Sony: Game Sales Down 30% |
Ó
Dragged down by the inevitable costs of launching a new console, Sony's first quarter profits suffered to the tune of about $230 million. Fortunately for Sony this setback came as no surprise, as a slump in sales had been widely predicted. With game sales down 30% for the year, the burden has been shifted to other more profitable divisions within the company. Sony is deeply diversified, very large and more than capable of dealing with market fluctuations.
While Sony's game division has been a poor performer of late, as a whole the company reported that sales were up 11%, bolstered by strong growth in sales of notebook computers, televisions and cameras.
Analysts were surprised by the extent of Sony's growth in net income over the previous year. After cutting nearly 10,000 jobs and receiving a boost from the arrival of HDTV, Sony has raised its operating profit forecast by 30%, pointing to a strong future for the company in the near term.
Contact Us:
The QJ.net Network |
 |
| Site | Feed |
| QJ.NET | RSS |
| Nintendo DS | RSS |
| PlayStation 3 | RSS |
| PSP Updates | RSS |
| Wii | RSS |
| Xbox 360 | RSS |
| MMORPG | RSS |
| Personal Computer Games | RSS |
| iPhone - iPod Touch | RSS |
| QJ.NET Forums | RSS |
Add QJ.NET
User Favorites - December
User Favorites - December
Categories
Archives
Accessories
Add-ons
Applications
Artwork
Batteries
Cheats
Deals
Emulators
Events
Featured Articles
Firmware
Flash Applications
Flash games
Game Demos
Games
Hacks & Exploits
Homebrew Applications
Homebrew Demos
Homebrew Development
Homebrew Emulators
Homebrew Games
Homebrew Themes
How-To
Humor
Imports
Interviews
Magazines
Mods
MY QJ
News
Off Topic
On Shelves This Week
Opinions & Analysis
Podcasts
Previews
PSP Go
PSP Minis
PSP Slim & Lite
QJ How-To Series
QuickJump QuickGuide
QuickJump QuickPeek
Reviews
Rumors
Scans
Screenshots
Site News
Titles
UMD Movies
Videos
Weekend Warrior
Wi-Fi
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
Comments [refresh]
what about that huge loan they took out too. The intrest on that alone has to be huge. Probably cuts into that 11% profit too.
what part of sony does this aply to? there is a huge business in sony professional almost all tv studio in the world have alot of sony sh#t
the game sales are down becuase of you people using iso's i have a 1.5 i use homebrew but at least i dont use isos isos suck all the way!
Number 4 is a fool
this is something that they should had expected. they made the psp umd that comps cant use it and what happened??? umd dumper on the psp the same thing will happen with ps3 if they dont learn from psp
Where do you take that "minus 30% game sales" from? It is complete rubbish!
Official numbers have been posted recently (numbers apply to first quarter of 2006/2005):
Hardware
PS2: 2,54 Mio. (2005 3,53 Mio. / - 28 %)
PSP: 2,02 Mio. (2005 2,09 Mio. / - 3 %)
Software
PS2: 33 Mio. (2005 35 Mio. / - 6 %)
PSP: 9,1 Mio. (2005 4,9 Mio. / + 86 %)
Source: gamefront.de
As you can see, there were slightly less PS2 game sales but nearly double the PSP games. Now come again with the piracy argument! Hardware sales could be better, but it's not really dramatic.
It is a fact that very few people with psp's actually know about homebrew so how can that few % bring down Sony's whole game sales by 30%??? Simply put they can't and their not. Take a look at the PC game market, out of all game markets it has be pirated for years upon years and it is still alive and kicking. If anything its pirated ps2 games that are bring down there game sales since like 20 million more people own the ps2.
This is more than a few pirated games. This has been posted on various blogs, and only the people here are arrogant enough to assume that it's their community's contribution that's caused it.
Game sales are in a big slump anyway, it's just been a poor time for the games market compared with previous years, and with the 360 out and PS3/Wii approaching people are either biding their time or already playing on their 360s.
ISOs haven't caused a THIRTY PERCENT drop. Piracy has never had that great an effect on a console's sales.
Mebe the warm weather is to blame mebe some people have a life and go out and enjoy the warm weather ;)
Planet, this is just a poor quote on Ernest's part.
