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Sony Entertainment Head Steps Down
New submitter Mephistophocles writes "Japan Times reports today that Sony Entertainment Chief Tim Schaaf has stepped down. Schaaf's division has recently drawn the ire of users and governments alike after multiple hacks which resulted in the theft of millions of users' personal information. Schaaf joined Sony after a stint at Apple, and had ambitious plans for unifying the end-user's entertainment experience on Sony products, as well as having some big words for how to help out Sony's music division. Tim will be replaced by Andrew House, currently of Sony's Game Division. One wonders — is this a continued sign of deterioration in Sony's Entertainment house?"
They didn't take information security seriously. They allowed our data to be compromised when they had plenty of money and expertise and could have hired anyone they needed to do the most basic level of security they missed.
Sony was in the cockpit and the plane was taking a nosedive straight to the ground. I'm glad the plane wasn't headed into any building or anything, and maybe now there is a chance to actually steer the plane back in the proper direction and avoid a much bigger disaster.
I haven't liked Sony for years but with this move I might give Sony a second chance.
Now they just need to sell off their "Entertainment division" and become an electronics company again.
...from stealth DRM spyware on your Music CDs, to shitty closed-ecosystem type policies for PS3 is that SONY - once a "Superbrand" - is crumbling in the eyes of consumers. No big loss, really. Samsung does everything Sony once did better, and at lower prices. Maybe Samsung could be persuaded to create an Android or Linux powered game console that frees people from the inevitable "horror" that will be Playstation 4? Go on Samsung; Take that "final leap" to challenging Sony in "all things consumer electronics"...
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
Companies need to focus on doing one or two -- maybe even three things very well, and then do those things. Sony is like every other huge company who tries to be all things to all people: it never works. Whenever a company strays from its core competences, it never ends well.
Nimble, scalable, and ever vigilant are the words to live by now.
After Howard Stringer, the Sony-BGM DRM stooge got replaced, this is another sign that Sony is continuing to move back to nice electronics and away from the walled-garden approaches (DRM, mini-disc/beta-max?) that made Sony products acquire so much grossness brand-wise.
"There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell them." ~ Louis Armstrong
Did anyone check him for a rootkit?
The glacial pace of the effect of Sony's silo-ed management style marches on. This company has been on the decline for years. Does anyone else recall Wired magazine's prediction that if Playstation 3 failed to achieve market dominance, Sony was done for? It was an article published around 2007 or so. Personally, I think Wired was correct. However, when the effects are happening so slowly, many people don't seem to see it. I disagree strongly about this being a good day for Sony.
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
Console prices, likewise. Most times they are sold at a loss anyway, but the sales from these lower prices alone would get back considerable lost profits.
Wait ... what? Selling more for even less gets back lost profits? No, that might increase revenue, but it would make profits worse.
I agree that prices need to come down but until they stop trying to shove everything into the consoles that they can think of it will never happen. And to a certain extent there is still demand for the absolute best possible console, eventually they'll find the point at which wont want to pay more and the console prices will drop, or at least stop rising, but we haven't hit it yet.
I agree that game prices are too high, my limit was the $40 to $50 range, the $60 ones are not worth it, I'll wait 6 month for them to come down in price, or rent them for a fraction of the price. Again, the problem is that people are willing to fork over $60 for a game so where is the incentive to make them cheaper? Sure, they might sell more, but they seem to be pretty happy with the money their making now.
If companies don't start treating the Used market as competition, it will kill them
They are competing by moving to digital sales and by dis-incentivising used game purchases by requiring one-use activation codes to gain access to online features. In other words, they're either too stubborn or too lacking in creativity to develop a real model of competition, so they're just trying to use their weight to crush used sales.
Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
Words of wisdom: When you refuse to fish anywhere but a sewer, all you'll ever catch are turds.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Pretty much. Besides, they are in transition to the PS4 now and online movie distribution rather than blu ray. It's a good time for a shakeup, especially if the replacement has more expertise in one or both of the upcoming products than the current guy.
It may also be that the corporate idiot at the top is being replaced because he hasn't managed the transition to PS4 and online distribution well, and they want someone who will, and since those problems would be internal rather than external they wouldn't talk about it.
