Sony's content platform and business strategy *spawn

Yes, given Yen's rising strength, Sony will continue to take a beating. ^_^

If Crystal LCD is competitive (Where's tritosine5G ? He keeps PM'ing me about the greatness of Crystal LCD), then platform strategy is the way to go. I doubt Sony want to keep the tech for themselves. Their TV division missed the LCD platform boat and have been suffering since then.

Kaz ? His analysis on Sony is in the ball park. The rest depends on his team's execution. It's hard to call at the moment.

EDIT: Their existing SEN services are coming together slowly, but they are not good enough to lead the industry in any way. Need to add more goodies + excitement into the basic/usual music and movie services.

 

S&P:Japan's Sony downgraded to 'BBB+'; outlook negative
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/idUSWLA260120120208

 

Has to be expected, Hirai has a tough job in front him.
I just read that on top of Lenovo, LG (still not Samsung but still could give Samsung Ideas) aims at 60% of its TV to be smart TV, and that Google allowed them to tweak the UI of I don't remember which rendition of Android. Samsung migh be next.

Ultimately Sony will have to adopt Android somehow, they were imho the company in the best position to do while leveraging gaming in this realm (TV market).
I still can believe that the Xperia play and the PSV were different devices.
I still can believe than believe fight to position it-self in the tablet/slate realm, whereas the gaming crowd would die for something like a Xperia Tab (working a bit like ipad iphone in regard to specs, the tab would jsut have the extra juice to deal with the extra pixel).

I hold by it playstation is an half assed efforts set to fail, they could not and still can't compete with Android. At this point it was about leveraging Android and their strength to become market leaders.

Mr.Hirai has few time to set things straight for Sony I still have hope as they have the content and a more open approach than MS for example. I want to believe that they have time to port Android to the PSV and keep the thing up to date.
I hope they will realize that they need an xperia play with common specs with the PSV (same CPU, less gpu power but same architecture, more RAM).
I hope the same for tablets, they might have a standard tablet buit not having a gaming oriented tablet 7" or/and 10" (with sliding control like xperia play) when you have the mind-share Sony has is close to retarded.
PSV would have somehow to become less relevant vs its phone and tablet sibling (doing what I say it would still remain compatible so early adopter are not fucked and those liking the form factor can still buy it).
They should have done that already and they might have sell those thing for a profit instead of loosing money on the PSV. I believe the PSV is a bit "over-speced", it has the kind of specs I would have expected for a hypothetical play tab 10", then it would have been down scale according to resolution requirements (mostly a gpu affair). Anyway as things are now may allow for the device to survive a strong reorganization of sony product line.

Then there TV smart TV and what to do with plain playstation. First again they should have move earlier but they stuck them selves in a way too long product cycle to be react earlier.
They should include now an heavily overclocked PSV chip in every TV. It would pretty keep up with mid PC for a sane amount of time. Like the other chips it would have been produce @45nm. Would also sell as stand alone.

Sony would have moved from the loss leading business model, it worked when as a giant they entered with strength the gaming market, now they abused it.
They should have move to shorter product cycles. Refresh should happen every two shrinks. In a perfect world all the aforementioned products would have launch in 2011 @40nm, refresh for the whole products lines (and focused R&D) would happen when 20nm hits its pace .

So what do they do now that this did not happened? PSV is a bit of an in between product imho.
I would wait till 20nm hit its pace to launch a new game of products based on a single architecture declined in different form factor (phones, tablets, smart TV, stand alone smart what we call playstation). As I said PSV was a bit "over-specced" and it may stand its own in this new product line and by this time it may have last. In the mean time Sony has to execute, work on Android more seriously especially the PSV, push out existing product road map.

The change from PSN may be an announcement of Sony readying a proper "app market" available from multiple devices.

The most optimistic calendar for Sony is to have this in place for fall 2014 (20nm should be available but you never know), 2015 is more likely. That's almost the ten years cycle Sony spoke about not the one they though though, one of doom for the whole company. It will be at this time or never and they better pray for the market not to consolidate to much in the mean time. Imho at some point they should start to pump up the hype about a complete Brand and company relaunch and they better execute well.