Game sales aren't down 30%, they more or less remain unchanged.
"Sales and operating revenue" is down 30%.
Operating costs have had a huge increase due to the production of the PS3.
well, games aren't quite cheap, that's why people gets isos, if they lower the price of the games, they would sell more games, instead of trying to sell expensive games and then lower the price whenm everyone has downloaded it. Dumb dumb
anyway, I have 2.6 and a 32 MB stick and 3 PSP games.
I like worms a lot, but I'm not paying 40 bucks!
hey, ever thought it might be due to bad/boring games/and being poor and broke cause you spent all your money on gas?
Good to see some at least a few dudes are able to find the real numbers :) And the ps2 game drops, well they cant be selling ps2 stuff forever :)
I still think isos are bad homebrew dont break the psp's funds its only isos that really can becuase people wont buy the games
please avoid the simple conclusion : it is because of piracy
Please consider that maybe 1% of psp users play isos.
And a lot of them still buy games while they play isos.
It is like MPAA considering that all files shared on P2P would be buy if PP would be stopped.
That is not realistic.
And it will simplify sony explanation
The truth is that PS2 games sells are dropping due to PS2 age.
Simply put, the PS2 is getting a bit old.
If sony finally embraced homebrew, im sure their sales would go up. Think about how many of you would buy the games you cant play now, if the firmware needed allowed homebrew to its fullest potential.
I'm going to list some things here that I think are having an effect on this drop in sales. Some are things others have already mentioned, but let's compile them into one argument and see who agrees:
1. It's summer here in the northern hemisphere where the vast majority of game sales comes from. People are busy doing things on summer break that don't necessarily involve playing video games. Kids are out of school and doing things they didn't have time to do before or weather did not permit. People are going on vacation. Stuff like that.
2. There hasn't been a lot of blockbuster titles released in the last several months. A few good PSP games lately, yes, but not enough to cover the slump in good PS2 titles. Name some games recently released (in the last 3 months) for PS2 that will likely become Greatest Hits titles. I can't think of any except for perhaps Kingdom Hearts II and the newest GTA game. Were those within the last three months? Too many GTA games out for me to keep track. Personally, I don't like any of them.
3. People that have been fence-sitting the their next generation game consoles of choice are saving up for the big purchases. They'll be here pretty soon. Tuesday is the first of August already.
4. This only affects a small percentage of people, I'm sure, but those that like to run homebrew haven't been able to buy a lot of new PSP games until very recently because it would mean giving up their homebrew. We haven't been buying games since the first batch and by now we've already got the ones we wanted from those titles, so sales to people like us have been stagnant.
Despite all that stuff, sales will pick up in the next several months. Christmas will be upon us before you know it.
For the weiners complaining about ISO users and people with 1.5 firmware in general, consider this. I have a virgin 1.5 firmware PSP. I've tried a couple of ISOs, but I don't like them because they eat up too much memory stick space. I still keep my 1.5 firmware, though, because I like to run NES and NeoGeo emulators and DevHook to use firmware 2.71. Since DevHook .44 was released, I've doubled my UMD game collection. I own 6 or 7 UMD video discs because I wanted good quality recordings without eating up my entire memory stick and wasting my time re-encoding videos.
Before DevHook .44, for games I only had Wipeout Pure and Lumines. Once I was able to play newer games and keep my homebrew, I rushed out to buy more games in a heartbeat. I dropped the cash on Field Commander and Valkyrie Profile Lenneth both on the same day. I plan to buy Ace Combat X, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, and maybe Daxter to name a few as long as I can boot those UMDs on DevHooked firmware. When the PSone emulator software is released, I'm hoping someone will crack the firmware to allow it to run on DevHook. I'd gladly buy some of my old classics to play on the PSP as long as prices are reasonable. By that time, there may be enough incentive for me to update my firmware for real if the new firmware proves to be unhackable.
