Report: Sony to post first loss since '95

I have been a Sony supporter pretty much all my life. I have experienced other products and they have failed me so I keep coming back to them. Their products are more expensive but they are higher quality than most. This last year I made three large purchases from Sony, a laptop, a high-end digital camera and a PS3. Before buying these products I did some research on their competitors, for computers I checked out Dell, Toshiba, HP and others, Sony offered the better product overall. I also researched the Cameras, including Canon and Nikon, this time Sony offered a higher priced product but also had features the other cameras did not have. When it came down to the Playstation 3 I also looked at the Xbox 360 because of the larger range of games available, but having read of so many malfunctions and the extra prices for add-ons for the Xbox I decided to go for the PS3, I also don't trust any Microsoft products since they have cost me thousands before. Also Blu-Ray's are doing pretty well, I was amazed the other day I entered Blockbuster after a while not going there and half of it is already Blu-Ray.

Sony is ahead of their time right now. First off they scared away half their customers because of the format wars between br and hd dvd. Microsoft offered the option...Sony just tagged it to the price of the ps3. Second of all the sony lost their all important exclusives such as GTA and more recently final fantasy to the 360. Third of all the thing is ugly...im sorry but its a big black box. the Xbox 360 and the Wii are attractive little things. the 360 gives you an option to change your face plate and the Wii doesn't even need that because its so dam small and looks so good. Sony just epically failed for the first time in the gaming market and they are just beginning to notice that it's a failure, not a long term investment as they so called it a while back. Sure you can argue the same bs about the 360 "costing more" but in the end its all about what you need and right now i don't think many people need a blu-ray player because the lack of 1080p tvs in the consumer's hands

Sony made a bet that people would have more and more money to spend on high end products. They were wrong. But they DID help cement Blue Ray as the format of the next few years. HD-DVD was a strong contender, but Sony did help Blue Ray win. The problem here is that they were trying to make a "do everything" console too fast, too soon. No one would have complained if it "only" had a DVD player. The Wii does not even have that, and there is no one complaining. In fact, I'm willing to bet customers would be much happier with Backwards Compatibility than with Blue Ray support. Sony cannot afford to lower their prices again, but if they offered an "entry level PS3" without the Blue Ray player... they might sell a LOT more consoles....

Sony in a nutshell. Good, long-lasting products, way too high priced for most people. Until they bring their prices down, they will continue to lose money as long as the economy sucks.

@gorilla9091 I think zintarr means the PS3 has a Cellproccesser and BR diskdrive but the rest of the parts are rejected PC parts.

It costs more to produce a single PS3 than its pricetag is set at; a PS3, from a hardware standpoint, is a bargain. The problem is that the PS3 is FAR too ambitious for the console gaming market, perhaps if Sony had just made the damn thing a PC with more RAM (Not XDR, DDR2/800 or /1066) they wouldn't be losing out so terribly. Regardless, I doubt very much that the PS3 folly will sink Sony. I'd say next generation they won't go so over the top.

I think this is actually quite morbidly humorous. Sony has repetitively criticized the other two consoles, calling them "overpriced" and "inferior," yet ultimately their downfall is due to their own exorbitant price tag. Honestly in these times, if they hope to make a profit, they need simply to lower their prices. I love the quality of Sony's goods, but when their competition offers similar products with comparable capablilites at HALF their price, it makes Sony look ridiculous! Asking that much for a PS3, it's ludicrous. Your not worth it Sony, your simply not worth it.

Aw man, I missed the Autolycus troll party. Someone should've told me! Anyway, Sony isn't going anywhere. But if you want my opinion on their loss: it isn't just PlayStation. If you go to their corporate website and look at some trends over the past years, their other branches have begun to sag as well (like Sony Electronics, Sony BMG Music, Sony Pictures, Sony Creative Software, etc). As much as I like their products (particularly the electronics), here's my challenge to Sony: Your prices are TOO HIGH. Lower them. Seriously, it isn't just the PS3 that has a high[er] price tag (even though I bought it when it was still $600), look at their TVs. I know they make TVs that last a long time, but they are often hundreds of dollars more than their Samsung, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Vizio counterparts.

God I wish Gamespot would stop bringing us news about how well the Wii is doing and how bad the PS3 is doing...