They may have a go if no strong actor attacks the smart TV sectors, phones or/and tablet with strong might that including promoting games stealing what is now their strongest point. Samsung is crazy big and strong, and Google would only benefit and encourage such s push for example. But it can be MS doing surprisingly well with windows 8 and a clever leverage of their different products. Apple well we never know

Anyway at this point the issue is about having the funds to put this together and having somebody to do the dirty job for greater good (kill most likely a lot of jonbs ) while showing a strong lead so the company doesn't collapse on it-self in the process, I wonder. This down grade let me think that either Sony has not the good plan or that they don't believe that they will have enough lead to achieve this / that such a big company can go through such a drastic program in short amount of time without collapsing. Point is borrowing will become more costly for them. They have instantly to secure more assets to cover their existing loans, etc. That's bad real bad.

My personal POV is that Kaz Hirai doesn't have the vision to crystallize what can be saved of the company around him and to walk that dreadful road. So I expect nothing good sadly and some mocked CEO here may ultimately have had a point

 

He may not need the vision as long as there are other people who have the vision and he listens and can execute. I'm not sure anyone in Sony has the vision though. Even in their most dynamic department, PlayStation, they've let the best ideas fall by the wayside and the competition overtake them.

 

HTC rumoured to roll out PlayStation Certification for 2012 devices.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/14/2797162/playstation-certified-htc-devices-rumor-2h-2012

Would be a huge coup for Sony if HTC goes for PS Suite. That would put around 40% of Android phones sold with PS Suite. The remaining major manufacturer would be Samsung who account for around 40% of Android market share, but I'm not sure they will throw their lot in with Sony without seeing the results for HTC. PS1 games and Vita minis/indie games released via Suite could be enough to get gamers to buy HTC/Sony phones ahead of Samsung ones though, but we have to wait for the results.

 

Good concept, I like it!

But it seems Sony is a bit scattered at the moment.

If this were a broader strategy it would help them to focus the message to the consumer, but this step is a good one...

So are they going to invest ina testing group which ensures compatibility of hundreds/thousands of configurations or will they simply mandate a baseline spec?

One thing about the Android OS that really sucks for gaming (or answering the phone at times!) is that every "service"/app/process has equal rights to all the phones resources. Since this is by design, I'm not sure how one could ensure a quality gaming experience without a uber spec baseline, or a fundamental change to the OS.

It'll be interesting to see where Sony takes this.

 

The whole 'games on mobile' paradigm is generally *not* to Sony's benefit though, even if they get some large hardware partners to sign on as gateways. The real problem is that as games become increasingly viewed as 'apps,' the prices people are willing to pay for them get dragged down into the app realm as well. Instead of $20, you're talking $5... and it wasn't even as low as $20 to begin with!

Mobile gaming as a market itself is undergoing a huge paradigm shift anyway, the one we discussed years ago with the ascension of the iPhone as: will it happen, won't it happen? Well - I guess it's happening.

I don't mind a partnership of sorts with Google, but association with Android is *not* the answer, unless Sony can essentially become *the* games platform of choice across all devices. But... I just don't see how that could come to pass. Firstly, as has been mentioned repeatedly, they really need a cohesive, robust, and approachable iTunes equivalent - PSN/SNE has to get cohesive.

 

Well the first-party prices for Vita are already extremely low compared to what we're used to. With DD, they might think it's worth trying for sheer volume of sales. $3 profit versus $10 profit is an easy choice if you're selling 10x as many at the lower price because you have a far larger install base. And in that regard i think Sony are right. Consoles make money on the software. Using someone else's hardware mitigates the hardware costs.

I think it's worth going for. The consoles were a move on owning the living room. The living room is turning mobile it woud seem, or rather becoming an extension of the mobile experience. Android will so far, far more prevalent than anything Sony could come up with. And it's not like PSS has to be exclusive. Sony can hedge their bets with the conventional PlayStation experience too. By providing cross-over with their strong IP, like LBP or Uncharted, they can help expand PSS more effectively than perhaps other attempts at spearheading a bigger paying market than the $1 apps; perhaps only EA or Ubisoft could attempt their own software platform. I don't think Activision have a chance as their portfolio doesn't seem a fit for mobiles, whereas EA can always make a sports title that fits. So EANet would work, but don't know about anyone else, while Sony can leverage the existing PS platforms to provide a stable, marketable platform to attract dev support while filling it with top-tier first-party content to make the platform relevant. I'm pretty confident a higher quality experience differentiated from the common app space would go down well with buyers. Yes, you can have Touch Puzzler 314 for 50 cents, but an experiance like Wipeout will be easy to find and worth the money from the PSStore.

As long as Sony can execute on the cohesive experience and content, as well as robustness, I can see this working for them. TBH I kinda feel it's their last chance, unless they pull an amazing new hardware tech from somewhere.