For me, homebrew has been allowing me to actually buy more games while keeping my homebrew so it's actually helping Sony out. I'm sure I'm not the only one to do this, so please consider that before mouthing off about how homebrew is evil or ruining the world or whatever.
so what, with titles like god of war 2, final fantasy 12, ff7 dirge of cerberus, the bully(rockstar) , king of fighters 2006, disgaea 2, yakuza, rogue galaxy, demon chaos, okami, valkyrie profile 2 silmeria, god hand, justice league hearoes, tales of the abyss, ar tenelico, dawn of mana and MUCH MORE only on PS2, + the new psp games like ultimate ghost's 'n goblins, Jeanne D'arc, the new MGS portable ops, and more, and think also on november the ps3 will hit the store at the price of 499$US with good launch titles and many great games coming shortly after to mid 2007 like MGS4, DMC4, final fantasy 13, my singstar, assassin's creed, unreal tournament 2k7, GTA4, heavy rain, ridge racer 7(launch), Untold Legends: Dark Kindgom, gran turismo and more... So personnally I'd say this year will be a GREAT year of income for sony, lol!!!
nothing to be surprised.......sony is still and will remain stupid with the idea of stopping homebrew stuff....(i hate iso) i use stuff like irshell for mp3 playback while playing hot shots golf....unfortunatly, they're against this.... so i dont see why i would agree to update and homebrew lovers like me dont want of these psp that comes with 2.70+ ...... so no one gets a new psp....no one buy the games......theire still lucky BOOSTER is here with DEV HOOK !! THX
is everyone freaking the ***** out...
who cares?
Decon, the 30% drop is based from the real numbers. Read my post or browse Gamasutra.
But the author of this post should correct it to "Sales and operating revenue", to prevent further misunderstandin g.
get the hell out if you dont care just dont give your opinion since youre frustrated.....
As a matter of fact Sony's game sales were down 30% in the first quarter of 2006 so please don't accuse me of "quoting poorly" without proof again.
Here is a link or you can check any other financial source, they all say the same thing:
http://palgn.com.au/article.php?title=Sony+game+sales+drop+by+almost+a+third&id=4986&sid=dc87dc86f8ba355a6b11c16142671a1d
Quote
It's been a good day for most of Sony, but one to forget for the company's games division, after it was revealed that the firm's video game operations have cost it a Q1 loss of ¥26.8 billion (AU$303 million / £125 million), up from ¥6 billion (AU$68 million / £28 million) a year earlier. It was also reported that sales for the division dropped by 30 percent, no thanks to sales of PS2 slowing down in the wake of the PS3 being announced, and also due to stiff competition from Nintendo in the handheld gaming market. And with the costs of manufacturing and launching PS3 later this year yet to be accounted for, it could be a while before we see the Japanese electronics giant post positive results for its game division. Quote
most people on independent forums dont believe the psp has anything going for it.
go nintendo.... yeah you rock....... yipeeeeeee.!!!!
Ernest, I've just read the article at:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10238
Maybe I should've checked more sources, but this not only corresponds with Planet's figures, but also his "WTF" attitude, which is fair given what the figure's quoted.
No need to throw a mental at me because I've read a different article, and because the numbers of hardware/software sales just don't add up to 30%.
Even if piracy DID mean there were less game sales - it wouldn't mean a 30% drop. If more users are pirating - that means there's more new psp users as well.
rats off a ship.
I wouldn't put my money there.
Piracy dosn`t do crap, if that was the case, then we wouldnt be seeing verry many console games as they are all pretty much easy to pirate. Screw paying $70-$90 (Australian) for a PSP game thats gunna keep you interested for like five mins.I use iso`s and if the game is any good i`ll go out and buy it as i have done with a few games, but if its crap i wont bother wasting my $$ on it, so in a way i get to try before i buy.
Piracy dosn`t do crap, if that was the case, then we wouldnt be seeing verry many console games as they are all pretty much easy to pirate. Screw paying $70-$90 (Australian) for a PSP game thats gunna keep you interested for like five mins.I use iso`s and if the game is any good i`ll go out and buy it as i have done with a few games, but if its crap i wont bother wasting my $$ on it, so in a way i get to try before i buy.
imo, why should we care, we dont work for sony. and dream on if u think sony is gona embrace homebrew. if sony is gona embrace homebrew, more people will come. and they will start trying to program for that console, and sooner or later somebody is gona exploit it... u think sony wants that? you must be outa your mind, homebrew fanboys.
