Sony stock downgraded to junk status

This ain't a fanboy or flame war thread, am I the only one here worried about the future of this company? From what I've read some divisions are still profitable like PS, while others are hemorrhaging money. Kaz is the guy in charge now, the one who came up with the brilliant $600 price for the PS3. Are his management skills any better? And Sony sold bonds earlier this year to help finance an acquisition, so who's steering the ship, and is it ripe for takeover, or more in Japanese tradition, a merger with another electronics giant?

I'm not anti Sony or anything, they made my big tv, turntable, cd player etc. so I have had plenty of their products over the years. Would like to hear opinions besides "their next console will blow everything out of the water" or some nonsense.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-11-22-sony-stock-downgraded-to-junk-by-fitch

completely missing the boat on smartphones and handing it over to their nemesis, Samsung sure didn't help. blame Japanese isolationism. after the bubble burst in the 80s, japan decided to burn bridges and focus on domestic markets almost exclusively, it seems.

of course, the unfailingly expensive yen is also a big factor.

Yes, the exchange rate has cost both Sony and Nintendo profitable quarters this year.

sony's been shit for years. in fact they were only really any good in the 60s/70s/80s - been trading on their old rep for far too long and the bubble had to burst sometime.

however old sony silver hi-fi gear from the late 70s/early 80s is class.

I've been wondering this for a while...they are one of our biggest clients so I hope not...but there have been many signs "blowing in the wind"...

And the Vita...

Sold 4021 in Japan last month. Worldwide sales: 3,34m

Compared to the Nintendo 3DS worldwide sales: 22,64m

Ouch.

It's a shame really. The PS Vita seems like a Handheld that's actually worth buying (if there where some better games available for it).

Ouch, much like a giant enemy crab, Nintendo has hit their weak spot for MASSIVE DAMAGE!

Panasonic are in trouble too $9.6 billion dollar loss this financial year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-31/panasonic-predicts-full-year-loss-on-tvs-restructuring-cost.html

It's super effective!

  On 11/23/2012 at 6:28 PM, Obel said:

Ouch, much like a giant enemy crab, Nintendo has hit their weak spot for MASSIVE DAMAGE!

It's super effective!

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:12 PM, dr lopez said:

It's super effective!

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:12 PM, dr lopez said:

It's super effective!

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:14 PM, sweepstakes said:

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:12 PM, dr lopez said:

It's super effective!

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:12 PM, dr lopez said:

It's super effective!

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:14 PM, dr lopez said:

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:14 PM, sweepstakes said:

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:12 PM, dr lopez said:

It's super effective!

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:12 PM, dr lopez said:

It's super effective!

i've always had a soft spot for panasonic

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:42 PM, BCM said:

i've always had a soft spot for panasonic

iSONY?

  On 11/23/2012 at 2:33 PM, BCM said:

sony's been shit for years. in fact they were only really any good in the 60s/70s/80s - been trading on their old rep for far too long and the bubble had to burst sometime.

 

however old sony silver hi-fi gear from the late 70s/early 80s is class.

this.

they were pioneers in many groundbreaking techs, like Trinitron TVs, portable gadgets (walkmans, discmans...). Their last 'success' was the PlayStation, but even that came out too late, and soon got overpowered by competition.

Later on, they kept the high price tag but lost the tech frontier.

Panasonic made a good move by keeping their stuff high quality, whereas Sony failed at that part as well.

I know this is a Sony thread but;

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:49 PM, Gocab said:

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:42 PM, BCM said:

i've always had a soft spot for panasonic

I know a genuine Panaphonic when I see one.

Love 'em

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:49 PM, Gocab said:

  On 11/23/2012 at 8:42 PM, BCM said:

i've always had a super effective spot for panasonic

I think the console gaming industry is going to be inevitably taken over by another company, be it Apple or Google or yes, even Samsung. Maybe it's just going to go away altogether in place of a model that bridges the gap between PC and Console. Gaming clearly doesn't need to be built on this old binary opposition.

Sure, Sony is hurting, but look who's on the other side of the mainstream aisle: Microsoft.

Neither company have been innovative for a very long time and they're being crushed by their competitors.

Then there's Nintendo, which is every bit as isolationist and idiotic as Sony.

I'm awfully fond of their MDR-V700 headphones.

My tuppence worth...

1) Sony aren't making the quality products they were before. For example, with TVs Samsung/Phillips/Pioneer all seem to have passed them, and they don't really seem to have realised this.

