All purpose Sales and Sales Rumours and Anecdotes [2019 Edition]

[mrcorbo]

Not necessarily. Sony still designs and fabricates audio and video processors, as well as microprocessors for robotics and navigation systems.

Actually, I found it shocking that when you look at the various components of the PS3 vs those that make up the PS4/Pro that the Sony-designed components have virtually disappeared from their consoles from one generation to the next. If anything illustrates the transition Sony have undergone in those intervening years, it's that.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Not necessarily. Sony still designs and fabricates audio and video processors, as well as microprocessors for robotics and navigation systems.

You're right, I didn't realise Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation was a thing.

Actually, I found it shocking that when you look at the various components of the PS3 vs those that make up the PS4/Pro that the Sony-designed components have virtually disappeared from their consoles from one generation to the next.

It used to strike me as odd that my PlayStation and PS2 both had Panasonic optical drives, but looking back to my time in the aerospace industry, when we designed avionics packages for ordnance we'd generally use the most economical part even if it wasn't manufactured by us. Sometimes competitors just happen to hit that price/feature/specification nail better than your own products.

Sony used to be about more mainstream electronics, including RAM and processors, but it looks as though as they mosh pit of a market has become more crowded they have focussed on more niche areas. According to Sony's April 2019 Q4 statement, their semiconductor division is operating at twice the profit as their optics divisions (with Apple being their primary customer) and a little under half as much profit as Game & Network Services (i.e. PlayStation + Sony Entertainment Network).

It still remains weird to look at any Sony financial statement and see all parts of the organisation is profitable. How times have changed.

 

[mrcorbo]

You're right, I didn't realise Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation was a thing.

Those camera modules don't make themselves!

It used to strike me as odd that my PlayStation and PS2 both had Panasonic optical drives, but looking back to my time in the aerospace industry, when we designed avionics packages for ordnance we'd generally use the most economical part even if it wasn't manufactured by us. Sometimes competitors just happen to hit that price/feature/specification nail better than your own products.

Sony used to be about more mainstream electronics, including RAM and processors, but it looks as though as they mosh pit of a market has become more crowded they have focussed on more niche areas. According to Sony's April 2019 Q4 statement, their semiconductor division is operating at twice the profit as their optics divisions (with Apple being their primary customer) and a little under half as much profit as Game & Network Services (i.e. PlayStation + Sony Entertainment Network).

It still remains weird to look at any Sony financial statement and see all parts of the organisation is profitable. How times have changed.

Absolutely. The changes are good ones and the decisions to use commodity parts are as well. I was just conforming that Sony are a very different company in terms of their capabilities to design and manufacture semiconductors than they were in 2006.

 

[Shortbread]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1130663844454514688

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1130641648982085632

 

[DieH@rd]

Sony got five exclusives this gen that sold over 10M copies - TLOUR, U4, God of War, Horizon and Spidey [it was 9M at the end of 2018]. Pretty incredible results.

 

[chris1515]

Sony got five exclusives this gen that sold over 10M copies - TLOUR, U4, God of War, Horizon and Spidey [it was 9M at the end of 2018]. Pretty incredible results.

And they will have at least one other TLOU2. Uncharted 4 is now the most sold game from Sony worldwide studio, more than Gran Turismo 3.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I reckon that Days Gone will also do better numbers that the aggregate reviews scores suggest.

 

[DieH@rd]

I wonder how will they support and market their big PS4 games when PS5 arrives.

Will notable PS4 games just get a "PS5 patch" that will optimize game for new hardware and ulock 4K60 and similar high-end features... or will they re-release them TLOUR-styled so that only these native PS5 games can get access to full nextgen hardware?

 

[Xbat]

I wonder how will they support and market their big PS4 games when PS5 arrives.

Will notable PS4 games just get a "PS5 patch" that will optimize game for new hardware and ulock 4K60 and similar high-end features... or will they re-release them TLOUR-styled so that only these native PS5 games can get access to full nextgen hardware?

That becomes tricky because of backwards compatibility. Tougher to sell a remaster when you can play the PS4 version.

I personally think they will patch the games and use them in a marketing push for why you should get a PS5.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Assuming not everyone who bought one of those games bought all five, you're looking at 20+ million PS4 users. Makes economic sense, to attract them up to PS5 quickly, to offer replayability of these games in better quality, IMO. I agree patching seems likely. Best case, add raytraced lighting/shadowing upgrades at minimal effort with best impact.

 

[Shortbread]

Assuming not everyone who bought one of those games bought all five, you're looking at 20+ million PS4 users. Makes economic sense, to attract them up to PS5 quickly, to offer replayability of these games in better quality, IMO. I agree patching seems likely. Best case, add raytraced lighting/shadowing upgrades at minimal effort with best impact.