It said sony not playstation 3.Sony does a lot more then games and there has been a huge ressecion this year.

i love how everyone is saying how everything sony makes sucks. Well how about Microsoft? 1 word: WINDOWS

Not a Happy New Year in Japan either.

If Sony would sell the Ps3 cheaper than it is now they would really go broke. Try this. set up a lemonade stand outside your house and try selling it for half of what it cost you to make it. Do you think you would consider lowering it to 10 sents when it cost you 50 cents to make?

Sony has always took a loss on their Systems and made up for with software sales. Xbox is not any better, they lost crap tons of money because they were selling broken systems and had to fix them, and I doubt they offered that to be nice, it is because they would get sued, and they have been, by gamers. And right now is a rough time for everyone, not just Sony. So many jobs lost all over, it sux..

CDC5714 First off, the PS3 has TONS of more features than the Wii or Xbox. The proof is on an old post on either PS3Fanboy, NintendoWiiFANboy, or the Xbox Fanboy equivalent. Just look at the older post a couple of pages back on Wii fanboy and youll see it.

The sad truth is that Sony DID make a mistake by releasing the PS3 when they did. They were so afraid of the 360 and so blind to the the selling power of the Wii that they rushed an unfinished product out the door to get their stake of the current gaming market.

What they should have done was support the PS2 for an extra year while perfecting the PS3. In doing this they could have found more ways to keep the cost of producing the PS3 down and this also would have given developers more time to figure out how to make games without going bankrupt themselves.

exactly. i mean PS3 and blu ray are both tanking, so this isn't unexpected. it's all too expensive.

" superchink Squirrel Sony sells PS3 console at a lost, the only way they can make up for the losses if customers buy more games. Taking out PS2 support is not action out of greed, it's necessary for survival." You're trying to defend Sony for taking away your gaming options, so that they can try and force you to buy more of their games. Okay, I wouldn't wanna be on that side but whatever. They are trying to survive, I would agree, but they could attempt to do that buy locking down more exclusives, or maybe making a blu-ray less cheap PS3. What they chose was a disingenuous shady technique, that has in turn hurt the PS3. king23_ seems to think no one cares about BC on the PS3, but I know that not to be the case via personal references. Krammin was even trying to defend no BC on here because it is a serious point of contention with some, so don't say no one cares. I can't see how someone would want to defend a underhanded action like that. If Microsoft or Nintendo did the same thing for the same reason I'd be pissed at them. Sony isn't in the red over $1 billion because of BC, but its moves like that which have hurt the PS3 and the PS brand. They are reaping what they sewed.

They need to lower their prices so people actually start buying Sony again, and I'm not just talking about PS3, I'm talking their tvs, dvd players, everything.

the ps3 is nothing compared to the 360 or the wii..epic fail

The PS3 is causing so much trouble for Sony. 16000 cut jobs is HUGE! I I know the problem isnt 100% caused by the PS3 but its a good portion of the problem.

The whole blu-ray thing is a problem, but not the main or only problem. Yes it didn't take off like Sony wanted but its putting out champagne price products for people with for 40 ounce pockets. With Vizio, Samsung, and many other companies offering budget products along side their premium products and their wider distribution in stores like Walmart and Best Buy, Sony is trying to sell in a declining market. Yes blu-ray cost Sony a lot and is still costing them much, but their other ventures are the ones that are really suffering. They have to create a lower price and competing line in order to make gains.

The $299 PS3 should help.

HA HA this is why PS3 Sucks lol :P

The PS3 is/was expensive cause of the Blu-Ray, so backwards compatibility isn't it. Personally, I think the reason they went down is since Blu-Ray players have gone down in price, the price of the system hasn't, and the options has been limited, so it isn't as worth it. If they would slash the price, they would sell a lot more systems.

Blu Ray... Sony insisted on Blu Ray and that has been the problem with the console. Why they couldn't just leave everything alone and stick with bacward compatability along with DVD Rom, I don't know.

RSA13 Posted Jan 13, 2009 11:38 pm GMT wow! sony is so stupid that it lost money! i own a xbox 360 and a PC, i think they both RULE! the wii is also awesome. but i dont really like sony because all the things i haved bought from them they dont work! Yeah, the PS2 is a total failure. It breaks all the time, unlike the X360.

