Buy a PlayStation 3 and Sink Sony

sonnyweathers writes "There has never been a more perilous time for Sony than 2006. But if you think you can save the company by buying PlayStation 3 consoles, you're wrong. Analyst Evermore believes that selling 6 million PS3 consoles will make Sony a ripe target for takeover — perhaps even by Microsoft."

Comments

they are sony minions I tell you!

[Anonymous Coward]

what's this? reverse psychology?

"DON'T buy our console!"

Re:they are sony minions I tell you!

[Anonymous Coward]

The saddest thing is that Microsoft is probably going to drop the price of the Xbox to $300 or $200 the moment the PS3 hits the stores. Consumers will have to make the choice between many $50 games on a $300 system or a couple $100 games on a $600 system. I think the choice is obvious. The Playstation line had a great run but complete corporate incompetence will probably kill it during this iteration. Pity, but that's life.

Re:they are sony minions I tell you!

[HAKdragon]

Xbox should have a new slogan, "Buy American".

Ignoring the fact that, you know, the systems are made in Mexico.

Re:they are sony minions I tell you!

[mikeisme77]

There's a difference in that though: DVD was already an established standard and had clear benefits over VHS (plus it didn't require additional equipment to get those additional benefits). Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD) still have yet to become proven standards/successors to DVDs, currently lack any additional benefits (beyond picture/audio quality), AND require most consumers to purchase additional equipment to see any benefit from them.

Of course, on the other hand, MiniDisc was actually successful in Japan... so something has to be said about Sony's mindshare there.

What would Microsoft do with all that content?

[pieterh]

If Microsoft bought Sony, they'd own a whole lot of music and movies... I wonder what they'd do with that.

Re:What would Microsoft do with all that content?

[bmajik]

Speaking for myself only (but, I am a MS employee), I seriously hope that _never_ happens.

To say that I am ... dissatisfied with what we're doing in terms of DRM and content protection technologies for content we have no financial stake in.. would be an understatement. I've gotten in some pretty heated arguments with people closer to those groups internally and there are days I feel like looking for other employment options.

Imagine how awful things would be if MS owned a bunch of "traditional" content (besides software.. which has grown up with "piracy" and the market understands how to deal with it..and the providers have grown up figuring out how to stay alive inspite of it)

When one umbrella organization owns content and technology, the interests of one are going to suffer due to the other. Sony makes this plainly evident. I suspect that the content people at Sony are furious that the technology people haven't invented a remote "extort-money" button for the latest Sony-Style line of kitchen radios.. and the consumer electronics people are livid that they keep getting memos suggesting that they invent a TV that plays ONLY Sony Pictures movies from the content arm.

When I talk about stuff like the broadcast flag, etc at work, I can still posture the argument that it's not clear that we make money by playing well with that thing vs ignoring it or taking a more consumer friendly approach. If suddenly "we" benefited from crap like the broadcast flag, those arguments would be DOA.

(Just like slashdot - there is not a singular hive-mind mentality inside Microsoft, and it should be clear that not everyone is 100% thrilled with everything that gets MS's name attributed to it. I can only imagine that there are good engineers at Sony as well that are upset with what has happened to their company.. )

Re:What would Microsoft do with all that content?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hrmm... that's a quite risky opinion you have.

Please come to my office at ONCE.

Bring a chair.

Steve.

Re:What would Microsoft do with all that content?

[GaratNW]

Being a martyr is all fine and dandy. But, honestly. If every white collar worker in America stopped working for corprorations that did one or more things that the individual dissaproves of, we'd have a nation of corporations with only exectuive management left working for them, and an unemployment rate of 99.9%. I left Microsoft a number of years ago. Not for any moral or ethical reasons. They do stuff I think is great (still), and do stuff I think is horrible (still). How is this any different from IBM, Oracle, Intel, AMD, Sony, the rest of corporate america? Experience has taught most people that, the way to make something better, is not to quit on ethical grounds and send yourself and your family to the poor house. Work on making things better, and if at the end of it, you no longer can handle it any more, then make that decision to leave. But, that's a pretty santimonious attitude you have there, no matter how you look at it, Moofie.

