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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'."
selling their rootkit...
Nintendo is garnering a great deal of good will (though the one controller in the package is a little bit of a setback) while Sony continues to tick off its customers. With Sony's latest move against Lik-Sang, the movement to boycott Sony is stronger than ever. So even after Sony can no longer claim the PS3 launch as a major cost, their profits are liable to keep dropping. Which will only cause them to make another stupid move (perhaps incarcerate their customers?) which will draw even MORE boycotts. Their profits will drop, and the investors will start getting nervous. And then....
Well, he're hoping for a bright future with the current lot of executives FIRED.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Over there, they take a longer term view and do not live and die by the quarter like they do here in the US. This is partially cultural. It's not necessarily a good thing but it is a factually true thing. They are more forgiving for this kind of financial result than investors in the US are.
However, another, and not necessarily helpful reason for this patient view is that the equity owners who normally would jump ship are often also the debt holders of the corporation. This is almost unheard of here in the US and the result in Japan is that corporations are more likely to ignore long term problems with a corporation because the best solution (dumping shares) would hurt their debt value so they tend to stay the course and hope for the best.
Sony profits went from 28.4 billion yen last year this quarter to 1.7 billion yen. The battery recall cost 51 billion yen. (via Yahoo!) So, had the battery recall not happened, Sony's profits could have increased (up to 85%, depending on the accounting magic with the recall) even given the development costs for the PS3.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212
:)
Not much more really needs to be said
Where by "stronger than ever" you mean ".005% of their customer base."
.005% impacts their bottom line, you need a reality check.
Nothing Sony has done to anyone has had any effect whatsoever on its profits. If you honestly think
The United States of America: We do what we must because we can.
(I'm actually surprised Sony hasn't received the Apple treatment - "Beleaguered Sony")
I care that they both have consoles launching and I am interested in trying both. I am interested in the launch lineup. I'm interested in specs. Controllers. Formats. But quarterly reports, do we really care that much?
Anyways, I hope Sony learns from their mistakes and improves. I will vote with my dollars accordingly until they stop behaving badly. I don't want them to "die", as some posters have mentioned; besides being exceedingly unlikely, Sony has made great things in the past. It would be nice to see a return to form, specifically for SCE and Sony Electronics. The media arms I have no use for.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Nintendo have never the good guys. Though I admire their business model of taking risks and letting the consumer vote with their wallets, Sony have always played it safe and in fact allowed for far more "creative freedoms". It's only their cocky approach and shoving Blu-ray down our throats that's intolerable, as well as their PR propaganda. I hope Sony will learn some important lessons this time.
Re-read. They specifically give the numbers of the Sony games devision. It's even quoted in the summary.
DRM Rootkit Lik Sang Arrogance Emotion Engine Massive Damage
One thing to keep in mind is that Sony doesn't quite have the negative image in the rest of the world that it's acquired in the US. And it's not necessarily a view held by the average person, but specifically within the gaming community and even more specifically within sites like Slashdot.
I know people who still like the Sony brand and don't know or care about Sony's problems. Things like DRM mean absolutely nothing to them because as far as they're concerned it isn't going to change anything.
I also know gamers who may be curious about Nintendo but still see it as a company that produces games geared at kids. These are the kinds of people who care about HD, who are fixated on fancy graphics over unique gameplay.
So Sony's loss doesn't necessarily reflect a change in the public's perception of the company. I tend to agree that it's connected to the battery recalls.
I personally could care less about the next-generation consoles, although I do hope Nintendo does well. And I do tend to avoid anything from Sony for the numerous reasons indicated on Slashdot. On the other hand, the jury is still out on who's going to dominate when the PS3 and Wii are finally released. I certainly don't think it's quite as cut and dry as some are claiming.
[quote] Nothing Sony has done to anyone has had any effect whatsoever on its profits. If you honestly think .005% impacts their bottom line, you need a reality check.
[/quote]
Or to re-phrase
Sony's profits or losses are due to fairies and the movements of the celestial bodies. Nothing the company does affects their bottom line.
It will just be really interesting to see the end result of all this. Sony has been so dominant in the games market for the last few years, and it would be so different to actually see them losing ground to Nintendo in the first time basically since they've been in the gaming business.
Do I sense a turn of the tide here?
I guess the fire sale on used laptop batteries isn't helping Sony that much.
