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Nintendo Profits Up 72%, Sony's Down 94%
Gamasutra is reporting on reporting, with financial information from some of the large gaming companies becoming available this week. Nintendo, who had already previously raised projections, saw their profits up 72% over last year. This dramatic increase was credited largely to the DS, with 10.9 million units sold in the first six months of this year alone. Sony, on the other hand, dropped profits by 94% over this time last year. The company attributes this largely to the battery recall and PS3 start-up costs. From the article: "The company's games division reported a ¥43.5 billion ($366.6m) loss, from a ¥8.2 million ($69,000) profit in 2005, thanks to research and development, manufacturing and marketing costs related to the launch of the PlayStation 3. Sales and operating revenue were down by 20.5 percent to ¥170.3 billion ($1.43bn). A decrease in hardware sales worldwide was attributed to a drop in price for the PlayStation 2 and PSP. Software sales also decreased overall, although individual PSP sales were up on the previous year. Combined profit from the PS2 and PSP business was described as 'relatively unchanged'."
Here we go again.
1. That Lik-Sang is gone. They sold ModChips which were illegal. (Whether you and I believe they should be or not.) The Lik-Sang that Sony sued is a reputable dealer of imported goods, and the ONLY distributor of popular products like the TopGun LCD Light Gun.
2. Sony's lawsuit was only a minor issue. Their tactics were what pissed everyone off. They filed a suit against Lik-Sang in nearly every country in the European Union. Such tactics could only have one outcome: Lik-Sang will close down business to avoid having to fight dozens of costly lawsuits.
So no, I don't particularly care that Nintendo once sued Lik-Sang. I wouldn't even care that Sony sued Lik-Sang to stop the PS3 imports to Europe. I *do* care that Sony forced Lik-Sang out of business thus preventing them from selling hundreds of perfectly legal products for which many of them they are the only distributor.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
No, I'm one of those "morons" who thinks that the LOUD calls for a boycott showing up on every gaming news and technology site carrying the story, is a pretty good indication that the customers have had ENOUGH. I may have led the charge for a boycott here, but that doesn't explain who led the charge over on digg. Or on NeoWin. Or on Kotaku. Or on Eurogamer. Or on Engadget. Or on MacRumors. Or on JoyStik. Or on GameSpot. Or on Ars Technica. Or on GameFaqs.
Basically, go to ANY forum that carried the Lik-Sang story, and you will be hit smack in the face with talk of boycotts. Like it or not, more and more people are deciding to boycott Sony. The Rootkit fiasco already cost Sony a lot of goodwill, but this latest smack in the face is pushing most of us over the edge.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
And that's exactly what they did do. Over a full year ago. Lik-Sang had over a year to cease and desist. It didn't.
Sony is unique among Japanese corporations in the percent of it's equity held by foreigners - still, 60% is held by Japanese institutions/individual investors.
Can we add a reality-check here?
First, Sony isn't failing. Sony made way more profit than Nintendo for much of the last six years. Was Nintendo failing when the PS2 was reaping record profits for Sony, and the Gamecube was stagnating? Of course not. Companies go through cycles, and some companies take more risk, and thus go through bigger cycles than others.
You're criticizing Sony for bad decision making "from the top down", but do you realize that the rootkit had nothing to do with top Sony management? It was something that a BMG software contractor came up with, and put into BMG's products less than a year after Sony purchased them. Not only was it not anybody at Sony's idea to put that software in the CDs, but they top people at Sony didn't even know about it.
Yes, Sony get sued, and payed for it, because as BMG's new owner, they were legally liable. That's absolutely fair. However, while you can fault them for not being proactive in finding out what their newly acquired subsidiary was doing, but you can hardly attribute the grand conspiracy among top-Sony management that many Slashdotters try to work in.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Ok, done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YErx0JgCHo