Or arrogant Sony charges for texture packs and mesh updates.

 

[Globalisateur]

They are going to make proper remasters (4K 60fps + higher res textures + ray tracing lighting + 3D audio) and people will be happy to buy them. For the people not wanting to buy remasters, well they will be able to play the PS4 game they already own using BC with a locked framerate / locked resolution and dramatically shorter loadings.

Since when developers have to do work for free and patch old generation of games to take advantage of a new generation of machine ? What's going to happen with PS6 then ? Will Sony have to benevently patch PS4 games to take advantage of PS6 hardware ?

 

[Shortbread]

They are going to make proper remasters (4K 60fps + higher res textures + ray tracing lighting + 3D audio) and people will be happy to buy them. For the people not wanting to buy remasters, well they will be able to play the PS4 game they already own using BC with a locked framerate / locked resolution and dramatically shorter loadings.

Since when developers have to do work for free and patch old generation of games to take advantage of a new generation of machine? What's going to happen with PS6 then ? Will Sony have to benevently patch PS4 games to take advantage of PS6 hardware ?

Sony first party games wouldn't have this issue - it’s baked in. The cost-of-doing business or maintaining/gaining prior users. By Sony offering their current PS4 user-base free 1st party quality updates (other than just higher resolutions and framerates) it guarantees a higher lock-in rate of the prior base (PS4) towards PS5. It makes better business sense on enticing the prior base upfront with freebies, which Sony can easily recoup [cost] from the very nature of more hardware, software and services volume, than simply charging additional for. Goodwill goes a long way as well...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They are going to make proper remasters (4K 60fps + higher res textures + ray tracing lighting + 3D audio) and people will be happy to buy them. For the people not wanting to buy remasters, well they will be able to play the PS4 game they already own using BC with a locked framerate / locked resolution and dramatically shorter loadings.

Since when developers have to do work for free and patch old generation of games to take advantage of a new generation of machine ? What's going to happen with PS6 then ? Will Sony have to benevently patch PS4 games to take advantage of PS6 hardware ?

As shortbread says, it's only 1st (2nd) party that would do this, paid for by Sony as a low cost sweetener. The cost of adding a few extras instead of complete remasters is pretty low, potentially with RT lighting/shadowing adds being fairly minimal adds. If it's about making money directly, remasters is the way to go, but if it's about keeping your fans happy and growing the platform as quickly as possible (launch year lifetime spend is twice average lifetime PS4 owner spend), enhanced BC is where it's at.

 

[Globalisateur]

Adding Ray tracing lighting for a whole game is easy and quick to do ? It's just a switch to turn on ? Wow.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The discussion is about whether improved BC is better value than remasters. You haven't responded to that argument at all, instead taking a notion of improvements and interpreting it as the most difficult implementation meaning a complete engine update. You know there's a mod on PC that adds screen-space secondary illumination to 'any game', right? Developed by a dude, in his spare time, rather than Sony engineers and expert game devs and a team of tool and hardware boffins. not to mention the Minecraft RT solution is developed by a dude in a mod also.

There are all sorts of options for improving a game's look cheaply. And if not some form of RT, just provide other benefits like 60 fps. The key point being give a game a new lease of life on the new box by brute-forcing with its extra power. That's a lot cheaper than remaking a game.

 

[milk]

Assuming not everyone who bought one of those games bought all five, you're looking at 20+ million PS4 users. Makes economic sense, to attract them up to PS5 quickly, to offer replayability of these games in better quality, IMO. I agree patching seems likely. Best case, add raytraced lighting/shadowing upgrades at minimal effort with best impact.

Nice to know you've seen the light Shifty, cause a couple months back you told me that free PS5 patches for PS4 titles is a crazy idea and there was no reason for sony to do something different than what they had done before.

 

[milk]

Adding Ray tracing lighting for a whole game is easy and quick to do ? It's just a switch to turn on ? Wow.

It's doable but usually not economically viable to only serve a niche. A launch day console is nearly niche, and even more so were RTX cards. But in the former case, sony would finance the development costs, just like nvidia did for the latter. That's why it ends up being done for only a few key very popular games, and only while the financiers feel like there still is marketing value in doing so.

 

[Xbat]

The way I see it is if PS5 launches with 4k 60 fps no loading The Last of Us part 2, Deathstranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone and whatever other first party title they want or find viable with whatever PS5 launch titles. It could possibly be the best launch lineup ever.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Nice to know you've seen the light Shifty, cause a couple months back you told me that free PS5 patches for PS4 titles is a crazy idea and there was no reason for sony to do something different than what they had done before.

Did I say it was crazy, or did I say there was reason not to? Any link?