That doesn't matter at all to this article. This about Sony profits for the entire company dropping 94% from the same quarter last year. We all know the Xbox division at Microsoft currently loses money. We also expect the games division from Sony to lose money during the R&D phase of PS3. We don't expect Microsoft as a whole to do 94% worse, nor do we expect the same to happen to Sony. But, it did, and it may have a broad impact depending on the volatility of the market and whether or not it was a one-time thing (battery recall costs coupled with heavy PS3 research costs that won't be reflected in the same quarter next year).
So you thought you'd even it out with some Microsoft bashing?
Anyway, this is not Sony bashing. It's just presenting the facts. Sony bashing would be, "Kutaragi is a retard. The PS3 is a huge piece of crap. Betamax sucked, Minidisc sucked, Memory Stick sucks, UMD sucked, and Blu-Ray will suck. Sony A/V equipment sucks for the price premium you pay for the Sony name. Their PCs are overpriced crap that simply serve as an extension of their media arm to try to promote usage of Memory Stick and Blu-Ray. Do not buy Sony. Sony is crap."
Sure ... no problem ... just carry the two and ...
0+00033e STACK OVERFLOW ERROR
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-Tim Louden
Corporate shill, or Sony fanboy? You decide!
Everything I say is a lie. Except that... and that... and that, and that, and that, and that... and that.
94% down eh? Ouch.
... hmm how did he put it at E3? ... buy PS3s "because."
But don't worry - Sony will laugh all the way to the bank when you
In all seriousness it's expected for their profits to be in the gutter with the development of the next gen console... the real surprise here is that Nintendo's profits are UP when they have been developing the Wii - sure it's a less intensive system that is probably lower in price, but a 'next gen' console should still suck up a bit of profits.
Im not sure where community relations falls into this since E3 but it's been 6 months - I wonder if there is significant impact by Nintendo's positive view in the limelight in comparison with Sony's more arrogant and egotistical stance (IMO.)
Its Deluxe, son. Deluxe!
There obviously aren't any Slashdot members who can balance a checkbook. You're comparing apples and oranges. Sony sells a LOT more things that impact their bottom line much more than the PS2/PS3. Nintendo is a one-trick pony. Sony is well-diversified. Completely different companies.
Seriously though, at some point gaming became like sports teams and pickup trucks.
I half expect to start seeing 360 faceplates that say "Sony Sucks" and DS stickers that show Calvin pissing on a PSP. Gamers seem to be so caught up in the rhetoric these days that it's getting harder and harder to find sites where people are actually discussing... what are those things called.... oh yeah, games.
No kidding. Its rampant. Tribal identity and all that, I guess. I had a PS2, and I spent many a happy hour in front of that thing, but when Nintendo would release a nice GameCube game my first thought was certainly not 'ah fuck them', it was 'cool, looks interesting, good for them, maybe I'll rent one'. I really don't understand the animosity but then again I don't understand (as in, can't relate to) the car brand rivalry either. I guess it'll always be around.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
"One time 'zonked' tag, left out one-time costs"
The summary was very clear about the cause of the drop in Sony's profits. This wasn't 'left-out' unless most people read that and thought it would happen every year. It's not Zonk's fault Sony's taken several mis-steps this year.
Seriously man, pick your battles.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Au contraire, they have been busy bees developing and innovating.
Remember the gaming pad, the one that seemed to have been put together a couple of weeks (I'd say 1 week...) before they showed this E6?
Lots of innovation and investment right there!
It's a matter of strategy, you see?
Copy(from the competition)-paste...
(love that beamer, though, the HS60!)
although, I have to admit, I'm glad I sold my 400 shares of Sony in March 2006 and bought 500 shares of Nintendo (NTDOY.PK) at the same time.
People fail to remember that tech always goes thru revisions. Sometimes the player one year (IBM) loses to an upstart (MSFT) and they lose to another upstart (RHAT) who get their shorts handed to them by yet another former big player (ORCL).
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Under normal circumstances, I would wish all the consoles well. I did so last generation, and the generation before.
This generation, Sony appears to feel entitled to our money and loyalty, as though such things are defaults they can abuse. Their actions and words both have left a bad taste in my mouth. Quite simply, it will take some truly fantastic games to change this.
I still wish the Xbox 360 and the Wii well, but I'd like Sony to learn some humility much as Nintendo did with the N64.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
The idea that a company like GM woudl go bankrupt in any kind of reasonable timeframe is pretty ridiculous.
