PS3 Euro launch in *April*?

[swanlee]

"I agree this man has a pretty broad field to cover as well, he is probably not uptodate with the details of each and every bundle they ship."

Then he should not be commenting on things he does not know. Sony the last couple of years should have learned by now to stop pulling numbers out of their butt and stop making up crazy or wrong statements.

Hasn't anyone at Sony told them to shut up if they do not know what they are talking about? Have they not learned anything or do they still feel they are immune to facts and can get away with saying anything they want?

 

[Carl B]

CEOs that are not on top of the details should answer these questions as vaguely as they can.

I agree, but what's done is done...

Doubtless he'll be more careful in the future.

 

[avaya]

Very interesting insight xbd. I do subscribe in some part to the theory that the level of the razor blade model’s subsidy may have been influenced by Stringer or the new management, certainly I do not believe the analysts estimations on total product costs, they are almost certainly over-estimations since it would be dangerous to undervalue. However the way in which SCEI has almost seemed lackadaisical on the software side – e.g. XMB was not as fleshed out as it should have been at launch – suggests to me that there are certain inefficiencies in the management structure there.

Looking at the PSP, there has been no discernable price drop – only “new packsâ€. The price is really hurting it’s sales – it costs more than PS2 at retail and this causes people to reconsider a purchase. Maybe this pricing strategy is deliberate – Sony Group no longer wishes for SCEI to take a hit or zero margin on the hardware and wish to move to Nintendo’s strategy of profitability across the board. Another theory postulates that Sony is using PSP as a shield against PS3 losses and is in effect sacrificing the handheld realising that it will never achieve a dominant position in that segment this time around.

If the fist theory is correct then I worry about the length of time before a PS3 price drop and the magnitude of that price drop. They need a single huge price drop (PS2 got that same 1 off massive drop in Europe), if they are within a reasonable price range of the 360 premium the brand value should catapult it past the competition – Wii is another issue altogether, totally orthogonal to the market.

Picking up on expletive’s point, the corporate executive may have been taking their own marketing spiel as gospel and grown over confident. Now Sony as a company has always been extremely confident in nature but maybe SCEI have let their eyes off the ball.

The situation with the marketing and PR divisions across SCEI is the strangest thing of all about Sony’s current predicament. SCEA in particular seem to have verbal dysentery. This is something that Stringer can and should fix. Sony’s CE side marketing along with Apple’s current team are probably the best in the world at their jobs. It’s not like the company does not know how to successfully market their products. after all their business strategy is dependent on them leveraging their brand and image.

 

[Carl B]

The situation with the marketing and PR divisions across SCEI is the strangest thing of all about Sony’s current predicament. SCEA in particular seem to have verbal dysentery. This is something that Stringer can and should fix. Sony’s CE side marketing along with Apple’s current team are probably the best in the world at their jobs. It’s not like the company does not know how to successfully market their products. after all their business strategy is dependent on them leveraging their brand and image.

Yeah, I think more likely Kaz will take charge of getting the SCEA message 'under control' relative to the rest of their global efforts. It should be a good fit, with Kaz understanding the market a little more than Kutaragi might have, being able to talk to the US crew in their native language pretty well, and Kutaragi and Kaz both being in the same city to talk to each other about this stuff and ping-pong it back and forth on a more frequent basis.

I mean this would be my hope; I'm not going to say I haven't been perplexed by some of their recent press moves, because I certainly have. I think they should also create a 'Market Sentiment Officer' position, someone outside of marketing - but loosely attached to it - to make sure people in positions of power within the company are appraised of how the market is perceiving moves as they play out.

Marketing tends to be very proactive, whereas at times it lags in it's ability to convey feedback back up the chain. I think they need to emphasize 'listening' as much as they emphasize 'talking' basically, and that the folks charged with said role should be different people than the core marketers. Now, that's not to say that changes their strategy at all; hell maybe their finger is already on the pulse and we just don't perceive it. It all depends on where they see ther own console going, and what plans they have that we don't yet know about. After March though, I think there plans (or lack thereof) will begin to become more clear to us, whether or not it's them controlling the message.

