s “The Bouncer” will ensure that the PS2 has a Christmas hit).

It’s strange how- for the first time ever- a set top box has found its massive popularity it’s downfall. Maybe Nintendo did well to decide that the DVD player in its “N-Cube” (previously “Dolphin” and “Starcube”) will be an optional extra that will be sold buy its sister company, Panasonic.

Rav

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