Squirrel Sony sells PS3 console at a lost, the only way they can make up for the losses if customers buy more games. Taking out PS2 support is not action out of greed, it's necessary for survival.

Squirrel: almost everyone owns a PS2 anyway so who cares?

Sony needs to realize they aren't king anymore in every section of entertainment. I like their TV's, and the PS3 is pretty fun, but everything else they make seems to always just be more expensive and hardly as good as other products made by different brands.

" Krammin I don't understand why people rip into Sony for taking out backwards compatibility, yet when it was available they complained the price was to expensive for the console. All these extras made the PS3 more expensive, don't people get this???" That's not true, the backwards compatibility didn't make the PS3 much more expensive at all. Sony executive Jack Tretton said in October 2007 that the move was really about taking away the option to play PS2 games, so that people would be more inclined to buy PS3 games instead. It was done out of greed, not to bring down costs, but to limit your options. "Tretton told the paper that taking support for PS2 games out of the new system isn't dramatically cutting manufacturing costs. However, by omitting the option of playing PS2 games, Sony hopes that new customers will instead spend their money on more PS3 games." Here's the link to the official story where Tretton admits this: << LINK REMOVED >>

Gotrea: It's very possible they just love watching the silly little fanboy wars on this particular topic. I'll admit, it makes me giggle myself.

k0r3aN_pR1d3, true that. We used to have a Sony TV, but we got a Samsung because for the price it was better. Not that the Sony TVs were bad its just that we could get one of the same quality for a lower price, which is what consumers want if I’m not mistaken. This is brought up again in their phones. I have a w810i and I really happen to like it but the newer models of the phone are not to my liking and don’t seem to have the quality that the w810i has. Furthermore as you said there are better phones on the market now and Sony just hasn't kept up. About the PS3, I like it and have some good fun on it, but I wouldn't buy one. They are quite expensive and I already own an Xbox 360, Wii and a gaming PC, so really I don’t have a need for another system. That’s not to say that I don’t like it when I play at my friends place I still enjoy it as a system, I just don’t have that money to dish out right now. I personally don’t have anything against Sony it just seems like they might be spread too thin. They maybe should refocus so instead of being good at everything they could be great at things again. Best of luck to Sony though as every company has hard times.

yup economy = CRAPtastic

Why is this news article being pushed to the top of "Latest Headlines" again? For instance the "So-called Halo 3 killer convicted of murdering mom" article was just posted today and it's already half way down the "Latest Headlines". GameSpot has to realize that its there to report the news and not manipulate it.

Hey fanboys stop bashing Sony just because you are a fanboy. You should know the economy is bad right now, so all companies are having a tough time. If the economy gets extremely worse no one will be playing new games anymore, cause all the companies will go down.

We still haven't even seen a PS2 price cut in years... What's that all about?

Im not worried Sony can still live of of their other high quality Electronics.

everyone company having a hard time

Maybe they should take a leaf out of Sony Australia. Twice they had a promotion where they gave a free PS3 with any Bravia TV bought, they sold an amazing 70,000 TVs in 2 months (plus increased the PS3 userbase which means increased software sales).

@ ckorneluk Yeah, and you have the Xbox logo in your avatar, now who charges too much for everything? Even for playing online?

Only the second time in the companies history of a full fiscal year loss? wow, that's one helluva track record for Sony. Maybe we'll see a price drop on the PS3 and/or PSP from this loss, most likely not though.

lol

Sony had better rethink its strategy or else Nintendo and Microsoft are going to blow by them.

@ kevbo77 Of course it was needed, it got Blu-Ray on the market dude.

goodbyetonight "Unbelievable that people don't realize what a great system the PS3 is. It's the stupid non-gamers that made the Wii so popular because they're absolutely clueless about game quality. I have both a PS3 and a Wii, and I would pick the PS3 every day of the week." That is true. thats why bush looks bad right now. He cant do anything cuz the dems wont let him. If the house was all red when Obama gets in, He would be in the same spot that bush is in. back to the games... Sony should have never used a Blu-Ray drive. They only did it to push what they wanted in the first place. Now if Sony would have used HD-DVD drive alot of you would have been like, HD-DVD is better cuz sony has it.

It used to be that Sony was the brand name that everyone new produced the best of electronics. Now there are so many companies that produce just as good and better products that Sony can't stay ontop without making electronics that are way too expensive for the average consumer.

sad