Sony Responds to Merrill Lynch Report

[patsu]

Yes and no. If Sony knows that they have a good handle on things, there is little need to damage control the 1 month gap till GDC or any other public event they planned (unless it is really out of control). Standard procedures in the corporate communications department should be able to tackle the misunderstanding for now. The stock price should also come back up once good news is available.

If the report is accurate, Sony still have some work to do to counter the actual problem (not the report). So either way, I think it's unlikely we'd hear more from Sony on this publicly (I would be surprised) ... until their planned events.

 

[Megadrive1988]

Hmm... I doubt a large company on the verge of releasing its promising next-gen platform/product would spend more time to clarify. Does Sony really need to manage by stock price ? GDC is only 4 weeks away anyway.

Might as well nail all the outstanding issues (HDMI specs, game development, simplifying messaging, etc. ...) and vindicate itself according to its original plans.

If the ML report is really off, Sony comes out even better and the actual result should hopefully force ML to release higher quality reports next time (ha ha). Otherwise, ML is really doing all of us a favor by giving us a heads up.

agreed.

 

[one]

I guess ML had many Microsoft stocks dead in the water before they released the report

 

[Carl B]

I think it more likely that someone somewhere had short positions in Sony.

Not that I actually believe that though.

In general Sony's stock is fine however, no need to go into panic mode over this over at Sony investor relations. The stock's had a big run-up over the past few months and this correction - whether triggered by ML's report or not - is probably for the best. It's still in the vicinity of a three-year high.

(weird, my 'rep' bar automaticaly went to grey on attaining senior member status)

 

[mckmas8808]

Ah man you are a senior now. GO xbdestroya! :smile:

Congrats.

 

[Carl B]

LOL - thanks

 

[London Geezer]

(weird, my 'rep' bar automaticaly went to grey on attaining senior member status)

Strange, it means that rep disabled itself when u turned pro. If you want the green squares, u'll need to enable it again in your User CP.

 

[slider]

An editorial from gamesindustry. Summarises a lot of feelings about the PS3 into one handy piece.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=14930

(OT: If you get a chance check out the link to Eurogamer.tv - quite impressive I thought.)

 

[Acert93]

I don't know about others, but many would not consider a Fall 2006 launch in the US a delay. I always thought that. At E3 they just said Spring 2006, but not region. I know some here took the hardline stance of of the US being a Spring target, but Sony has a lot to gain in hitting the peak sales period and giving developers an extra 6 months to show how great the PS3 is. That first impression is important. I also think seeing the MS supply issues would scare Sony away from a JP-US co-launch. Sony is going to sell a ton of these things and will have even more demand than MS did at launch. Not having a reasonable amount of units could be a bad thing.

Sony could still hit late Spring (June 20th!) in Japan, but I think with the little we have heard about the PS3 since last E3 that a US launch after being quiet so long could be a tough hurdle. I remember Sega doing the post-E3 launch and it did not help them much. Making a big splash at E3 and then hyping the PS3 until fall--with a lot of buzz from Japan in how people are sleeping in the streets to get one and estatic over the games--would do a lot to build US hype and allow Sony to stock a lot of units to make a huge splash.

Anyhow, fall 2006 is not much of a delay IMO because I never expected a Spring US release. Missing a spring launch in Japan by a month or two is a delay, but not a big one.

At this point it is coming down to games. MS had a nice launch and games like FNR3, GRAW, and Oblivion seem to to be filling out the slow time of year well and proving the 360 is not an Xbox 1.5. MS has some big plans for Fall (Gears of War and who knows what else... Mass Effect? Too Human? What is Rare up to? Oh wait, they will release their next game on the Xbox 1080 after skipping Xbox 720 haha). Anyhow, Sony is in a position to either overwhelm consumers or underwhelm them.

Best to use the time to make sure the launch is marked by excellence. A rushed launch against some polished Xbox titles would not do anyone any good. I want a competition darn it!

 

[Serenity Painted Death]

If you want a competition it would be in your best interest for Sony to have massive delays.

 

[hey69]

saying that, maybe Sony is just being sportive

 

[randycat99]

If you want a competition it would be in your best interest for Sony to have massive delays.

This thought occurred to me earlier, as well.

I was thinking, what apologist spin would the competition have to conjure if Sony ends up with the worst delay that has been proposed and still comes out far, far ahead, by the end of this generation? This would be some major crow for the competition to eat, especially after all the posturing of doom and gloom over Sony which would allegedly make them become a failure. What the competition should be hoping for is a competition as evenly matched as possible. That way they could simply say they made some gains, but it just was not enough to match Sony's momentum over many generations, if they should come out far behind Sony this time around.

 

[liverkick]

An editorial from gamesindustry. Summarises a lot of feelings about the PS3 into one handy piece.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=14930

(OT: If you get a chance check out the link to Eurogamer.tv - quite impressive I thought.)

I guess you could call this piece a summary of sorts...but more to the end of being a microcosm of this preposterously amatuerish gaming media and its whiny posturing all throughout Sony's post E3 blackout. WAAAAAAAAAA.

And is this Fahey character actually using the "Royal We"?

...although we can't speak for Japanese publishers, who for all we know could be supporting a Spring launch to the hilt, however unlikely that may seem.

We understand perfectly what a tricky balancing act Sony faces at the moment and over the coming years...

We understand that Microsoft has forced Sony's hand, and that the Japanese electronics giant would be far happier to just bury the PS3 for many more months and focus on selling more PS2s, more PSPs and more software.

Good grief.