Sony Execution Thread [2022]

[BRiT]

Sony Financial reports for the latest quarter:

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Sony's shares have fallen by almost a third so far this year as investors fret about the strength of the games business amid competition from Xbox maker Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and after a fading boost from stuck-at-home consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The gaming business recorded a 49% fall in second quarter profit to 42.1 billion yen after booking higher costs from game development and acquisitions. It sold 3.3 million units of its PlayStation 5 (PS5) console in the second quarter, equal to the year ago sales. The group has hiked the price of its console in markets including Europe and Japan as the dollar strengthens.

Sony hikes FY profit forecast by 4.5% on foreign exchange boost

Sony Group Corp hiked its full-year operating profit forecast on Tuesday by 4.5% to 1.16 trillion yen ($7.84 billion) as the boost from foreign exchange fluctuations at units including the music business offset gaming weakness.

www.reuters.com

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Sony’s PlayStation Q2 earnings:

• 3.3 million PS5 sales, flat YoY
• 45.4 million PS Plus subscribers, down 4%
• 62.5 million in software sales, down 18%
• 102 million PSN active users, down 2%

https://theverge.com/e/23198350

https://twitter.com/x/status/1587369997118345216

 

[Nesh]

It is hard to keep the momentum when you can't get enough units out there and the PS4 is becoming obsolete.
Unfortunate for them. I dont think there is much they can do.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Sony reported overall group operating profit rose 8% to 344 billion yen in the July-September quarter, beating analyst estimates.

This is why stock markets make no sense. When Apple was the first trillion dollar company, the market was foreboding doom. Why? Because there was no growth. The fact that Apple had all the money doesn't mean anything. The markets need movement, buying and selling when there is no growth or contraction gives the market nothing to work with.

If the market doubts you, you're probably doing OK. If the market loves you, you're probably a financial clusterfuck like Twitter or Amazon in their first ten years.

It's why only tend to invest in aerosp[ace and defence these days. Misery, death, suffering. Yeah.. that's a growth business.

 

[BRiT]

The markets need movement, buying and selling when there is no growth or contraction gives the market nothing to work with.

If the market doubts you, you're probably doing OK. If the market loves you, you're probably a financial clusterfuck like Twitter or Amazon in their first ten years.

I still remember so many dotCom Companies being valued well beyond the networth of Boeing when their assets were a few computers and Herman Miller chairs paired with no business plans whatsoever.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I still remember so many dotCom Companies being valued well beyond the networth of Boeing when their assets were a few computers and Herman Miller chairs paired with no business plans whatsoever.

Exactly. Because the market want you to invest in businesses that might pay off. So you invest when stock is affordable, then when the business clearly isn't going to make it, the market will sell off what it has and make a profit regardless - often whilst still suggesting investors buy. It's win-win. The whole banking, investment and wider financial industries would be considered fraudulent criminal enterprises had economies not developed around national stock markets around trying to financially fuck over more other people to make money than you yourself are being fucked over.

This is modern civilisation.

 

[Nesh]

The whole banking, investment and wider financial industries would be considered fraudulent criminal enterprises had economies not developed around national stock markets around trying to financially fuck over more other people to make money than you yourself are being fucked over.

This is modern civilisation.

One of the reasons why I told myself fuck economics, its not a real science and abandoned it as a career. They are maintaining the irrational as rational, and many theories and assumptions are the complete opposite of how the market works.
For example the assumption that the market is rational. In economic science they claim it as a fact to support the ideology, NOT a real science, the ideology of the always efficient free market economy, which btw never EVER leads towards perfect competition or zero profits in the long run as claimed by economic theory. Every businessman who has made huge sums of money, in practice will tell you the complete opposite of a rational market. Especially those involved in trade of securities and marketing. They will tell you it is not rational at all.