 

[zed]

HD-DVD's are still selling better than BLU-RAY so I'm not sure where he is getting his info from about 60,000 discs sold..

do u have any data to back this up, last thing i read was blu-ray has overtaken hd-dvd + is accelerating away from it

 

[Ben-Nice]

This guys isn't too bright he also says

"Interestingly, Stringer also noted that current software offerings for the PS3 would seem to be using only a quarter or less of the console's total power. "Lost in the shuffle is the fact that the current games that are out there are only using about 20 percent to 25 percent of the [PS3's] bandwidth. Once the publishers' excitement reaches a level of intensity that they start using more of the bandwidth, that will create additional excitement," he said"

???

 

[Qroach]

I know he was bull shitting. same goes for his 90% of ps3 owners are watching blu ray movies.

 

[dobwal]

Reprimand? No... afterall, there's no one above him to hand down the reprimand.

*Any* senior exec would be immune to reprimand though, those upper circles are just too clubby; they'd just feel stupid and embarrassed. And ultimately, they were just honest mistakes.

But Kutaragi's probably on the phone being like: "Pay attention!"

Noone is immune from reprimand, in a liberal sense of the word. There is a thing called the Board of Directors and even Board Directors arent above the Board as a whole.

 

[dobwal]

I know he was bull shitting. same goes for his 90% of ps3 owners are watching blu ray movies.

He one step away from using this statement, "BluRay is so good that people even use their PS3 to watch their BluRay movies on SDTVs".

 

[Carl B]

Noone is immune from reprimand, in a liberal sense of the word. There is a thing called the Board of Directors and even Board Directors arent above the Board as a whole.

LOL... dobwal I hope you know that's the exception, not the rule.

Generally there has to be a scandal worthy of 48 hour news coverage before the board of directors does anything.

 

[patsu]

Very interesting insight xbd. I do subscribe in some part to the theory that the level of the razor blade model’s subsidy may have been influenced by Stringer or the new management, certainly I do not believe the analysts estimations on total product costs, they are almost certainly over-estimations since it would be dangerous to undervalue. However the way in which SCEI has almost seemed lackadaisical on the software side – e.g. XMB was not as fleshed out as it should have been at launch – suggests to me that there are certain inefficiencies in the management structure there.

In my view...

I think the inclusion of Blu-ray, HDMI 1.3, and Cell in PS3 was planned very early by Kutaragi. However the pricing may have been revised with Howard Stringer given his goals to improve margin and hit profitability target. They may have saved on marketing dollars this FY too (partly explained the missing "air-cover" for PS3 launch).

As for the anemic bundled software, I think it's due to the "newness". They probably needed to structure the accounting, do the software group hiring, learn multi-core programming the hard way (with immature tools), and figure out how best to work together. Given that Toshiba is no-show for Cell so far, the process is probably non-trivial. I also suspect the late arrival of some key software has left Sony marketing little time to prepare for the launch.

Sony still has a lot to do before software, and vertical integration becomes second nature, but I'm glad they started the process (This is one of the few articles acknowledging it).

I expect the March firmware revision to add more Cell capability (e.g., voice and video communications), but the UI may need yet another refresh. A software architect may not (have time to) address usability issues.

As for inefficiency in management structure...

I hope Stringer does not get carried away with quarterly SEC reports. Short term vs long term outlook is probably a hot topic for boardroom debate. So far, he is addressing some of the key issues, while trying to stay out of the way from the division heads.

One key challenge with these cross-group integrations is usually ownership and reward/measurement structure (Who decides what gets done ultimately, and who gets punished/rewarded for it).

e.g., Talladega Night is a lousy choice for showcasing Blu-ray, why choose it ? Is it because the movie group wants to save all the good stuff for revenue generation, or the Blu-ray promotion budget is tight, or is it just oversight ? If SCE disagrees with using TN as a demo disc, can they change it ? How ?

From the interview...

It seems that Stringer needs a technical advisor, like Chubachi, to accompany him (especially for tech-site interviews). The latter can take technical questions, or clarify them after Stringer's answers.

Actually, what the interview tells me is that Stringer has not fully assimilated SCE's dynamics yet. He probably needs better indicators and up-to-date competitor analysis too (That 60,000 number may come from a very old report). These intuition can be useful for dreaming up his own ideas, or finding flaws in arguments.