GM is not an Enron or Worldcom, with billions of billions of net worth tied up in "IP" and "market rights" (aka fake money). Gm's value is largely badsed on real world assets. They have a huge number of plants, huge real estate holdings, global infrastructure. If they really got the screws turned on them they could just shut down 50% of the company, focus on a nieche US-only market, and they'd still be well wtihin the Fortune 500.
If GM doesn't get it's act together soon, it will be facing a buyout by Toyota or Honda, sure... but bankrupcy is far far off.
The average gamer doesn't know who or what Lik-Sang does. Neither do they know about the rootkit fiasco. They may have heard about the laptop battery recall, but they may think "that's not games". Besides, companies nowadays get away with recalls w/o affecting their image too much.
The biggest thing your average gamer is going to notice, though, is simply the price and available of the console. First of all, it's expensive. And second, even if they wanted it, chances are they can't get it. But with the shortage, you know the PS3 is going to sell-out, since it doesn't take that many PS3 fanatics (or eBay entrepreneurs) to create one. In the end, it's those things that are going to negatively affect Sony's business, not the other issues.
-- jchenx
I think they've already learned plenty of humility through the negative press they have received, plus the battery recall sock in the jaw.
I don't want Microsoft to be utterly dominant in yet another industry without serious competition (which I don't think Nintendo is at this point, even with the Wii). We all need Sony strong to keep Microsoft honest. Doesn't the idea of free Live appeal to you? If the Sony online service succeeds you may well see that, otherwise Microsoft can do as they please with fees or overly expensive games in Live arcade.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It is Zonked fault the articles summaries are always as negative as possible for Sony though, and that this story even made it into the Games section.
Basically the story is really meaningless since the numbers they cite are not comparable. This is not News for Nerds, it's for Fanboys!
If the story had been JUST about one number or the other, I would have said nothing against its presence.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I don't want Microsoft to be utterly dominant in yet another industry without serious competition (which I don't think Nintendo is at this point, even with the Wii).
...
Just one question, why don't you think Nintendo can be serious competition?
You never really explained that
It just seems like a comment that I regularly saw before the PSP was released that people were worried that Sony would dominate the handheld market because Nintendo couldn't be serious competition; and we all know how that is turning out. The most interesting thing about the Wii is not the Wiimote but is the agressive strategy that Nintendo is using for it's first party titles; in 12 months Nintendo will have release Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Mario, Super Smash Bros, and Mario Party. With the exception of Animal Crossing and Mario Kart (which could still be announced at E3 2007), Nintendo will have released a sequel to nearly every Million selling Nintendo made Gamecube game.
It is quite possible that in November of Next year we could be commenting on a story that talks about Nintendo's unprecidented and unexpected performance over the past year; which (of course) mentions the unexpected quantity of high quality Million Selling first party games.
I meant to say Schadenfreude for Fanboys. Messed up my whole pithy analogy.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Here's a snippet from the article:
Obviously MS should get a nice sales boost of the 360 over the holiday season, especially from gamers who aren't able to get their hands on the extremely limited PS3. It'll be especially important to see how Japanese sales go, thanks to the new Blue Dragon bundle.
-- jchenx
By which country's test laboratory? Underwriters Laboratories offers "UL Listed" service in Canada and the United States, but other countries may not recognize it. I've noticed that my Nintendo DS (for United States) doesn't carry the CE marking required for goods sold in the European Economic Area. In fact, goods designed for one country might fail tests for another country, given that different countries have different standards for mains power supply voltages, for mains power supply connector shapes, for permitted radio emission frequencies and power levels, etc.
Only if it allows thorough support for freeware produced by amateurs. The PSP doesn't, and that's one of the reasons that goodwill among enthusiasts favors the Nintendo DS. It remains to be seen whether Linux for PlayStation 3 is a half-hearted port that is quickly dropped (like Linux for PS2, which did not receive an update for the slim model) or if Sony makes an attempt to maintain it right.
Wii know what you're talking about.
But which platform allows for homemade games, such as games by developers looking to demonstrate their skills in order to get a job at a game development studio?
Don't they also reflect analogous one-time costs for Nintendo, which is putting out its own new console?