2) They could have had the world by now, they have Sony Ericsson/Sony Pictures/Sony BMG/Sony Computer Entertainment but because their divisions are silo'd they don't seem to have been able to leverage this into a proper content delivery system.

3) Nintendo and Sony were working together on a CD player for Ninty and when they decided they didn't need it, Sony went ahead and created the first Playstation which destroyed Sega and seriously maimed Nintendo through the life of the N64 and Gamecube. Unfortunately the things that made Sony so good look now to have been serendipitous, with a raft of first party games which changed the playing field but then they were stuck making the same games for 20 years. I loved Wipeout/Wipeout2097 when they first came out, but they kept on making that game in Liverpool for the next 20 years... First party's job should be to create the games that change the market and will keep people coming to your console over other people's... without that differentiator people will use other metrics to choose their console. They made Eyetoy/Singstar which were game changers for PS2 but then got stuck in the same rut again for PS3.

4) They have completely missed the Maker culture movement which has sprung up. Give people a fish and they can eat for a day... Their tools really suck the root for the various consoles compared to others I could mention, and given that most developers will sit in the middle of a gaussian curve in terms of ability they will work better with tools that make them better. When Sony brought out the Net Yaroze it really looked like they were beginning to get it, but they didn't follow this through to the PS2/PS3 properly, gradually fading out Linux support with the PS3, and not giving people anything more than a machine to consume media. The PS3 should have been the start of a home hub with tools to create new media and learn how to program/create computer graphics/make games and it was much less than that. The BBC B/Spectrum/C64/Amiga created a wave of technologists which is just subsiding now, a console built along those lines would have reinforced that wave and created a generation of truly capable technologists by now.

Some quick thoughts. Personally I think it is looking grim for Sony and I can see a wave of redundancies on the horizon as they cut back to their core capabilities.

The crazy thing is that if they brought out a devkit accessible in the same way that the iPhone kit is for the Vita they would go on to own the games market again... but unfortunately they won't.

  On 11/25/2012 at 5:48 PM, FuncRandm said:

My tuppence worth...

 

1) Sony aren't making the quality products they were before. For example, with TVs Samsung/Phillips/Pioneer all seem to have passed them, and they don't really seem to have realised this.

 

2) They could have had the world by now, they have Sony Ericsson/Sony Pictures/Sony BMG/Sony Computer Entertainment but because their divisions are silo'd they don't seem to have been able to leverage this into a proper content delivery system.

 

3) Nintendo and Sony were working together on a CD player for Ninty and when they decided they didn't need it, Sony went ahead and created the first Playstation which destroyed Sega and seriously maimed Nintendo through the life of the N64 and Gamecube. Unfortunately the things that made Sony so good look now to have been serendipitous, with a raft of first party games which changed the playing field but then they were stuck making the same games for 20 years. I loved Wipeout/Wipeout2097 when they first came out, but they kept on making that game in Liverpool for the next 20 years... First party's job should be to create the games that change the market and will keep people coming to your console over other people's... without that differentiator people will use other metrics to choose their console. They made Eyetoy/Singstar which were game changers for PS2 but then got stuck in the same rut again for PS3.

 

4) They have completely missed the Maker culture movement which has sprung up. Give people a fish and they can eat for a day... Their tools really suck the root for the various consoles compared to others I could mention, and given that most developers will sit in the middle of a gaussian curve in terms of ability they will work better with tools that make them better. When Sony brought out the Net Yaroze it really looked like they were beginning to get it, but they didn't follow this through to the PS2/PS3 properly, gradually fading out Linux support with the PS3, and not giving people anything more than a machine to consume media. The PS3 should have been the start of a home hub with tools to create new media and learn how to program/create computer graphics/make games and it was much less than that. The BBC B/Spectrum/C64/Amiga created a wave of technologists which is just subsiding now, a console built along those lines would have reinforced that wave and created a generation of truly capable technologists by now.

 

Some quick thoughts. Personally I think it is looking grim for Sony and I can see a wave of redundancies on the horizon as they cut back to their core capabilities.

 

The crazy thing is that if they brought out a devkit accessible in the same way that the iPhone kit is for the Vita they would go on to own the games market again... but unfortunately they won't.

They just brought out the Playstation Mobile Dev Kit... 99.00/yr and you can make Vita games. They're slowly waking up, hopefully they're not too late.

  On 11/25/2012 at 3:48 PM, The Overlook said:

Then there's Nintendo, which is every bit as isolationist and idiotic as Sony.

lol poor mario