Ironically, the fault lies with SCE. The day PS3 becomes easy to understand to Stringer is the day PS3 hit the "hockey stick" curve. Now it's a long list of features and technical powess... instead of a simple experience.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Though Stringer's ignorance looks pretty bad here, I think it loks a lot worse than it really it is as console fans expect the world to revolved around their consoles. Sony has countless products to its name, and the gaming division is a small part of the total revenue sources that Stringer has to worry about. Does he know the details of every single product and service his company is producing? Highly unlikely. It's the division managers who need to know this stuff. Stringer just needs to know general directions, and hold meetings every now and then for an update.

I expect a lot of gaming fans know their management from playing strategy games, and don't appreciate how hard it is to micro-manage every detail in real life!

The day PS3 becomes easy to understand to Stringer...

You can't expect any boss to know the intricacies of every product. They need to know how to run a business, and not the spec sheets of their product lines. I wouldn't expect Stringer to know the tech details of PS3 + all the different TV models Sony produce + Sony's entire range of MP3 players + the film release schedule for the next two years + the game releases from SCEWW in 2007 + the current output capacity of the Sony chip fab's + ...

 

[patsu]

You can't expect any boss to know the intricacies of every product. They need to know how to run a business, and not the spec sheets of their product lines. I wouldn't expect Stringer to know the tech details of PS3 + all the different TV models Sony produce + Sony's entire range of MP3 players + the film release schedule for the next two years + the game releases from SCEWW in 2007 + the current output capacity of the Sony chip fab's + ...

Agreed. Unfortunately for Stringer, he also mentioned that PS3 is one of Sony's key strategies, so the public will have some level of expectation for his understanding of this platform (compared to a Sony TV).

Nevertheless, the real point is... SCE should make it effortless for people, including their boss, to understand PS3; not the other way round. If the PS3 experience is easy to grasp, there is no need to talk about 25% bandwidth usage.

 

[one]

This guys isn't too bright he also says

"Interestingly, Stringer also noted that current software offerings for the PS3 would seem to be using only a quarter or less of the console's total power. "Lost in the shuffle is the fact that the current games that are out there are only using about 20 percent to 25 percent of the [PS3's] bandwidth. Once the publishers' excitement reaches a level of intensity that they start using more of the bandwidth, that will create additional excitement," he said"

???

Maybe FlexIO bandwidth?

Anyway, here's the semi-official denial of Stringer's comment...
http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=249

Also, you may have heard that Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Corporation, was quoted as saying the launch was going to be in April. We can confirm that this was a mistake and that everything is still being lined up for the March 23 launch date!

 

[Rainbow Man]

After the last 2 year you'd figure Sony execs would learn to stop speaking if they really don't know whats going on. He sounds like he is going senile.

Unfortunately this is true of almost all exec type people.

All they know is how to eat canapées, caviar toast sandwiches drink shrimp cocktails and waffle on about their product and seem at least semi-coherent in some pathetic attempt to motivate their own disgustingly large salaries.

Well except for Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and a few other similar characters who are all geeks (but damn smart ones) at heart and created their companies and destinies with their own empty hands rather than being hired or headhunted through some boys' club where they all know each other and do each other favors.

I personally prefer not to listen to what they talk about. Like with PR spinbots anything they say is just hot air.

Peace.

 

[Onlooker1]

This guys isn't too bright he also says

"Interestingly, Stringer also noted that current software offerings for the PS3 would seem to be using only a quarter or less of the console's total power. "Lost in the shuffle is the fact that the current games that are out there are only using about 20 percent to 25 percent of the [PS3's] bandwidth. Once the publishers' excitement reaches a level of intensity that they start using more of the bandwidth, that will create additional excitement," he said"

???

I'm not really sure this is worth a 'lol', what he means to explain to the non-technical is obvious.. "don't assume the launch titles are going to be as good as it gets". Given the likely curve for ps3 developers, why is his statement so laughable? apart from the use of the word "bandwidth"? If someone stuck an analyzer on while in the midst of resistance, and found that all available SPEs were only fully occupied doing heavy lifting 25% of the time, would you still think he was making stuff up?