Sony Says They May Not Hit PS3 Shipment Targets
Via 1up, a Bloomberg article exploring the possibility that Sony may not hit their shipment targets for the PS3. From the article: "Sony plans to ship two million PlayStation 3 players this year to the U.S. and Japan, and six million worldwide by March. The Tokyo-based company said yesterday annual profit would fall 35 percent to its lowest in five years on price cuts of the console in Japan and a recall of 9.6 million computer batteries. 'The honest answer is it's more of a target' for PlayStation 3 shipments, Jack Tretton, co-chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said yesterday in an interview. 'Clearly we've had production issues.'"
And cut to nuclear explosion montage
Similes are like metaphors
... most people noted that they weren't surprised.
chris at darkrock dot co dot uk
http colon slash slash www dot darkrock dot co dot uk
The guy was only reiterating that the mark given was a target... which the article itself even says so any marginally intelligent person (read: not a monkey) would be able to decifer this amazingly cryptic usage of the word 'target'.
Sony is now having a fire sale on used laptop batteries.
the 400,000 delegated for North America at launch may dip even lower? Looks like those Ebay pre-orders just rose in stock...
"It's a reverse vampire...they....they crave the sun!"
Looks like Gamestop and EB will experience shortages like they did with the Xbox 360. This will also result in people who paid ludicrous amounts for a reservation ticket from Gamestop/EB the likelyhood that they won't get a PS3 when it is released. I feel sorry for those poor suckers.
Let the hilarity ensue!
Previewing comments are for sissies!
They really suckered us in, didn't they? Even I was optimistic when I heard that most stores got at least 8 allocated. Now, I'm kind of shocked.
This kind of subtle hinting always seems to leak out before the bombshell drops. At least with Sony lately, that seems to be the standard. With only a million by Christmas, there was only going to be a launch in name. If there's less than one million by Christmas, then, in all practicality, we're looking at what amounts to a 2007 launch
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
It can only get worst. Its going to go from 300,000 units to 200,000 units to even lower numbers. People outraged with the shortage that have stood out in line for hours will throw down their empt.... wait, you know what... what people, everyone's getting a Wii.
Sony can't reach their over-inflated estimates? Inconceivable!
yes... Vegonomics
Uh, Sony, I think you were the only ones who believed that you would actually hit whatever targets you specified. NO ONE ELSE BELIEVED YOU. It's obvious that the chain-of-command in charge of this process was too afraid to tell the powers-that-be that they weren't going to hit the targets, so everyone said "yes", until it became too obvious that they wouldn't. So typical.
Regardless who cares about their shipping estimates, they won't hit their sales estimates either. They've successfully convinced themselves that the North American market is going to pay $600 for a gaming system, and it's a gaming system until they've proven otherwise. Just like the PSP, it could have been so much more, but it's not, because Sony dropped the ball... it's really just a portable gaming system, which I wasted $250+ on because I thought there were be better functionality with it.
I feel sorry for those poor suckers.
I don't, primarily because they're suckers...
This guy's the limit!
It's called a PC :) A console is perfect for those people who do not posess the knowlege necessary to keep their PC upgraded and patched in order to play the latest and greatest games. Consoles are successful because they do not suffer from hardware differences, OS differences, etc. At the end of the day the game player and the game developer have it easier on a console because they do not have to worry about the extra requirements that a PC has.
When you start bringing in custom game OS's, interfaces, modifications, other Open Source / closed source changes, you lose that "console" baseline and you turn into a PC.
Ebay was reported to be shocked that the auctions it routinely closes have hit $3000. Though Sony notes that with all the accessories you're required to buy with the Xbox 306, the PS3 is still a bargain.
Now for the ps3. :)
Personally I believe that THE Open Source Communiy should develop a console that THE PEOPLE can use and modify to THEIR NEEDS
Yeah, me too! And it should run on Linux or some other open source OS. And it should have user-installable parts so that you can expand it to have exactly the specs that you want. If you want more memory, you should be able to buy "sticks" of memory to plug into it. If you want more storage space, you should be able to buy a hard disk or optical disc component to hook up to it. If you don't like its graphics abilities, you should be able to buy a "graphics module" that will give you more power. And you should be able to run it on a TV if you want, or a monitor if you want. And it should have the option for a keyboard if you wanted to type something instead of use a gamepad. That would be so awesome!!! Man, I really wish somebody would make something like that...
This guy's the limit!
Are they trying to devalue Sony stock in an attempt to buy it all back or something? Is Ken Kutaragi for real? Is he a Nintendo mole? WTF Sony, I know you've sucked for years but you're really outdoing yourself. The only way the PS3 can top itself at this point would involve flames ... which doesn't seem unlikely.
Sony Shareholders.
This is off an investment website, after all
Demented But Determined.
The PS3 is going to sale in name alone.. i'm not going to play fangboy on any one side, but with recent light of events there are going to be a lot of upset kids this christmas if they're expecting a PS3 or a Wii and that may just help the 360 out.
PS3 luanch linup is a fantastic linup, but only 4 exclusives that won't be available on the 360 that i'm aware of. Wii has a fantastic linup but even if there are a million units the numbers shipped by christmas probably won't be enough to fill demand.
