Is Sony done with Video Games?

[Atary77]

As the title suggest I'm curious if anyone here thinks if maybe, just maybe do you think Sony would ever pull out of the video game industry?

The reason I ask stems from a lot of things that have been going on over the past year. 2012 hasn't been especially kind to Sony nor was 2011 for that matter. Whether or not if it was their own fault is questionable but let's just take a look at what went on this year.

For starters Sony fired half of it's marketing staff. Now I can easily see two sides to this considering Sony has pulled some pretty bone headed stuff in the past when it's come to marketing their products. If it was any of those jokers that helped concoct the "PSP squirrels" or "White is Coming" campaigns then I can clearly see why they got rid of them. Yet at the same time Sony isn't really making any kind of big marketing push for the PS Vita and hasn't gotten behind any real marquee titles. Heck it's even been reported here on the site that they basically threw games like LittleBigPlanet Karting and All-Stars Battle Royal under a bus. Not to mention filing a lawsuit against an actor that was their own spokes person.

Financially Sony has also been taking some pretty big hits taking losses on hardware and analyst claiming that it's still not enough to save the PS Vita. While many folks are waiting for a PS4 it's not hard to believe that there are some people who think a PS4 won't even happen. When you think about Sony has other lines of business most of which have been more profitable to them than video games have. As a company it wouldn't surprise me if Sony decided to abandon the gaming industry in favor of things that make them more money and come with less risk.

But what do you folks think? Is Sony able to bounce back from all this negativity? Do they even care about the video game market anymore?

 

[Epona]

What makes them more money? Their TV division is in big trouble and I don't think they are making as much from other divisions as they are from Playstation. I think they will make a PS4 but maybe not another dedicated handheld.

You should be asking if Microsoft is done with games in favor of making an ad/subscription supported cable box.

 

[Andrewtheeviscerator]

No, the Playstation brand is whats keeping Sony afloat, if anything I would expect Sony to try and expand it and become even bigger in the industry. Although I don't expect them to make another handheld, the vita showed that no one really want them anymore unless they can get them on their cellphone.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

If it was any of those jokers that helped concoct the "PSP squirrels" or "White is Coming" campaigns then I can clearly see why they got rid of them.

On the bright side, thanks to the PSP squirrels we got this:


I can't see them dropping out of the videogame industry completely, but maybe they should focus all of their efforts into making the PS4 as awesome as possible, rather than trying to plow money into Vita slims, if such a thing is in the works. But I think they've already invested a bit of cash and manpower into the PS4, so they might as well go through with it and see how they fare in the next gen.

 

[Savagezion]

The PS4 is already supposedly making an appearance at E3 next year.

 

[Hazy992]

Are Sony going to shut down a division of the company that's one of the most profitable? I seriously doubt that.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Considering most of their business is home entertainment I highly doubt their console will be left out.
And while they may not be the big wigs springing from all western billboards in Asia they are pretty much the lord almighty himself and Final Fantasy is baby Jesus.

 

[Hazy992]

Are Sony going to shut down a division of the company that's one of the most profitable? I seriously doubt that.

Are their finances going to be strong enough to continue any of their divisions in the near future, let alone gaming.

If they carry on getting their credit downgraded, losing value and firing employees, I seriously doubt it.

Sony aren't necessarily going to go bust, but they are in a whole heap of financial troubles. And that affectes all their divisions, gaming included.

That may be but the gaming division is going to be one of the last places to be cut. A company isn't going to cut one of their most profitable divisions just as much as one of their least, even if they are a company as short-sighted as Sony sometimes seems to be. The divisions that are going to go first are more likely something like Sony TVs.

Sony will probably have to downsize but gaming should be safe, at least in the shorter term.

 

[Sennune]

I don't think there's been enough speculation in this thread on the evolution of the gaming industry and Sony's involvement in it. Vita failed. The PS3 hardware still hasn't pulled through. Now Sony is looking toward the next console generation, a generation analysts and some developers have said may be the last console generation we will see. With companies like Valve, EA, Microsoft and others moving towards a digital platform for game distribution, the need for individual gaming machines will decrease more over this next generation.

If this comes to pass, Sony may not exist in the console making business, but they may go under reconstruction into making gaming PCs, Laptops, tablets and phones. I doubt it'll effect Sony's game development, as they still will make money from their franchises.

I don't think Sony will be done with videogames for a long, long time.

 

[FalloutJack]

I think the shoret answer to your question is "No", and the long answer is not a Yahtzee joke, but rather a statement that it would be largely impossible for them to be done with gaming when they are a big corporation whose business is not SOLELY into video gaming. This is what Sony did to branch out. They're still the makers of numerous electronics, and therefore have a financial backing to stay in the game even if the fiscal year hasn't been that good. Suffice to say, there's too big a market for it, and they're still a provider.