With the record of poor corporate citizenship on Sony's part (including David Manning, the music disc rootkits, cat-and-mouse against freeware authors on PSP, nuisance lawsuits against Connectix and bleem!, attacking the gray market, poor warranty service, supporting the party line of both MAFIAA divisions, etc.) and Microsoft (most notably using its Windows monopoly to push out other makers of web browsers and media player software; see Criticism of Microsoft), Nintendo is all Wii have left.
"The company's games division reported a ¥43.5 billion ($366.6m) loss, from a ¥8.2 million ($69,000) profit in 2005"
Wow, it'll take a long time to recover the $366.6m dollar loss at that rate! Somewhere around 5000 years.....
The deep irony here is that Nintendo isn't doing anything more than Sony to foster that goodwill (the DS requires signed code as well!), it's just that the DS's hardware is much easier to crack...
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
The Wii isn't serious competition for Microsoft because they're not targeting the same gamers. Consider the core games of the 360's lineup over the next year or so: Madden/etc, Gears of War, Halo. Do you think people who are into those types of games are going to play Pokemon?
Nintendo may very well be successful in the "casual gamer" market its targeting with the Wii, but the fact remains that the traditional console gaming market is still a multi-billion dollar industry which is still several times larger than any other sub-market of the overall gaming industry. It's going to be either Microsoft or Sony that takes that market.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Blue Dragon Bundle? PFfffffffffft No one is ever going to buy a 360 in Japan. The PS3 will be outselling the 360 in Japan as soon as Sony ships enough of them there. I don't have any hard numbers for figures, but the 360 will certainly be behind the Wii in Japan at the moment of the Wii's launch, and the same might be true for the PS3 if Sony releases enough of them. I would be willing to bet that the PS2 continues to outsell the 360 in Japan for another 2 years.
I'd be willing to bet that the PS2 continues to outsell the PS3 in Japan for another 2 years.
Apparently you missed the news item: http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/19/blue-dragon-hel
Blue Dragon pre-order bundles have been selling quite well in Japan. The limited edition ones have all sold out, I believe.
Oh, I certainly agree that the PS3 and Wii will still do far better than the 360, but just wanted to point out that there have been some surprises recently.
-- jchenx
Battle Chess kicked my ass at chess almost 18 years or so ago.
My other first post is car post.
They may not play Pokemon, but they may play Madden, Zelda, Metroid Prime 3 and Red Steel
The fact is that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all in competition for the same gamer-dollar. If Nintendo sells more than 15,000,000 copies of first part Nintendo DS software and more than 15,000,000 copies of first party Nintendo Wii software in North America in 2007 (which if you look at their line-up is a possibility) Nintendo published software would represent nearly 50% of all software sold that year; if every second game sold is a Nintendo game you're probably going to sell a lot of Nintendo Hardware.
Now I'm not saying that I expect that Nintendo will sell that much software, just that it is a possibility when you look at the Gamecube:
The total is just under 12 Million for sequels to the five games I listed; I don't think it is too much of a stretch to think that the other 6 to 12 games announced could come to a total of nearly 3 Million units
Nintendo fosters goodwill by keeping the DS's hardware easy to crack. There has been only one update to the DS protection (to block first-generation PassMe), and it has shipped only on new hardware, not as an update to old hardware.
The fact that they've reduced their losses by over $77 million does bode well for their expected profitability come 2008. At this rate, they'll be making a profit on the Xbox 3600 in early 2008.
just some guy
That's the most amazingly contorted logic I've ever heard.
1) If Nintendo was trying to foster goodwill, they would allow you to run unsigned code on the DS. The fact that its easier to run unsigned code on the DS doesn't mean that they suck any less than Sony, it just means they're not as good at system security.
2) How the hell would Nintendo release an update to fix a hardware passthrough? Would they send you a new DS and force you to return the old one? The reason Nintendo isn't cracking down on people bypassing the DS's code signing (because given their past history, they'd put a stop to it in a second if it was easy for them to do so) is because it would be too expensive to keep modifying the DS's hardware every time a hardware work-around was found. Moreover, because the DS hacks are all hardware-based (and clumsy), the probability of them being used for casual piracy is much lower than on the PSP, where the hacks could be exploited in software with no additional equipment.
Nintendo isn't any less "evil" in their lock-down practices than Sony. I've owned every single one of their consoles since the NES, and they are as controlling today as they were back then. The only difference between them and Sony is that Nintendo has had more practice, its tactics are more subtle, and Nintendo fanboys are too stupid to see through them.