Dudes, stop correcting Ernest or any other QJ staff if you do not have a solid proof. As a matter of fact, no one beside the CEO and people that keep the record of Sony know the true number of the sales. These numbers are more or less just as simple as an estimate that is given out quarterly. Sometimes, news can be biased and false. Since Ernest must had done his homeworks before he did the article so if you wouldn't take his words, reading other articles and believe whatever you want.
@28 How do you see this as a "win" for nintendo?
a bit price rise on PSP games might help..
all new UMD comes out for $50..
new console cost $200..
so if a PC costs $1000..
then how deep could the PC game industry fall with $250 games??
lol.. u money-hungry b*st*rds..
I'm tired of people who say that just because you don't download isos, but only use your psp for homebrew your not hurting sony. THAT IS A LIE! Whether you download a iso or not, just NOT buying games will hurt sony. So if all you sony fanboys want to help sony increase their multibillion dollar profits, stop flamming and complaining about people who play isos and just go out and buy as many games as you possibly can.
I have 8 PSP games but haven't seen much worthwhile releases. I just bought Valkyrie Profile Lenneth which is real cool and fun to play. It comes with firmware 2.60 for upgrade. I was already a 2.60 and am currently pleased with all the homebrew for it and don't plan on downgrading anytime soon. I use the web browser sometimes when I am out and about which is one of the reasons I am still on 2.60 and don't feel like risking downgrading and messing up my PSP if for some reason unsuccessful.
Not enough people use ISOs for it to become a problem for sony. Homebrew made my buy a PSP, and i stopped buying games in fear of losing my SNES emulaor. But because of DevHook, I'm Buying all the great games that are comming out. The PS2 is getting outdated, and the 360 is the "big thing" right now. So, when christmas comes everything will be alright again.
Exactly! I was doing the same thing as you, man. I bought a couple games and several UMD movies that would work on my 1.5 firmware and a 1GB memory stick, but I ran out of games that I could play easily from UMD unless I gave up my homebrew. I liked homebrew better than most of the games that were available at the time. I figure that Sony has to have made at least some profit on me with my purchases up to that point. Now that DevHook allows me to play the new UMDs easily, I'm going to be buying a lot more games. I already got a couple and plan to get even more in the coming months, provided they don't require firmware 2.80. Unless DevHook can emulate it by then, that is.
Sony's profit drop has a dual problem not only isos but Fw version 1.5 is the big problem here.
1st of all tons of people have downgraded and use Isos, 2nd of all the losers who say all they want to do is play homebrew are also the problem here, why? Because theyre not buying enough games, they just sit on their asses and play old NES and SEGA games all day.
Do us all a favor and GIVE UP THE PAST, if you want to play nes games get a gameboy or by the DS. PSP owners dont want scum like you ruining it all for everyone else.
and for all those ISO users, I personally hope you all get caught, either that or youll be the demise of Sony corporation. Do you think game companies will keep making games for people who arent going to pay for their hard work? Hell no.
Burn in hell you illegitamate bastards
That is so true dude. iam man @ those people with firmware 1.5 also.
I will fight anybody who uses Iso's come on try me. I will win
Brian, I have read other sources, Ernest just quotes some Playstation site on me, whilst I quote Gamasutra, a far larger/less biased site, with far more information.
Yeah, he's "done his homework" because a bunch of blog sites have misread the stats and he quotes them, whilst a bunch more have read them right.
Profits for PS2 and PSP don't remain "relatively unchanged" if they saw a 30% price drop in sales, no way in hell the production costs for the consoles have dropped that much. It's because of the PS3 that the REVENUE for the division is down.
QJ.NET staff are just human too.
Oh, and Brian, maybe you're misunderstandin g what I'm saying. I'm not contesting the 30% figure, that's definitely across all sources, it's just that the ones that quote the numbers in more depth, quote the figure as being the "SALES AND OPERATING REVENUE", which means that the production costs for PS3 have been factored.
Profits remaining unchanged, and the number of shipped hardware/software just don't add up to the 30% loss in sales, the bulk of it is PS3.
