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.

More like from the excuses-excuses-excuses dept

[denebian devil]

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 (which of course they do for the consumer, not as a way of pushing their own format innovations), it still wouldn't be their fault they're not making money because it's the INDUSTRY'S fault. I'm especially amused by the related article: "Nintendo Profits Up 72%, Sony's Down 94%" Hey Sony, what's that do to your theory that the industry is to blame when in fact a company that bases ALL of their profits on gaming is doing well, whereas your company, which does only a fraction of its business in gaming, is not doing quite as well.

Hey Oneda, how exactly do you need to "contend with" PS3 costs when that is something that's entirely within your control?

Sensationalistic Headline

[drinkypoo]

While this may be an appropriate characterization, I don't think so. From the article it's not clear that's what he's saying. It seems to me more like he's saying that Sony's game division is weak. Just read the quote:

"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's not saying that the "games market" is weak. He's saying "the game segment". Segment of what? The market? The company? He doesn't specify.

Now, maybe he said this stuff in Japanese, and this is a translation? In which case, how accurate is the translation? Perhaps what he actually said was that the game market is weak, but this article doesn't tell us that. Perhaps he definitively said it was Sony's game division that was weak - the article simply doesn't give us enough information to say and there is insufficient context to even draw any kind of well-supported conclusion. Or even poorly supported.

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

[Volante3192]

Plus anyone who wants a PS2 probably already has it by now.

Zonked again.

[oGMo]

I love how in the transition between actual quote and article/topic it went from "game segment" (referring to Sony's game division, using "segment" because we're talking about financials) to "game sector" and the explicit claim they're referring to the entire "games industry". That's some great journalism. By which I mean some really poor elementary-school reading comprehension skills.