 

I just don't see it though. Android is a huge hodge-podge of variable hardware and specs, and has a user base that has essentially no direct connections to gaming. At best, Sony can become the next Sega via pursuing this strategy; it can mean nothing other than leaving the mobile hardware space outside of Sony-Ericsson. Vita is not going to be a 'success' in the terms required to anchor a profitable mobile division, and creating the equivalent of a nested gaming environment/app store to exist within Android is simply to pursue a strategy where you can no longer code to fixed hardware targets, only minimums, and your business model is easily replicated... by EA, Activision, Gamestop, whoever wants to give it a shot.

Android is pervasive and great for what it is, but it is not a money-maker. Sony has/had a monolithic in-house software engineering team - how they could never dedicate ample resources to get a sufficient OS/app store/browser cross-platform environment going is beyond me, but it will be a mistake they can't recover from in the modern era with partnerships with companies all the more likely to become future outright competitors in the same space.

 

What are you talking about? Android makes lots of money for MS.

 

the same can be said of Apple doing something everyone else could have done, but they didn't and Apple pulled it off. Good business doesn't have to be unique, but the best, or at least most popular.

Precisely. They screwed up. What other options have they got? Accept defeat and throw in the towel, or try and extend dominantly into the growing sector? It's not about getting PS-style profits from Android for gaming, but getting SEN onto Android devices and sell their whole range of content. To get people buying Moves from SEN instead of Netflix, and Music from SEN instead of iTunes, and games from SEN instead of whoever app store.

Personally I can't see any other option for Sony. They missed making this market themselves, so they have to play catch-up as strongly as possible. Investing in their TVs and CE devices isn't going to get them anywhere, and they'd never get anywhere with their own sOS devices that are exclusively Sony in the same way Apple is. Even if Sony could create an experience all-round as good as Apples, they lack the momentum of market share. Even if they created a better experience, and cheaper, who'd buy into a closed SEN experience with very little behind it versus the open(ish) platforms already out there and full of content?

 

So, have we talked about Sony's emerging pay once, get both versions of PS3 and Vita games policy? When Motorstorm: RC was announced they mentioned buying the game got you access to both versions, but yesterday they announced the same would be true of some other games and DLC. For example, if you own Hustle Kings for PS3, you'll get the Vita version free. If you buy DLC for the PS3 version of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom, you'll be able to use it with the Vita version with no additional charge. They also let slip that all the Wipeout HD and HD Fury tracks would be coming to Wipeout 2048 as DLC, and if you own those for PS3 you'll get the Vita download free as well. They make no specific mention of Warrior's Lair, the game formerly known as Ruin, but hopefully it will follow this model as well.

It's a promising start, but I think one we should have expected. We already have the precedent of PS Classics, PS Minis and digital PSP games being pay once, play anywhere, but its gratifying to see Sony adhering to that model with Vita/PS3 dual releases. I'm not sure we'll be able to expect that generosity with physical retail copies, ala the PS3 version of Portal 2 coming with a steam code for PC, but even if it's just when you buy through PSN I think that's a great way to encourage digital purchases, discourage the used market, and enhance the value of both the Vita and PS3. People have been very skeptical of Sony's PS3/Vita crossplay strategy, asking, "what, I have to buy the game twice?" If the answer is simply, "No, buy it once, play anywhere with cross-platform online multi-player and a cloud save that follows you where ever you go", that's a pretty compelling future for the ecosystem. Hopefully third parties will see the wisdom in the strategy and follow suit.

 

Which is why PS Suite specifies a hardware minimum / certification, so that if a phone is PS Suite Certified, it can run the software targeted at the platform as intended. I think this is a very valuable step forward for Android.

Can't you say that of iOS, Mac OS and even Windows?

Not comparable at all. Sony's PS Suite efforts are an attempt to establish a cross-platform gaming platform. Sega just stopped making hardware and became a dev/pub exclusively. Yes, they now publish their games on multiple platforms, but that's not in the least bit comparable.

How does that logic apply to Google buying Motorola, I wonder?

Anyway, Sony-Ericsson is now officially dead and called the Sony Mobile Division. Sony indicated they want to focus more on mobile devices, not less, but want a unified strategy across all their divisions.

Easily replicated - so why is iTunes still so popular, I wonder? Hardware and software can go together, and you need to find a good way to marry the two businesses. I think Sony's approach here is interesting. For the mobile space, they are creating a platform that could make life for game developers for Android a lot easier and the quality of gaming for Android users a lot more consistent, and crucially, it's a platform not necessarily limited to Android (at the very least it will also support Vita). But at the same time they are in a position to make devices like the Vita that are fully optimised for handheld gaming, with stuff like dual analog controls and a low entry price, but perhaps more revenue from the software.

