Sony To Cut 10,000 More Jobs
 

source: twice
I wonder if there will be cuts in their game division?

I don't really see them cutting into their games division like the others. Isn't their games division one of the few things that generates them money? Granted, not with the PS3 fiasco. But with at least transactions made through PSN.

Yeah there probably will be lay-offs in the software section as well.

I guess there goes the indie game subsidy fund for exclusive PSN titles :sadface:

They closed down Zipper Interactive last week.

The cuts are across the board due to a downturn in business. The last round of cuts, 5k or so, was to streamline all the business units. It's pretty sad really. I had hoped they could turn it around but Howard is a douche. He made the problems much worse. The games division is a bigger industry joke then EA.

Kaz making his first big move. Important for a new CEO.

You know what, I trust Kaz. He's our CEO. He came from the games division, from America no less.

There's a simple classic strategy to turn around a failing company:
1. Cut the dogs.
2. Groom the cows.

Dogs are businesses that are losing you money and which are not strategic on another level.

Cows are businesses you already own providing your bread and butter.

The problem with Sony historically has been that they would use money from cows to cover losses in their dogs. This has cost them market valuation over the years, pretty massively as you can see from the OP.

There was a time the games division was keeping the company afloat literally. PS3 ruined that and I'm surprised they haven't gone bankrupt or been bought out since then.

Probably the only thing keeping them at a higher market valuation is the value of their music and movie library. Take those out and their true valuation might be less than $5b!

so why bother with the vitae, or whatever the handheld is called? do they think they can take on the itunes price/selection behemoth or something?

if they were smart, they'd have sunk all their R&D/marketing/BS/money into iOS games development and actually made profits.

its one thing to pay $20 for a great portable game, its another when you need to buy a separate $200/300 device to play it, especially if you only care about one or two games.

That admitting defeat thought. Why not just come out with your own cloud based handheld that plays shitty games, maybe throw a Dpad on it to make the games less shitty?


The gaming ghetto....

holy shit reading my post.....soz ive been drinkning.

Hubris gets in the way. Sony doesn't yet realize internally that it's a $20b company. It still thinks like it's a $200b company that's just down on its luck and will spring back. Morale must be terrible.

The Vita is grasping at straws; trying to create a market where none now exists. That market is known as: adult toys. Obviously, it's not a huge market. A game device will always be a toy, and because of the Gameboy the handheld market has a childish connotation, at least in Western markets.

The real reason beyond that is that it's so much more profitable to be a platform owner than a game maker. Sony doesn't want to make iOS games, they want to -be- Apple, making a 15%-30% cut on everyone else's effort.

They likely figure that the handheld market is much like the console market--you toss a device out there and hope it gains mass market adoption. They probably figure the generation of kids who get too old for gameboy will gravitate to an adult device. They might be right, but probably aren't. I can see the Japanese adopting the device much more than the West, which makes it not really worth making.

Beyond that, you have the idea that if the Vita were successful, that Sony could build a content distribution model, leveraging all their movie and music catalog, such as you refer to. That makes it a strategic device, meaning they can convince themselves to lose money on it on the off chance that it's successful and leads to leverage on those other businesses they own.

But, no company can make too many bets like this and survive in the long term. Sony's still got gobs of physical assets they can sell off before going bankrupt. But how long until their market value is worth less than their physical assets. At that point, they'd be vulnerable to hostile-takeover by large corporations eying hungrily their movie and music catalog.

Imagine how much money Apple could make simply by obtaining Sony's music libraries. Sony owns at least half of Michael Jackson's music catalog which includes most Beatles songs >_>

Also, Apple has cash reserves totally $140+ billion dollars. Right now. Dropping $20b on Sony would be hardly a dent in the bucket.

If there was any corporation that deserved to go down in flames, it is Sony (though Bioware comes a close second).

Apple getting Sony would be one of the worst things ever for consumers and competition in general. You're forgetting the vast manufacturing facilities they still own. Add into that the massive catalog of patents they have.

So, do you think kaz can bring sony back?

link

Kaz used to be the laughing stock of the gaming sites thanks to his brainless shilling of the PS3, now all of a sudden he's supposed to be the revolution Sony needs?

Maybe if he just got a second job and donated that money to Sony...

Trust me, there will be significant cuts to the gaming division. This layoff Press Release was desperate, pre-emptive damage control because Sony just told shareholders today that they lost 6.4B - not 2.7B; and a billion of that was specifically as a result of the gaming division. They also announced the closure of Qore today.

Some of that loss has to be as a result of the underperforming Vita, but I wouldn't be surprised to see SOE get shut down by the end of the year since they've had a series of duds and MMORPG's have tremendous overhead.

Not forgetting that at all. That's what makes a takeover so attractive! Not only do you get all their patents, movies and music libraries, but Sony's physical assets could likely be sold off for at least $10+b. So the true cost of the things you really want: patents, movies, music, etc., is half of what it appears to be.

I agree it would be potentially negative for consumers do to Apple's general douchiness already :\

LOL, good one ^_^

Like I said: cut the dogs, keep the cows. I wouldn't blame them for cutting the Vita entirely.

As for gaming, they should keep the games division because it is potentially stupidly profitable. Hell, the games division kept the company afloat for awhile there.

Personally, the PS4 is my most desired nextgen console. So hoping they can pull out all the stops still.

Potential has sank a lot of companies out there. You've got to take chances on new things however I am not exactly in the know of how much of a chance $ wise Sony can invest in doing the PS4 correctly.

I am no so sure about that. With so many 1st and 2nd party devs, most of them can't be that profitable. Its not like PS3 has sold over 120 million units like their past consoles. Third party franchises like COD, BF, GTA, elder scrolls, AC, etc dominate this gen. I won't be surprised if SOE is on the chopping block..tho PS2 looks great.

Oh, I don't mean they should keep all their 1st party game makers. They should be fine w/o them. I just mean then should certainly still come out with the PS4! :P