Re:What would Microsoft do with all that content?

[bmajik]

hahah :) nicely done.

Actually, my only 1:1 "interaction" with Ballmer was when he held the door for me at the entrance to the health-club most MSFT guys go to in Redmond. He had forgotten his health-club id card that morning. His money more or less built the whole place so I smirked as he explained who he was to the person working the card scanner. "Ballmer.. B-A-L-L-M-E-R..".

I can attest that when asked who he was, he did not shout "DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS!" :)

"Save Sony?"

[plover]

From the article, Sony's CEO was quoted as saying "Want a PS3? Work a little harder."

What do I have to do if I happen to like watching the company most actively pushing DRM on us flounder and collapse? How can I personally help to hasten that demise? Work a little harder? Be a little less greedy?

Actually, that's a strategy that could possibly save Sony -- abandon DRM loudly and publicly, and tout themselves as the Kings of Unrestricted Media. A big campaign of "We trust you to not steal our stuff, but Microsoft and Apple think you're thieves."

Hey, if they're going down the toilet anyway, try a little innovation! Work a little smarter, not harder.

Re:"Save Sony?"

[plover]

OK, so I misquoted. It was Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi that said this:

"Our ideal," Kutaragi said, "is for consumers to think to themselves, 'OK, I'll work more hours and buy it.' We want people to feel that they want it, no matter what."

It was the article's author that summed it up as "Want a PS3? Work a little harder!"

Re:"Save Sony?"

[Dan East]

Actually, that's a strategy that could possibly save Sony -- abandon DRM loudly and publicly, and tout themselves as the Kings of Unrestricted Media. A big campaign of "We trust you to not steal our stuff, but Microsoft and Apple think you're thieves."

Sony is too big, and has an vested interest in too many areas. Thus they cannot serve only the consumer in any of their divisions. As long as we see movies with the word "Sony" in the opening credits, we can be certain that Sony hardware will embrace DRM to the fullest extent possible.

If Sony could have their way, the only media and hardware channel between the movies they produce and the consumer would be Betamax®, oops, I mean Memory Stick®, oops, I mean UMD®, oops I mean Blue-ray®. And if someone is reading this 5 years from now, insert whatever DRM infected crap they're currently pushing at the end of that sentence.

Dan East

Re:"Save Sony?"

[NDPTAL85]

You're one of those funny Slashdot people who thinks the masses would care about DRM even if they knew what it was in the first place, aren't you?

Think about what you just said. "abandon DRM loudly and publicly." Go outside your home or office right now and run up to 10 people and ask them if they know what DRM means. Help them out even, let them know DRM stands for Digital RIghts Management but tell them nothing more. You'll be lucky to find one person who can tell you what DRM means. So how exactl would your suggestion help Sony again? And why is Apple so successful despite its use of DRM with iTunes?

Re:"Save Sony?"

[plover]

It's all about history. A lot of (old) people are still bitter about having to replace their Betamax VCRs. The feeling of having been screwed by a corporation doesn't fade -- it ossifies in the brain.

It's not an issue of cold facts, it's one of perception. Keep in mind that at this time Sony was widely loved for having produced the Walkman, which was 1979's version of the iPod. I'm not saying Sony went out to deliberately screw the people who adopted Betamax. Far from it, it's obvious that they wanted Betamax to dominate the market. But it didn't, and people felt like they had wasted a huge amount of money trusting their beloved Sony (feel free to adjust a $1000 price tag for a VCR for 25 years of inflation.) When they spent that money, they didn't know it was a gamble or that there was a chance they'd "lose" -- this was Sony!

Now, compound that disappointment with the rest of the restrictions and proprietary media that Sony's shoveled out the doors or supported ever since they entered the production side of the entertainment industry. ATRAC, the copy bit in DAT tapes, Macrovision, Memory Sticks, CSS, HDCP, (and the rootkit fiasco) and you can't help but notice a pattern of general contempt for their customers evolving over the years.