I'm just surprised that the Sony-loving websites are actually misreading the content to put a further negative spin on it, even though it's not really a bad thing, PSP sales are up, whilst for the first time in ages PS2 games are a bit down.
Not like it matters anyway, the games division makes up about 3% of the company's profit. Sales now are quite unimportant, this time next year when all the cards are on the table are when it matters.
can any 1 tell me how can i get gta
You call me an ignorant fool? Hahaha... Don't make me laugh. You, Sir, are the ignorant fool. I'm a proud owner of a virgin 1.5 firmware PSP. I bought my 1 GB memory stick a year ago when they were still well over $100. I own around a dozen UMD games and movies. How many do you have?
Lumines was the only UMD game I owned for close to a year. Just bought Wipeout Pure about two months ago. Bought Field Commander and Valkyrie Profile Lenneth a few days ago. Lots more on my wish list to buy when they are released. Then there's the several UMD movies that I own. They've made plenty of profit off me as far as I'm concerned, and they will continue to do so as long as they put out worthwhile games. For about year, though, they had a long dry spell of good games that appealed to me. That hardly makes me a fool. Discriminating taste in games, yes. Foolish, no.
Firmware 1.5 is hardly "a problem." DevHook has taken care of your "problem" by allowing us "losers" to go buy your precious "games." Err. Games. The real problem here is lack of quality product at a reasonable price. The majority of people don't want warmed over rehashes of games they've already played to death on other platforms. Even if they are interested in it, they certainly don't want to pay another $40-50 for the privilege to do so. We're just now getting into some real blockbuster titles that are coming out now through the end of the year. The games before, other than a small handful, only sold because that's all that was available and people wanted to play SOMETHING regardless if it was really any good or not. Some people choose to speak with their wallets and not buy bad/boring products simply because that's all that's available.
"Because theyre not buying enough games, they just sit on their asses and play old NES and SEGA games all day" Right, because sitting around on your ass playing PSP games all day is so much better. :rolleyes:
You guys blasting 1.5 owners are looking at the situation all wrong. Open your eyes. For the people that do not buy UMDs, those people would never buy them whether they owned a PSP or not. Therefore, they have zero impact on Sony's game sales. They neither help nor hinder their sales. But there is some things they DO help with and that is hardware sales both with the console itself and with accessories such as carrying cases, batteries, headphones, remotes, memory sticks, etc. You better believe that Sony is making fat profits on those items. Not only do they help with hardware sales, but they also open up a potential market that wouldn't be there if they never bought a PSP to begin with. Once they buy the console, they might not buy a game for a long time, but all it takes is that one killer app to get them on board. Sony's been pretty short in the "killer app" department for the PSP. That's why you still see so many people running homebrew. Personally, I believe the PSone emulator will be the breaking point for a lot of people when it comes to finally updating their firmware for real. It's got me seriously considering it anyway...
"43. » agrees with #42
That is so true dude. iam man @ those people with firmware 1.5 also.
I will fight anybody who uses Iso's come on try me. I will win"
Wow! Look at Mr. Big Tough Internet Comment Guy! You tell 'em, buddy! Hahahaha
Seriously, what's with kids these days? I blame GTA. You know, just because it's the popular thing to do.
One last thing. Let's not forget that this is ALL Sony game sales, not just PSP.
There's been a definite lack of quality PS2 titles lately, in addition to the poor PSP lineup. Historically, PS2 software is far and away the larger seller of the two groups, so it makes sense to blame more of the declining sales on the PS2 than the PSP. I don't think the PSP even has 30% of the game sales between the two. Even if they sold 0 PSP games while PS2 games sales held steady, I don't think it would decrease sales by 30%. No, the majority of the issues with their sales are coming from the PS2 end of things, not the PSP.
Posters 42 and 43 and all the others I've seen on other topics need to think a little about what they're talking about before spouting off anti-homebrew nonsense.
First of all this is partially the gaming drought season, second remember that it's not 1 thing that drops that many sales, it's when all the problems come together that causes this.
So.... blame all of the problems.
maybe sony will enable homebrew again like they did with the first firmwares because game sales were down loads
Not just for Sony but indicative of the gaming industry as a whole. I hope Nintendo can save it like how they did before.