Remember, we're talking about a company that kept proprietary media formats for a full decade after its competitors had moved to standard CDs and DVDs. The company that made customers pay $70-$80 for N64 games so they could keep their lucrative cart licensing business. The company that killed their once-extensive third-party support through over-control. The company that elevated region lockouts to a fine art. The company that is getting a free pass at putting region lockouts into the Wii, while Sony gets no credit for making the PSP and PS3 region-free.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
From my understanding. (not a lot) They did sue them in every country at once
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Compare to Sony games division which went from a $96 thousand profit, to a $366.6 million loss. That's an increase in loss of 38,287.5%.
Unless that's a typo, and it was a $96 million profit last year, in which case it's only a 481.9% increase in loss.
This, is, of course, only a comparison to the previous year, and should not be taken as saying that Microsoft's gaming division is doing better than Sony's gaming division overall.
just some guy
They may not play Pokemon, but they may play Madden, Zelda, Metroid Prime 3 and Red Steel ...
Yeah, but are they going to play Madden on the system that has Pokemon, or on the system that has Halo or Gran Turismo?
The fact is that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all in competition for the same gamer-dollar.
If Nintendo is targeting the same gamers as Microsoft and Sony, they're screwed. Good first-party titles alone weren't enough to make the Gamecube anything better than an also-ran. Nintendo needs third party support, and that's exactly what they are so very bad at getting.
Super Smash Bros Melee: 3,765,500
Super Mario Sunshine: 2,886,000
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker: 2,435,500
Metroid Prime: 1,492,500 (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: 758,000)
Pokemon Colosseum: 1,165,000
Total: 11,744,500
Where did you get those statistics? I highly doubt that they represent sales within the span of one year. Moreover, they represent a small fraction of the PS2's software sales. From the second article, software shipments for the PS2 for the year ending September 30 were 47m. Every single GTA3 game sold over 11m copies apiece, and Gran Turismo 3 is over 14m copies. As of September 2005, the PS1 + PS2 had a total of 1.87bn software units sold. According to Wikipedia, the PS2's share of that was a bit over 1 billion, which makes sense given that sales records put PS1 software shipments at 690m. In comparison, as of March 2005, Nintendo had sold 160m cumulative software units for the Gamecube.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I think you missed my point ...
All my sales were specific to North American Nintendo published software where your numbers represent World Wide Sales of all software released for the PS2; it you don't see the difference I think there is a pretty big problem. What I was trying to demonstrate was how agressive Nintendo was being with its software line-up being that they were releasing so many of their top franchises; the only Million selling games (in North America) that are not on the list are are Animal Crossing, Mario Kart and Mario Party of which the only one that hasn't been announced is Mario Kart (there is speculation that the other two will be playable at E3 and possibly be released in Q4 of 2007).
Basically, imagine if Sony had announced that they were releasing Killzone, Socom, Gran Turismo, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus/ICO, Ratchet and Clank, Dark Cloud, and Jak and Daxter in a 12 month period; even without third party support (which the Wii seems to have more of than any Nintendo system since the SNES) you'd be pretty excited of the line-up.
Sony is putting every dime they have into BP-06. Judging by the buzz on the internet and the complexity of the BD spec, it's the biggest product they've ever launched. It's like Howard Hughes putting every dime into Hell's Angels or George Lucas putting every dime into Starwars. Usually if they gamble this much on a product it's because they know they're right and they're usually right.
The PassMe and PassMe2 hacks aren't hardware based; they rely on bugs in the firmware, just like most PSP hacks (other than GTA:LCS savegames) do. NoPass has a better claim to be a "hardware" exploit because the card emulates the cryptographic handshake (which isn't really a signature) that official DS Game Cards perform. Besides, Microsoft has been modifying the Xbox hardware to keep hackers out.
Hardware-based? Yes, the DS hacks require a NoPass card and a suitable GBA flash card (the latter of which may become unnecessary once DS-Xtreme becomes a reality). But the PSP hacks need a sufficiently large Memory Stick PRO Duo card, which is "hardware" too.
Which only makes Sony fanboys even more stupid if they fail to see through Sony's less subtle tactics.