Another downside is after the 360 launch experience a majority of people buying these will only be buying them to resell on ebay - even if there is enough to fill demand people are going to do it because it worked so well for them last time.
So high prices, high demand, angry shoppers.. high cost across the board...
i'm not sure it will boost the 360 sales because of the microsoft stigma but i'm sure it will push sales to PC games, HD tv's, computers, laptops and mp3 players!
will be interesting.. Sucks to be Sony though.. i can't imagine how they messed up supply chain management considering they're king of most of what is in the ps3!
Yesterday, in a PS3 article on shipments, a number of other posters refused to believe that the reduced shipment numbers were true when I stated what I had read in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) on this problem.
Please note that Sony's move to beef up it's Blu-Ray players for home/commercial use is directly related to the lower shipment numbers of PS3 units. They all use the same basic devices, and it was an intentional choice by Sony to ship fewer consoles and ship more players, especially since they lose a lot more money on each console they ship (except to the UK, even if those are targetted for March 2007).
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
More importantly, I really wish somebody would make multiplayer party games that need only one machine for four players for that.
The only big flaw with the console is, and this is a highly controversial point that has sparked many a flamewar, the fact that it runs off of AA batteries instead of a rechargeable one.
Rawr
You'd think EB/Gamestop would have learned their lesson the first time. I guess management sees the guaranteed money as more important than actually selling the thing when it comes out. I just think it's rediculous that now you have to stand in line to get a pre-order. I thought the whole idea of getting a pre-order was to skip the outside camping shenanigans. Honestly I think it's less of a hassle to just go to the store when it comes it, and if you get one awesome, if not wait like a few weeks. Hell, take whatever extra money you make in those few weeks to make your initial experience a bit better and buy another game or another controller or something.
Personally, I'm not going to buy a PS3 for a long time, if I even get one. I don't know about anyone else but I'm getting less and less excited about paying out my ass for videogames, I'm already pissed about the $10 increase of retail games prices when they were already steep to begin with. I dunno, maybe I'm just growing out of video games or something but that $700 or so that you're going to end up spending by the time you leave the store could be a significant investment on the car, or a decent used guitar.
Although I'm saying this now, no doubt I won't be saying it when all 3 consoles are in the full swing of thingsdisclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
Well as long as I can get my GameStop pre-order (I was fourth at my store that had 12 pre-orders allowed) then I'll be happy. Sure I know I'm not guaranteed anything, but I'm crossing my fingers. It should mean it will go for even more on Ebay!
"Sony plans to ship two million PlayStation 3 players this year..."
Why ship the systems when you can ship two million people who play it instead?
/* No Comment */
You're not growing out of anything. This one costs $700 by itself. If you buy one, what you should do is resell it on eBay. You'd probably get double that for it, and then you can buy a Wiivolution and its entire library.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
There, I fixed that for you (and the typo also)
If the PS3 is going to tank so bad, then it doesn't matter how many units Sony ships.
If the PS3 is going to take off (albeit slower if there aren't enough units out there to go around), then getting it in November, or February isn't going to kill someone.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
If the grand parent is funny, why is the above redundant? It's the other half of the same joke.
Sony's quarterly earnings release was at the end of last week (Oct. 12th, http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/info/SEMC/200610.h tml#block0). The talking heads will not give any negitive outlook prior to an earnings release and the quarterly investor conference calls. Also, unless it's a slip-up corporate communications will not voice "lower than expected" earnings, growth, results or whatever unless it's at the end of the business week towards close of the market. This is a tried and true practice of letting bad news simmer over the weekend so it can be often offset with good news sometime next week. So, expect some sort of positive communications from Sony next week sometime.
That worked really well that last time it was tried.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am master of my fate and captain of my soul.
Hey, um, guys, there's not actually any content to be seen in the linked article. All it says is that Sony is not going to hit its expected ship targets this year, and that this is going to cost them money.
This isn't news. We've known for months now that they wouldn't hit their initial ship targets. Nothing in this article says that Sony is not going to hit the revised ship targets that Sony detailed after TGS. 2 million consoles by the end of the year with 6 million by the end of March is precisely in line with what Sony said at TGS, and it's still a very aggressive ramp up. Microsoft will have taken twice to three times as long to achieve that sort of ship levels.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
Retailers already routinely stock USB hubs and gamepads that follow the USB Human Interface Device profile. So the box of a PC party game would be no bigger than a typical PC game box, that is, the size of a DVD case.
Namco, Midway, and the like already port their old game franchises to the PC using emulators, and as far as I can tell, they're compatible with USB gamepads. So why aren't any new native games developed for this control method?
Instead of having a single proprietary 1800 mAh battery in the PSP, you can have two of these standard type batteries that each have greater capacity than Sony's (and for less money). I'm not sure why you would perfer the other. What is the counter-argument?
Again, that's just my opinion. It's not like everyone has to feel and think the same things I do. (P.S. Note how I mentioned that this was controversially a flaw, and that many flamewars have gotten started over this topic)
Rawr
I guess if they gave rechargeable AA'a with it then that would be the best all around.