Sony Claims Game Sector is 'Weak'

GamesIndustry.biz reports on comments from Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda, saying that the company's dip in profits is due to a 'weak' games industry. "Speaking at a news conference, Oneda said that without the battery recall and PS3 costs to contend with, 'We would have been on track with the midterm plan, or more than that. But the game segment is weak and is the major challenge for us now,' he added. PS2 software shipments during the quarter were down by 3 million units to 47 million, but the figure for PSP software rose from 9.9 million to 12.9 million units. PS2 and PSP hardware shipments rose to 5.02 million and 3.89 million respectively. However, both hardware and software sales were down overall, with sales and operating revenue standing at YEN 170.3 billion (EUR )." In other parts of the 'weak' market, Microsoft is hopeful that they'll hit their 10 Million target by the end of the year. If they do, they're going to have to scramble. Current projections put them at 6 Million sales so far.

Gears of War will sell those 360's...

[cybrthng]

Gears of war will help the 360 [teamxbox.com] - Not sure what will sell the PS3s. Appears the Wii has Japan locked up - will 2 consoles be able to launch at the same time while the 360 is launching about 40+ local native titles as well (developed/launched native instead of us imports)??

market shrinking? i think not.. Just the Playstation domination haseth cometh to its endeth

Re:Now the gaming industry is the scapegoat?

[Dev59]

RTFA - hell, just read the quote in the post. You don't even know what you're talking about - all you're doing is spouting mindless drivel.

Re:Gears of War will sell those 360's...

[cybrthng]

360 is the fastest selling console in many markets. 6 million sold was still on the heels of poor manufacturing performance and i actually believe MS year end for forecast is March not necessarily dec 31st so with holiday season come full swing, many of the "first tier" launches coming up this year and the other consoles being slim pickings i wouldn't be suprised if MS surupasses its figures.

If not for anything the 360 will sell as vista gets released to be a media center front end as well.

If GOW sells 2 million and current trends keep up it won't be hard to reach their goals.

Re:If you think Gears is going to sell the 360...

[cybrthng]

Watch the commercial i linked to, that will move some 360's. This game isn't the only game that will move units.

Gears of War - Exclusive
Phantasy Star Online
Call of Duty 3
Xbox 360 HD-DVD Addon
Viva Pinata
R6: Vegas

few more other games.. Remember the HD-DVD addon will be out, Windows vista with media center will push some 360 as an extender and general growth/demand from holiday sales which was 3+ million at luanch should still be there.

Re:More like from the excuses-excuses-excuses dept

[thatguywhoiam]

So basically what they're saying is if it wasn't for them screwing up horribly and for intentionally making their products cost way more to manufacture than they could possibly sell for [blahblahblah snipped]

No, what he's saying is that Sony's game sector is weak at the moment. Look at the context. They would have been on track but the battery recall cost them over 400 million dollars, and they know that SCE is precarious just before a console launch because of development costs and the fact that the PS2 is ancient (and competing with newer hardware).