 

[Laughing Man]

Is Sony done with video games, NO are they done with video games consoles, YES. The PS4 will no doubt be the last dedicated console that Sony make. The signs have been kicking around for the last year or so but the purchase of a cloud gaming service shows exactly where the gaming market in general is going. I was involved in a discussion on a another forum that was asking the future of the gaming PC. The conclusion I reached was that when internet service provision reaches a point where cloud gaming is a real viable alternative for the majority of people, despite the fac that you will need to play at a lower graphics level, a lower res and with a lower fps most folk will happily pay for the service because it will allow them to play any game on any device that has a decent internet connection.

For Sony it is a win win situation, they no longer have to fork out the massive cost of getting a gaming device in to peoples house holds, this in the past has typically been the big cost factor for most games console makers, all they will require is folk to set up a cloud gaming account and then they just take a wad of cash from their accounts every month.

As for the up coming gen, well like MS Sony are going to go down the route of cramming a device that does a bit of everything in to your house. Ill be honest I want a console that plays games with a controller, if I want something that does internet access, movie streaming, tv streaming, music, blu ray and gaming Ill use my PC and if I want something that uses motion control and heavy use of augmented reality then Ill fucking shoot myself. Anyway Sony will push the PSN network paid for subscription service (which for the life of me I can't remember what it is called.) What you'll see is a lot less function being made available to those who opt for the free PSN service. The console itself will be a bang for the buck unit with off shelf components rather than something containing a whole bunch of dedicated hardware.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

It's really hard to predict what will happen to any of the major game companies more than a couple years down the line. It's pretty clear at this point that we are going to see a new Xbox and Playstation sooner rather than later, but anything beyond that is anybody's guess. It's going to be hard to predict exactly where gaming is going to go in the future (hell, I don't think anybody could have predicted some of the stuff that happened in the past year), so trying to figure out what's going to happen to Sony in the future is futile.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

The government has changed in Japan. The new (old) lot will probably start suppressing the value of the Yen like hell fiends which would really help the profitability of Japanese companies.

 

[Xdeser2]

Planetside 2

No, they are Faaaarrr from done with games

 

[BrotherRool]

They'll make it to a PS4, whatsmore since Nintendo have kindly taken initiative and hardware speced themselves out of the next console generation before it started, then it's hard to see why the PS4 won't succeed unless they just don't screw up. I can't see MS pulling something so gamechanging it takes the PS4 out of business (I mean they managed to eventually make the PS3 work even). I don't think people will randomly abandon consoles, and since this gen has been as big as ever, probably moreso because 360/PS3 gaming has become utterly mainstream, next gen might have less numbers, but not low enough to take Sony out of business.

The Vita is more tricky, the PS3 and the 3DS had rocky starting years so it's possible the Vita will recover, the PSP was never dominant but it still managed to sell 50 million+. Or it might fail and they leave handhelds alone.

Just in terms of IP property, Sony could still make money the way Sega does in the games industry with Uncharted and Little Big Planet. Gran Turismo has big name recognition, Quantic Dream seems like an ongoing good prospect. I just can't see them leaving the industry any time soon. They may take some hits and they may have to shrink a little (but not until they've spent another 2+ years trying) but even that I doubt.

The PS3 hardware still hasn't pulled through.

How do you mean? I'm pretty sure they're making money on the Ps3 since the Slim was released and they're on even footing with MS in terms of consoles sold now. Even if they were still taking a hardware hit, the money they make in royalties for PS3 games sold is more than worth it

 

[The_Echo]

I don't think Sony will be pulling out of the industry anytime soon. They're still a big player, even if they kind of came in last place this generation. Which I think is in no small part due to the PS3's adherence to the demographics that made the PS2 a success, while the Wii and 360 blindsided it by reeling in new demos like the 'casual' market and FPS-junkies (let's be honest here; the Xbox would have died long ago if not for Halo).

In this next generation, everyone's going to pretty much be on equal footing.

But if Sony dropped the handheld thing, I'm not sure anyone would mind, really.

 

[Roxas1359]

I can see Sony dropping out of the handheld race as they're handhelds haven't done well really. However I don't see them dropping out of the console race anytime soon. Plus while the PS3 is not as strong in the west it is still extremely strong in Japan behind the Wii. Really I still play my Sony consoles more than my Xbox because I find that Sony stills puts out the games and genres that I love. Let's honestly admit it, the main amount of games that are released for the Xbox are shooters and there are very few JRPGS, Platformers, and RPGs really. Meanwhile the Wii was a huge success for it's casual games.

 

[BrotherRool]

They'll make it to a PS4, whatsmore since Nintendo have kindly taken initiative and hardware speced themselves out of the next console generation before it started, then it's hard to see why the PS4 won't succeed unless they just don't screw up. I can't see MS pulling something so gamechanging it takes the PS4 out of business (I mean they managed to eventually make the PS3 work even). I don't think people will randomly abandon consoles, and since this gen has been as big as ever, probably moreso because 360/PS3 gaming has become utterly mainstream, next gen might have less numbers, but not low enough to take Sony out of business.

There's so much wrong with this statement...