Again, the problem is that people are willing to fork over $60 for a game so where is the incentive to make them cheaper?
That, if 10 people are willing to buy the game at $60, 20 would be willing to buy it at $50, 30 at $40, etc.
Sure, they might sell more, but they seem to be pretty happy with the money their making now.
If I were a shareholder, I sure as hell wouldn't be happy knowing that my shares could be worth so much more, but aren't because Sony's board are a bunch of short-sighted, greedy bastards.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
That, if 10 people are willing to buy the game at $60, 20 would be willing to buy it at $50, 30 at $40, etc.
That's all well and good if they are out to maximize sales, but what they really want is to max out their profit and to get profit you need to take into account the cost to produce the games (and a bunch of other stuff as well). So if the cost to create them is $40 and they sell 10 of them for $60, they've made $200 profit on revenue of $600. If they sell 20 at $50, they made $200 profit on revenue of $1000. If they sell the 30 at $40 then they break even, and it goes down hill from there.
It's easy to say they'll sell more if they lower the price, but without knowing what it costs to create the game you can't know where the optimum price point is. They know what it costs to create and they, and all the other game manufacturers out there, spend boat loads of money figuring out the exact price point to maximize their profits.
The customer service of their games division isn't very helpful. They owed me some SC in EQ2 and demanded a credit card to return it. I refused to hand a company with unreliable security my credit card. After MANY attempts to get them to just return the SC to my account I gave up and closed my EQ2 account. I just wont do business with them anymore. I decided not to buy a Playstation 3 over issues I've had with them and don't buy Sony electronics anymore either. They've just had too much bad press to not have outstanding customer service and expect to survive.
Funny how, IMHO, they are replacing CEO incompetence with another poor excuse for an executive.
While there is some basis for your argument your maths fails horrible. You don't just need to more than double sales if you halve prices, you would need to triple, quadruple or even much more. Each game has a cost to produce, to sell, to market, combine that with a very large number of games will never even cover the development cost in revenue as they are very much like the movie market and they make the majority of the money from a few big titles. If you reduce prices by half many of your base costs remain the same plus it eats away at the very big selling titles profits.
secondly I am sure many of them would love to know how to compete with the used market? I personally haven't seen a workable model beyond what they are doing with the online tokens and activations. If they reduce prices then so does the used market. if games become $20 new then people will buy $10 used games instead. This isn't to say games shouldn't be cheaper, but you can't compete on price with an item that has all the price advantages.
I can tell you first-hand that the Japanese companies I have had exposure to do not value "up-to-date" equipment, software, policies or practices. They spend less money and maintain far older infrastructure. And let me tell you that just because it has "America" in the title doesn't make it an American company run to American standards.
And Sony is definitely a Japanese company... it all comes from the top. After the top US defense companies were compomised, they tightened security and became a lot more proactive. When the top Japanese defense companies were compromised [at about the same time] they did "something" but were compromised several times after the initial series of events. I see the pattern as a refusal to take information security seriously.
But some things are simply cultural. For example, the times I have visited Japan, I could always tell when a shop was run by Japanese people or by foreigners. Those run by Japanese people I always felt comfortable in. Those run by others generally sent a vibe that said "I am being watched and not trusted."
I think no singular explanation could describe the whole problem, but the most significant symptom here is that they are not responsive to information security needs. That needs to change... and by change I mean, "Die! Sony, Die!" or "Sony straightens up and invests in good infrastructure and practices."
That a leader within Sony left doesn't mean he was responsible. I have seen many non-Japanese people leave Japanese companies purely out of frustration. There comes a time when doing things right is more important than the money and continued employment. This guy just may have left because no one has been listening to him.
That's all well and good if they are out to maximize sales, but what they really want is to max out their profit
Short term. Looking at the long game, alienating a good portion of your potential sales base by pricing yourself out of the market is not profitable.
...and to get profit you need to take into account the cost to produce the games (and a bunch of other stuff as well).