So if a pissed-off grumpy old guy wants to whine about getting burned by Betamax, let him. He's got tons of evidence on his side, even if the facts are slim.

(A lot of people who paid thousands of dollars for non-HDCP HDMI televisions a few years ago are about to enter that same ripped-off state, so look for a fresh crop of bitter young technophiles to adopt a similar attitude towards the makers of their plasma TVs.)

Even better...

[BigDork1001]

... don't buy it and just let it sit there on the store shelves collecting dust. Taking this approach also saves you $600.

Strange

[Dan East]

Boy, that makes a lot of sense. If Sony makes "6 million PS3 units before April", and sells them all, then they recoup part of their expense. If they don't sell any, then they are somehow better off not recouping anything at all? More sensationalism.

Dan East

Re:Strange

[DerGeist]

I don't think you fully understand how this is supposed to work. You see, Sony is selling the PS3 consoles with the expectation that someone is going to buy them (at a loss to Sony) and then buy games (i.e., big profits for Sony).

Think of a generic fast-food restaurant. Imagine they have a "value menu" with the Stinkburger Deluxe for only $0.99, but it costs $2.99 to produce. Drinks, however are $2.50 and cost about $0.15 to produce. Similarly fries are $0.99 but cost only $0.10 to produce. The restaurant will go out of business if every customer enters, purchases one Stinkburger Deluxe, and leaves. But most people aren't satisfied just downing a Stinkburger, they want fries and a drink too. That's the idea here; it's called the "razor and blades business model."

So if no one buys a PS3, Sony obviously won't produce six million. If people buy them and buy NO games, NO blu-ray discs, and NO accessories (extra controllers, etc.) then Sony will be in quite a bit of trouble.

Re:Strange

[Scrameustache]

If people buy them and buy NO games, NO blu-ray discs, and NO accessories (extra controllers, etc.) then Sony will be in quite a bit of trouble.

If Gamera the giant firebreathing space turtle lands on their offices, they'll bit in quite a bit of trouble too, and that's about as likely to happen.

Who the hell is going to buy a 600$ piece of electronic equipment out of spite with no intention of using it?

Re:The Console Makers Hate Me

[Spad]

Luckily for Nintendo, they sold the Gamecube at a profit. It's a little known business trick in the console industry, but not selling your products at a loss is a great way to make money.

Kutaragi just doesn't get it

[Y-Crate]

"Our ideal," Kutaragi said, "is for consumers to think to themselves, 'OK, I'll work more hours and buy it.' We want people to feel that they want it, no matter what."

I'm not one to assume that I deserve to get a PS3, 360 or Wii, but Kutaragi's comments border on insulting.

Yes, I know that if I want to purchase consumer goods that I need to work to earn money to be able to afford them. I have no problem with this, the problem I have is that Kutaragi's attitude is one of "The price is not our problem, the price is your problem, do something about it."

If you own a business, and your product is rejected by the market fot being too expensive, then you either deal with the lost sales or change your pricing structure. If you cannot do the former because it would hurt your bottom line, and you cannot do the latter because your have designed a product with a very high materials cost, then it's your problem, not that of your potential customers.

BREAKING NEWS

[Silent sound]

Games: Playstation 3 launch at risk from giant turtles
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday September 25, @10:00PM
from the could-things-get-any-worse dept.

An anonymous reader writes

On top of Sony's other problems, analysts are now predicting that the Playstation 3 launch may be at risk of attack by Gamera, a radioactive turtle from beyond the dawn of time. From the article: "If Gamera the giant firebreathing space turtle lands on their offices, they'll bit in quite a bit of trouble too, and that's about as likely to happen." I don't think there's any question at this point that Sony is doomed.

Sony is going to have a lot of trouble withstanding an attack from Gamera, as not only does he possess great destructive power, but he is also a friend to all children.