Then there is the assumption of "infinite needs" (other sciences and philosophers will tell you otherwise) and "finite resources" (the ecosystem has the power of recovery and enough resources to provide good living conditions for everyone when managed properly). Yet despite those assumptions economists consider as negative externalities those very factors that limit proper management of resources and maintenance of the ecosystem, and aim for never ending growth, which wastes resources and does not account for resource recovery or even their own assumption of "limited resources".

Not to mention the securitization of commodities, which transform resources to mere securities subject to speculation instead of distribution according to needs. And lastly economists are pretending that wars don't happen or are just "accidents" and have nothing to do with the economy. They are some kind of events happening in a different dimension.

 

[snc]

We see that this decrease results from a greater decline in user engagement among PlayStation 4 (PS4) users than expected.

Expected by who ? We have plenty of historical data showing late crossgens doesnt sell remotly as good on old gen yet sony thinks making crossgens to the end of the world will bring them more money ;d

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Expected by who ? We have plenty of historical data showing late crossgens doesnt sell remotly as good on old gen yet sony thinks making crossgens to the end of the world will bring them more money ;d

I don't think it's about making more money, but more about losing as little as possible by releasing games only on PS5 that need a PS5 - given they have sold far less consoles than they wanted.

It makes sense for games which can run on PS4 to come to PS5 because there of tens of millions of those machines, yet we've seen Demon Souls, Ratchet & Clank, Destruction All Stars, Returnal, The Last of Us Part I come only to PS5. It feels like if they can bring a title to PS4, they will but if they cannot, they don't.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

You guys don't know what you're talking about as far as the wider economic picture goes. Read this book: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1952223393...colid=H365YR8JVFF8&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

As for Sony, they are having a tough transition because they should have twice as many PS5s out there, but COVID really screwed them up. They'll bounce back.

 

[Nesh]

Expected by who ? We have plenty of historical data showing late crossgens doesnt sell remotly as good on old gen yet sony thinks making crossgens to the end of the world will bring them more money ;d

If you check the wording it says greater than expected not that the decline was unexpected. They had their estimates of the decline. But it declined even more.

 

[Nesh]

You guys don't know what you're talking about as far as the wider economic picture goes. Read this book: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1952223393...colid=H365YR8JVFF8&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Thats partly what I also said but from the perspective of resources. Common economics are based around artificial scarcity.

As for Sony, they are having a tough transition because they should have twice as many PS5s out there, but COVID really screwed them up. They'll bounce back.

Agreed

 

[Deleted member 11852]

You guys don't know what you're talking about as far as the wider economic picture goes. Read this book: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1952223393...colid=H365YR8JVFF8&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

For that price, the book would need to include both the secret of alchemy and eternal youth.

 

[snc]

I don't think it's about making more money, but more about losing as little as possible by releasing games only on PS5 that need a PS5 - given they have sold far less consoles than they wanted.

It makes sense for games which can run on PS4 to come to PS5 because there of tens of millions of those machines, yet we've seen Demon Souls, Ratchet & Clank, Destruction All Stars, Returnal, The Last of Us Part I come only to PS5. It feels like if they can bring a title to PS4, they will but if they cannot, they don't.

To be honest no idea why lou part 1 and destruction all stars weren't crossgen

 

[Silent_Buddha]

To be honest no idea why lou part 1 and destruction all stars weren't crossgen

Probably because there was already a PS4 remastered version. So it's far less likely someone was going to buy a PS4 version of the PS5 remake version.

Or to put it another way, how much better would a scaled down version of the PS5 remake be on PS4 compared to the existing PS4 remastered version? And would those relatively small differences be enough to get someone who already owns the PS4 remastered version to buy the PS5 remake version downscaled to PS4 hardware?

Much better to just limit it to PS5 and PC where the graphical enhancements would be far more visible and where there might actually be people willing to buy it.

Regards,
SB

 

[snc]

Probably because there was already a PS4 remastered version. So it's far less likely someone was going to buy a PS4 version of the PS5 remake version.