Eventually, it will either make money or it will die, as with almost everything else, right? And the timing for PS Suite, with the arrival of Android 4.0, is right.

It is not that far-fetched at this point, though. They've been doing most things already in one form or the other, whether it is SEN, or the Minis and PS1 title programmes.

I think there's no question that there will be some competition, and some publishers going their own way (EA's Origin springs to mind). It is in no way a sure bet. But these days, you have to be a software and services minded company even as a hardware company, and I think current Sony management realises this very well. They are in a very tough position, but imho they are making the right choices.

And for what it's worth, from everything I've seen so far from Vita (including what Brad mentioned), and the response to it on GAF, I think they are starting to get it.

 

It depends on their execution. PS Suite is indeed very interesting as a consistent dev platform across different OSes, but it does not address user experience, and other business issues (such as pricing, perception, business model, etc.) completely.

Sony need some more work like this:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/12/2793065/sony-vita-os-smartphones-tablets

Certifying the hardware and porting Vita stack to a custom version of Android (or dual boot) might be a good start.

 

... and on the business model and pricing side, something like this would appeal more to consumers:

Sony details "one price" Vita/PS3 cross-play content
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-16-sony-details-one-price-vita-ps3-cross-play-content

They should also harmonize the pricing w.r.t. PS Suite games. I where they are heading so far.

 

[Gah... wrong thread !]

 

Nice!

It's about time somebody "got it".

I have no interest in mobile gaming, but I really like where Sony is headed here. If they follow through with a true NG console and MS does this gimped SOC, I'll be jumping ship ... gladly.

Sony seems to have learned considerably since 2005.

Bravo.

 

Yes, and with Vita, I think it's high time for them to introduce new genre of games... kinda like how Phil Harrison talked about user generated content and Game 3.0.

I can think of a few instances based on Vita's capability and general mobile computing trend today. ^_^

 

This SlashGear author likes Vita OS enough to consider it a critical part of Sony's future...

Sony’s Four-Screen Strategy Needs Vita OS
http://www.slashgear.com/sonys-four-screen-strategy-needs-vita-os-18214183/

I agree Sony should look at Near closely and integrate it with other apps, including FaceBook, Google Maps, YouTube, Hulu Plus, PS Store, etc.

Even Playstation Suite apps/games can benefit from Near and other Vita OS elements.

 

My point with Android was that it will not ever become synonymous with Sony gaming... such will only ever be a sideshow on Android in the larger scheme of things, as Sony will be competing directly with the publishers on that front.

Steve Jobs was an outspoken critic of gaming though back in the day... none of these platforms targeted gamers; their money was to be made elsewhere. But to Apple's benefit, gamers is what they got (or created). As for Windows, what benefit is PC gaming to Microsoft really? They make money on the OS, and Office. That PC gamers game on Windows is a symptom of Windows' pervasiveness, not MS making loads of money off of it. Hence (partly) XBox and the original living room push.

Google can make money off of gaming on Android because every game sold on the platform will put a penny in their wallet; Sony though, again the various publisher/platform competition - IMO - will just be too noisy on Android to be a significant profit driver... and in fact, I view it as somewhat of an internal distraction.

Well, my comment was really centered on the Android/Google partnership specifically.

Google is buying Motorola for their patents and as protection in the ongoing mobile patent war swirling around Android.

iTunes is popular because it is the virtual store found on Apple devices - nothing more, nothing less. Apple is iTunes, and vice versa. Android is not PS Suite. Sony could have achieved that through a cogent digital strategy - Android is not a comparable alternative though.

Well, I disagree here - Android, whether directly profitable on a large scale for Google or not, will stick around. Google does not need mobile itself to be wildly profitable for it to be worth Google's efforts - they simply want to be the gateway for the majority of phones as far as mobile search & cloud functions go. The majority of Google's cash still comes from search, and mobile search is becoming a larger piece of the pie every day. Google wants to control that.

I suppose that maybe they are. Proliferation of the Vita OS would be *exactly* the sort of direction they should take, to differentiate the smart phones, smart TVs, tablets, game systems, blah blah blah... and yes, a unified digital content purchase strategy is the positive way forward. But will they launch under a coherent strategy, and will there be a logical hardware side to the equation where the hardware roadmaps (being mobile, phone, tv) are married at the start in the development? I hope so. But it's in the achievement of strong visions rather than the inception of strong visions that Sony has struggled in the past.