"Standard" CDs and DVDs? PlayStation and PlayStation 2 use optical discs with intentional bad sectors. Are those standard? Xbox and Xbox 360 use optical discs in a format other than ISO or UDF. Is that standard? The major difference between a GameCube disc and a plain old 80 mm DVD is 1. a proprietary file system (like Xbox) and 2. the crypto keys stored in the DVD Burst Cutting Area.
Sony is not Enron. Enron is not Sony. Enron fakes loss as profit. Sony shows loss as LOSS. Sony is not sinking this time....
Just one question, why don't you think Nintendo can be serious competition?
...
You never really explained that
They are on the rise, no doubt about that. But they have no desire to be the whole multimedia giant that Microsoft is in the gaming space, or really plans to work into home entertainment the way Microsoft and Sony are thinking.
I don't think it's impossible for Ninendo to be that kind of company, but I'm also not sure I want them to be.
And I still hold this opinion even if the Wii outselles the 360 and PS3 combined (which it probably Wiill (that's a Wii joke, laugh!).
I was never one of those people that saw Sony as any kind of serious competitor in the handheld space. It that space, the roles are reversed and I don't think Microsfot or Sony could sucessfully take on Nintendo there. But that's because that space is much more focused.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you only include PS2 software sold in America, the number then is only a few orders of magnitudue more than what the Gamecube sold. Sorry.
Nintendo is doing something different and smart, they are trying to drow the market in a direction is has not been before and the Sony and PS3 cannot really follow. But that doesn't mean the space they are growing into is as large or as meaningful to the overall consumer electronics industry.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Of course they're not competition, even Microsoft told us to buy both consoles!
Hmm, maybe stores will start selling bundles. Buy an XBox 360, get a Wii for free! Or not.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What bugs me most about this whole mess with Lik-sang is that it shows how broken globalisation is.
Companies have the right to ship my job to a country where they can get stuff done cheaper. But I don't have a right to buy their products from a country where they are cheaper.
We've seen this with Levis and Tesco and with the BPI and CDWOW. Why can't I ALSO benefit from globalisation ?
The company that is getting a free pass at putting region lockouts into the Wii, while Sony gets no credit for making the PSP and PS3 region-free.
HOLD IT!
The PSP is not completely region-free (UMD movies) and last I heard the PS3 isn't completely region-free either (Blu-Ray movies). Besides- Sony cracks down on modchips, Nintendo doesn't (not as much as Sony, at least). Nintendo simply isn't encouraging breaking the region lock, while Sony has actively tried to prevent it before. I used to own a PSP- I loved to play with it. But, then I got a DS. Sure, I missed Drum Master (Taiko no Tatsujin) and Densha de Go (never released outside Japan) which I would have never been able to play on my American PSP had it not been region-free, but I had games like Mario Kart and Cooking Mama (don't forget Phoenix Wright!) to look forward to. I wasn't going to pay for a new PSP at the time either- web browsing wasn't any fun because of the lack of touchscreen or keyboard and with only 3 or 4 games that I wanted to play it was a better option to get something else. Sure I'm not going to be happy for buying a region-locked console (what happened to them saying that the Wii was region-free?) but I don't have $500 to spare.
OSx86 FTW
...that although your average Sony consumer will have no friggin clue what a rootkit is, when the media or a tech-savvier friend describes the rootkit as a *virus*, as they have and will, that has a huge impact.
While "rootkit" is incomprehensible to your average joe, a *virus* can destroy his computer and stop joe from getting to his football scores. Or stop Joanne from getting to her shopping. Or even steal either one's personal info and stop the happy couple from getting to their money at all.
Computer viruses are the bogeyman to most computer users, and getting the idea (correct or not) that Sony may have knowingly put one on their computer, without their ability to detect or remove, means a great deal.
I knew Nintendo was on to something when they offered free online gaming for the nintendo DS. the new console is going to take that further. Sony is getting greedy closing down great shops like lik-sang. Forcing DRM down our throats. Good for nintendo!
Yeah, all the uberleet hardcore Viva Pinata and Barbie's Horse Adventure gamerz on Xbox 360 aren't going to play something as kiddy as Red Steel or Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles on Wii.
All consoles have kid stuff and grown up stuff.
I quit!
Nintendo has been out selling Sony for quite some time. Once you factor in Nintendo dominance in the handheld market its not even close.
"They said we drink horse urine and sleep with our own kin. You say it's comedy, but how can someone laugh at that?"