Sony is bleeding money - business strategy discussion
- Thread starter -tkf-
- Start date
Now I'm going to assume the launching of H1Z1 was an attempt to show or meet certain milestones or proof of viability (or lack of it) for this deal to go through. I wonder if it had a negative impact on the deal, as far as it's perceived from Sony's perspective.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Sony can't afford to fund developement of MMO's currently. This new investment firm appears to be dedicated to allocating more resources to developing existing MMOs in the formerly SoE pipeline, if the press release is to be believed.
What it means? Sony won't have to expend development funds for games already in the pipeline at SoE. They'll get a cash infusion of some kind which should help offset losses for the FY. Combined with less resources going into development, it may help them get closer to profitability. However, the cash infusion is a one time thing and will only help this FY. The reduced cash drain from development will last longer, but the flip side is that there is no return on investment for funds already spent to develop those unreleased titles. As well, if those titles do well, Sony won't get reap the rewards. But on the flip side if they don't do well, then Sony won't eat the costs.
For Daybreak Game Company (formerly SoE), they're getting a cash infusion as well. Presumably they'll have a higher budget for development. Presumably this means H1Z1 will have a better chance of releasing in a better state as well as presumably putting EQ Next in better shape. But whereas Sony were somewhat more open to taking risks and being more lenient on immediate profitability of titles, the new ownership may or may not want to see immediate results.
TL: DR - Sony are getting more conservative due to financial circumstances. SoE was a high risk, high reward venture subject to boom and bust profit/loss cycles.
Regards,
SB
TBH I always found SOE confusing as it's not a part of SCEE. You'd have SOE games on PC for example (actually more on Windows than console). Tried DCUO and it was a bit pants IMHO, and they also published Untold Legends on PS3 which was crap. I don't equate it with a strong gaming brand. Quite a few of the MMOs have closed, so weren't making money. So I agree with the views that it was dead weight and not worth anything to Sony as a going concern.
An independent studio is more nimble. Hopefully this will accelerate the development of Everquest Next, because for fucks sake I've been playing Landmark for nearly a year, and it's only a side-game, and it's still in closed beta. No sign of even an open beta yet for the side-game, and absolutely nothing in sight for the real game which they "unveiled" in 2010, after a complete rewrite. Not even an estimated year of release. I'm still looking forward to it, but man is the game taking forever.
I wonder if EQN will come out before The Last Guardian.
I wonder if EQN will come out before The Last Guardian.
Wow who could have predicted that sony would sell another asset of theirs ? Esp a profitable one
as a side note Mr Fox , everquest seems to fit with normal mmo development windows. 4 years seems to be the norm for development. I'm sure the change of console generations also gave them a bump
edit meant 4 years of public facing development , its about what swtor had
https://twitter.com/j_smedley/status/562305663083098112
Looks like xbox one is going to get more games
as a side note Mr Fox , everquest seems to fit with normal mmo development windows. 4 years seems to be the norm for development. I'm sure the change of console generations also gave them a bump
edit meant 4 years of public facing development , its about what swtor had
https://twitter.com/j_smedley/status/562305663083098112
Looks like xbox one is going to get more games
Last edited:
It's not normal in this context as there is no game on the horizon yet. Only a side-game.
The consoles hadn't even been considered yet, Smedley said it was Pc only for now maybe consoles later. They had a huge amount of pressure to show something last year, if you followed the development. Now we know why.
To anyone who followed Smedley, this spinoff is good for both sony and soe. It's not really about risk or profitability, they are not only outside the goals of sony, but they were actively helping a competitor. Making Pc exlusives, while sony pays the bill, one wonders why it didn't happen sooner.
This situation is much better for both if the alternative was to close soe.
Last edited:
Alpha this year , beta early 2016 for pc , release fall 2016 for pc , 2017 for console launch
Yeah, I was waiting for their products to see what all the hoohahs about EQ and Planetside were all about. Takes too long.
The question becomes what specific do Sony want to focus on.
Probably will hear more in their Valentine's Eve event.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Since 2006 SOE existed as a Limited Liability Company owned by SCEA and Sony Pictures, so structurally it's not traditionally subordinate to SCE. It's not a Corporation under US law and being an LLC protects SOE from certain debt liabilities. It's interesting that Sony changed SOE from a Sony Division to an LLC purposely in 2006. It's been feeding into what is now Sony's G&NS division on financial reports but specific operations are otherwise obfuscated because it's not a Corporation but a partnership. It's hard to make much of why Sony felt this was necessary nine years ago.
Profitable? Please link. I spent about half an hour yesterday looking for financial statements and could only find gross profit statements, which aren't useful. I could find nothing for net profits/loss. As I posted above the only time in which SOE was referenced in Sony's financials reports was because of write-downs (losses). There's zero evidence it has been profitable recently and some evidence that is has lost money.
Last edited by a moderator:
More restructuration, Sony is closing a chip-packaging plant (supposedly cell and rsx), and investing 800 million to boost imaging sensor production capacity up 33%.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/02...tation-chips-pushing-cmos-sensors-production/
http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/02...tation-chips-pushing-cmos-sensors-production/
Silent_Buddha
Legend
That's smart as their image sensors have quite a good reputation and sell quite well. If they can get them into more smartphones and tablets, it could be a decent boost to their bottom line.
Regards,
SB
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Yup. Good sensors have always been a priority for Apple who are selling more and more and smartphones, and have been using Sony sensors exclusively for several years. Anybody who wants to sell an Android handset to consumers who value the camera will also need a best in class sensor for the camera and I can imagine Sony are already under pressure in terms of being able to supply in increasing volumes.
their image sensors for 13MP also have been widely used by chineese phone+tablet manufacturers. heck, they even advertise it as "awesome 13MP Sony IMX bblablabla camera".
EDIT:
since sony sold their VAIO PC to some japan corp... they have not released or announched any windows tablet, while MS' surface seems selling well, and other manufacturers also selling more and more windows tablets.
EDIT:
since sony sold their VAIO PC to some japan corp... they have not released or announched any windows tablet, while MS' surface seems selling well, and other manufacturers also selling more and more windows tablets.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
What a cheap Chinese product is advertised as having and what it actually has are very different things
Even if it is a Sony sensor, which seems unlikely, the chances are It will be a lower resolution one boosted in software. I love Beijing but when even many "official" stores aren't official, you can't trust the the devices.
Last edited by a moderator:
in the case of those chinese phones sold in my country, its really an sony imx sensor according to the hardware info. Dunno whether those can be faked or not.
Xiaomi (big chinesse phone) also boast it. sorry cant google the web page. my internet got a flu :/
Xiaomi (big chinesse phone) also boast it. sorry cant google the web page. my internet got a flu :/
Similar threads