Firstly, you cannot spec yourself out of a console generation. Generation as a term is not defined by power, but by the period a console was released in. That's why the PS1 and N64 were both fifth generation consoles, despite the former having about half the power of the latter. That's why the PS2 and Xbox were both sixth generation consoles, despite the latter being a quantum leap in technology above the former. And that's why the Wii and the PS3 are both seventh generation consoles.

Secondly, something you will have hopefully noticed with those examples is that hardware power never counts towards financial success. In fact, the trend for the last three generations of consoles and two generations of handhelds has been the opposite. The consoles with the least amount of power have been the ones to achieve runaway sales success (PS1, PS2, Wii), whereas the consoles with the most amount of power have been the ones to sell far, far less (N64, Xbox, PS3).

Also, it may interest you to note that 'core' gaming (ie, PS360) has not become significantly more mainstream than previous generations. Not a single PS3 exclusive has managed to outsell the top selling exclusives for the PS2. Gran Turismo 5 managed to sell less than its predecessors. GTA: San Andreas sold 17 million copies on the PS2, a figure no PS3 or 360 exclusive can match. And the only games to sell drastically higher numbers on the 360 than previous generations were Call Of Duty, Gears and Halo. Every other top-seller was around the 3-4 million mark, the same comparitively as last gen. Only Call Of Duty can really claim to have had the kind of 'mainstream' effect you're talking about. Everything else is either selling the same or less than last generation.

Okay mabe it's just a British colloquialism but 'spec yourself out of the generation' means 'unable to compete due to hardware specifications they chose' rather than redefining the generation you're in because of hardware. I have to admit I didn't expect that to be something that would have a changed meaning but it just goes to show you.

Secondly, we're talking about Sony's viability. The Wii was successful but almost entirely amongst new gamers and had almost none non-Nintendo games that did will well with the demographic of people who were playing games like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy in the previous generation. Most of the studies showed that the Wiis success was in converting new gamers rather than stealing sales from the others. So I'm not saying the Wii wasn't by far the most financially successful console, nor that the Wii U won't be either. However due to it's hardware specs it's likely to be going for the Wii crowd again, the number one best selling Wii U game is the jointly packed party game Adventureland. As such Nintendos success will be largely irrelevant to Sony's it's unlike that the Wii even stole 1% of sales of say Black Ops from the PS3 and due to the predicted large hardware gap, the Wii U isn't going to be chasing the same games that the other two will. So they're out of Sony's race-

Now we've got the misunderstandings out of the way hopefully, I'm really intrigued by your point that the mainstream generation has shrunk. I was just assuming it because it's so more common to hear people talking about games than it was back then, and all sorts of people too. The PS3 exclusive thing would be put down to reduced market share. There are 150 millions PS2 compared to 70 million PS3's. So if we did straight proportions (although I guess that isn't too reliable because the PS2 had a strong casual market) then GT 5 outsold GT 3 and 4 per head (also though, GT 3 outsold GT 4). Also per console, the top PS3 game outsold the top PS2 game. 8th best outsold 8th best. But then it also went the other way for some of the rankings.

So lets check the table out (I guess you've already done a lot of this. I'm catching up with you still and tend to sort of think aloud in my posts, which is an awful writing habit)
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/
If we get the combined sales for the PS2 top 25 (even all the PS2 top 25 weren't casual)+ Xbox top 25, that's 187.29m+59.44m=246.73 vs 157.80+198.81=356.61 (360 top 25 outsells the PS2?? We must have become a more a lot more focused of a market? Or the high casual sales not breaking the 25 give the PS2 a long tail? )

So I guess that seems to corroborate that I'm right? I'm not really convinced to be honest, the 360 outselling the PS2 is further in my direction than I can believe, the method is just too flawed. A top 25 is a better indicator than a top 1 or even top 10 so at the moment I think we've got slightly more evidence for the mainstream increasing. I mean that's over 100 million sales difference (we're definitely making more money at least, even relative to the other entertainment mediums, than before).

Hmm. When looking at a top 50, the PS2 and 360 have sold pretty much equal numbers. I only counted 2 casual PS2 games in that list so it can't be the PS2's casual crowd decreasing it's drop off. By the top 100 the PS2 has a 30 million advantage over the 360 (although even here, the combined total of this generation MS and Sony is actually now 170 million greater than the last generation).

At the 500 mark we've still sold more this generation than last, although by now shovelware is in full affect so we#ve what we were trying to compare.

Okay lets check top 1000. The PS2 now has a 415 million advantage over the 360, but the PS3 has only got a 360million advantage over it's competition, so it's finally swung into favour of the previous generation.


Okay well I've got no answers at all now. The 25-500 thing makes me thing that games have become more mainstream but the evidence is really shaky. Thanks I've learnt a lot and you removed a misconception that I would never have found out about otherwise

 

[KiKiweaky]

After recently releasing planetside 2 I somehow doubt it

 

[Baron_Rouge]

I know some of their games could have seen better marketing; LittleBigPlanet Karting, for example, but I hardly think they threw All-Stars under a bus. There were some awesome ads for that, all the teasers, the Robot Chicken sketch...I mean, I know it didn't sell too well, but I don't think it was for lack of trying. Personally, I love it.