Or to put it another way, how much better would a scaled down version of the PS5 remake be on PS4 compared to the existing PS4 remastered version? And would those relatively small differences be enough to get someone who already owns the PS4 remastered version to buy the PS5 remake version downscaled to PS4 hardware?

Much better to just limit it to PS5 and PC where the graphical enhancements would be far more visible and where there might actually be people willing to buy it.

Regards,
SB

some argument but we know how lou1 part1 would look on ps4 as we have lou 2 and lou2/lou1part1 its big diff vs lou1 remaster

 

[Silent_Buddha]

some argument but we know how lou1 part1 would look on ps4 as we have lou 2 and lou2/lou1part1 its big diff vs lou1 remaster

Sure but is it big enough to get someone to buy it again on PS4 if they already own the PS4 remastered version? That's the question. Evidently Sony don't believe that someone that is still using a PS4 would buy it again on PS4.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

You guys don't know what you're talking about as far as the wider economic picture goes. Read this book: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1952223393...colid=H365YR8JVFF8&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

As for Sony, they are having a tough transition because they should have twice as many PS5s out there, but COVID really screwed them up. They'll bounce back.

I think the reason sony is having an issue while Apple isn't , is down to lock in.

When you buy an apple product it is easy to go down the road of apple products and before you know it you have an iphone , ear pods , apple watch , ipad , apple tv , apple music etc. With the playstation you don't really have any of that. You buy a playstation and software some might buy a sony tv but the rest of the stuff doesn't provide any short of lock in.

Even in terms of Sony's software for playstation up until the 4-5 transition there was little reason to buy another playstation piece of hardware because buying games on the ps3 didn't mean they worked on the ps4. Right now that is still true because you need a subscription to play those old games.

Sony however has 30%+ of the music market , they have their own movie / tv studios , they have playstation , they have funamtion and crunchy roll. But they don't leverage it. I should be able to buy an over arching sony pass that allows me to subscribe to all of sony's stuff with one payment. They should also have it where if I'm a psn whatever subscriber I should be able to easily add on crunchy roll or sony music or something and each time I add something the discount should be bigger.

Sony itself could be doing so much more with what they have. They just seem to not be able to leverage it at all .

 

[Nesh]

I think the reason sony is having an issue while Apple isn't , is down to lock in.

When you buy an apple product it is easy to go down the road of apple products and before you know it you have an iphone , ear pods , apple watch , ipad , apple tv , apple music etc. With the playstation you don't really have any of that. You buy a playstation and software some might buy a sony tv but the rest of the stuff doesn't provide any short of lock in.

Even in terms of Sony's software for playstation up until the 4-5 transition there was little reason to buy another playstation piece of hardware because buying games on the ps3 didn't mean they worked on the ps4. Right now that is still true because you need a subscription to play those old games.

Sony however has 30%+ of the music market , they have their own movie / tv studios , they have playstation , they have funamtion and crunchy roll. But they don't leverage it. I should be able to buy an over arching sony pass that allows me to subscribe to all of sony's stuff with one payment. They should also have it where if I'm a psn whatever subscriber I should be able to easily add on crunchy roll or sony music or something and each time I add something the discount should be bigger.

Sony itself could be doing so much more with what they have. They just seem to not be able to leverage it at all .

During the PS3 Sony was supposedly going through heavy restructuring because each Sony business was operating literally as an entirely different entity with barely any integration. Its crazy to think about it as the PS3 might have launched with a ton of Sony services but they were late with the expansion of them even compared to the 360.

Seems they havent achived that full cross functional integration yet

 

[Inuhanyou]

Sony isnt doomed or anything, but their main priority should be to increase PS5 stock at all cost. It's the main way they will bounce back

 

[chris1515]

They made 6.5 million PS5 during the quarter but only shipped 3.3 million and keeping some consoles for this quarter and the God of War release. The share has rose again after they said they will shipped more PS5 23 million this fiscal year than the 18 million they were forecasting. And they said officially they want to sold more than 23 million next fiscal year without giving a precise number.