I started to try and find a general estimate of how much it costs these companies to make the games, but apparently it's a difficult number to pin down; either because the industry doesn't publish their costs (would, IMO, only make sense if they were making these games for an obscenely low amount), or because the firewall here is a bitch and kicks out anything with the word "game" in it... Guessing the latter.
So if the cost to create them is $40 and they sell 10 of them for $60, they've made $200 profit on revenue of $600. If they sell 20 at $50, they made $200we profit on revenue of $1000. If they sell the 30 at $40 then they break even, and it goes down hill from there.
Well sure, but without knowing exactly what it costs to make these games, that's all idle speculation. Also, keep in mind that the price you pay at a retailer isn't the price the retailer paid for the disc... which brings up a new question, what do you suppose the markup is on these games?
It's easy to say they'll sell more if they lower the price, but without knowing what it costs to create the game you can't know where the optimum price point is.
Agreed, obviously.
They know what it costs to create and they, and all the other game manufacturers out there, spend boat loads of money figuring out the exact price point to maximize their profits.
Considering, as an American, I've spent the better part of the last 2 decades watching corporations fiscally rape my country and my countrymen all in the name of short-term profit, some of said corporations eventually collapsing under their own weight, I find that hard to believe.
Besides, all the market research in the world means precisely shit to greedy investors obsessed with short-term gains.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I think that's the general problem with game prices, here in Australia, for a while, RRP has been $120 for new console games, that has dropped somewhat now, because of consumer backlash, but our dollar is more or less in parity with the US dollar. Bottom line is, if they say dropped the price from $120 to $60, would sales increase to the point where they would make the same amount of profit, i seriously doubt it. It's demand based pricing, they charge what the market will bear, and as a result, charging the higher price means they'll shift less stock, but make more money, and you can always lower the price later.
Again, the problem is that people are willing to fork over $60 for a game so where is the incentive to make them cheaper?
are they?
demand is driving incredible improvements in mobile devices. when people can get pretty good games on mobile devices, consoles will be relegated to selling into the niche market of hard core gamers that don't game on PCs. there's probably always going to be some $ to be had there, but they are leaving the larger casual gamer market cash on the table.
Maybe my memory of history is a little thin but the reason for the inclusion of Linux was like the PS2 before it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2 clasifying the PS2 as a computer to achieve tax exempt status from certain EU taxes that apply to game consoles and not computers.
The reality is though I cannot help but think that Sony as an OEM missed a massive opportunity, to release a gaming [for educational reason of course] computer, to compete with Microsoft. The irony is Sonys "Mobile Products and Communications" section is suffering due to poor PC sales [somewhat alleviated by Android phones]. Now we see Microsoft trying to take their business away with Surface.
The world has moved to mobile again, but its saturated, Their is an opportunity to *reinvent* the Desktop, as everyone else deserts my main electronic gadget. for smartphones. Sony used to know how to get all that early adopter money, its sad seeing the follow Apple with similar products failing without the Apple distortion field.
and online movie distribution rather than blu ray
That'll work for urban dwellers. So what do you recommend that Sony do to surve its rural customers, whose Internet access tends to be capped at one-fifth of a 1-layer BD per month, other than continued support for BD-Video releases?
there's a console [Nintendo's Wii U] that is more powerful than the Ouya that launches in... 9 days.
So for what platform should a company develop video games if the games are in a genre that doesn't work well with a flat sheet of glass as the only input device, but the company isn't big enough to attract the attention of Nintendo? (Before you say 2D Boy, Nintendo has since reworded its developer qualifications to rule out 2D Boy's loophole of using a coffee shop as its "secure office.")
demand is driving incredible improvements in mobile devices. when people can get pretty good games on mobile devices
That'll take a while. There are plenty of genres that work much better with a physical gamepad than with a flat sheet of glass, for reasons I've explained. Nor have I seen any indication that smartphone owners are buying external gamepads such as the iControlPad.
consoles will be relegated to selling into the niche market of hard core gamers that don't game on PCs
There are certain genres thought not to work well on PCs. Fighting games are one example; the only series I can think of that gets PC ports is Street Fighter. Another is party games intended to be a centerpiece of in-person social interaction, such as Mario Party. Or cooperative platformers such as New Super Mario Bros. Wii.