150°

S&P responds to January NPD by cutting SONY's credit rating

Insiderp : " Just a day after the NPD revelation , controversial rating agency S&P cut down the outlook of SONY to BBB- . Now it could be coincidence or could well be foul play. Trimming down the rating of a big company just a day after an unexpected news of PS4 winning back USA, without any justified reasoning, and especially when shedding off the PC division would put the company firmly in the black for fiscal 2014? "

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insiderp.com
UltimateMaster3750d ago (Edited 3750d ago )

So the companies that gave Sony bad credit rating scores are themselves blacklisted in several countries. For unjustified lowering credit ratings when they should have gone up.

LostDjinn3750d ago

Some countries?

S&P are facing a massive number of charges in the US. http://mobile.bloomberg.com...

In fact their defense is that there are so many charges it's just too hard and they should be shown leniency. These guys are what some people may call shady, but hey. If you're making a profit that's the important part right? ;)

jmac533750d ago

What do you expect? Most of the people in charge of our economy are crooks. Didn't we all learn this in 2008.

otherZinc3750d ago (Edited 3750d ago )

@UltimateMaster,

Moodys Industrial Manual and Standard & Poors, are two of the most trusted Agencies in the history of this world!

Problem the author of this article has with the Agencies is they don't read n4g & neosonygaff forums. They base their findings on facts & futures.

Moodys and S&P know the PS4 is losing money on each PS4 sold.
Moodys and S&P know the PS4 has no great selling software on the way for 2014. Moodys and S&P know the PSVita is a failure, & SONY continues to push it.

Moodys and S&P will not let hype cloud their analysis, they look out for the investors.

Jihaad_cpt3750d ago

Both of them missed what happened in the US banking sector with the financial crash. They are clearly sage in wisdom

iamnsuperman3750d ago (Edited 3750d ago )

And the big three credibility was put into question with the financial collapse of 2007/2008. Some serious mishandling on their part. Actually these credit agencies have been criticised numerous times for their reacting/media driven ratings (mainly their country ratings which seem to be more driven by politics than facts)

gamer11383750d ago (Edited 3750d ago )

Why does this surprise people? Yeah the NPD numbers were good but Sony is about to post a 1.1 billion dollar loss for the last financial year(which includes PS4 launch and all sales). Sony is more than Playstation and as long as the other parts of the business are unhealthy the overall business will suffer. Hopefully the run away success of the PS4 can stabilise them.

extermin8or3750d ago

I'd agree but consodering as the article states several eu countries have labled the companies as dodgy/corrupt and blacklisted them for downgrading credit rating unjustifiably the fact sony will make a loss has been known for awhile now and they put the rating down the day after a sales announcement thats positive no I'd hazzard whats going pn here is they are trying to artificially push down the stock price to buy in themselves so that when the company is fully blackbin the black after streamlining tv and ditching pc buissness and ps4 is selling incredibly well and raking in the cash they can encourage the stocks back up and cash in selling them...

OrangePowerz3750d ago

The report of the expected loss is a bit older. Rating agencies would change their rating shortly after such announcements. In that regard it is strange given the time between the Sony report and the downgrade.

lifeisgamesok3750d ago

$1.1 billion loss is a big hit especially to a company not doing so well financially

And the selling off of the PC and TV portion didn't help either

extermin8or3750d ago

Selling pc and streamlining tv shpuld have increased the rating-the tv area is the reason they are in the red alnost every time they have made a loss...

yewles13750d ago (Edited 3750d ago )

The people that want to link Sony's profit to selling their buildings last year don't want to link their loss this year to their factory and Silicon Valley HQ acquisition...

http://finance.yahoo.com/ne...
http://www.playstationlifes...

Hmm...

RexLex3750d ago (Edited 3750d ago )

Well both S&P and Moddy's are a joke ,.. Should have done their job in 2007-8 ,..
At least they downgraded US bonds ex post facto,.. It should be @junk like Dagong says

It is all-American phony economy crap and circle jerk,... While everything is falling apart. At lest most countries have them on shit list.

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140°

Sony CEO says although AI "has been used for creation," it's "not a substitute for human creativity"

"AI is not a substitute for human creativity. We position it as a technology that supports creativity. Creativity resides in people. We will continue to contribute to people's creativity through technology," the CEO said.

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gamesradar.com
1nsomniac1d 7h ago (Edited 1d 7h ago )

...not yet but 100% within the next 10 years!

..Then Sony will use it like the drop of a hat. They're no different to the others.

isarai1d 5h ago (Edited 1d 5h ago )

They used to be 😞 sure it was always a business, and money's always the priority, but they used to have a very strong stance on supporting artists and creativity. "Dont f#@k with the artist" was a phrase they touted a few times back in the ps1-ps3 era, a philosophy carried over from their music branch PlayStation was created from. It's not COMPLETELY gone, but it's barely there compared to what it was back then, i just want them to return to that.

Eonjay10h ago(Edited 10h ago)

I am highly encouraged by their statement about human creativity. "Dont f#@k with the artist" is exactly what they are saying. But at the same time, I don't think people understand that Sony is a corporation. If they don't realize growth, they don't get to exist. When you say 'Sony', you are talking about a bunch of investors. To speak about them any other way is a illogical and incorrect. They haven't changed. They have been a group of investors since they became a public business.

isarai21h ago

Ugh, i really wish people would stop gambling people's livelihoods by turning a project/game into their political soapbox. Im all for statements and having your own opinion, but there's more people working on this than just druckman, ham fisting your political beliefs onto just seems inconsiderate for everyone elses job security when it can result in a failure due to people avoiding it for that reason.

I play games for escape, im so tired of nearly every AAA game blatantly dragging real world issues to shove in my face when I'm trying to take a break from it all. They don't even bother to be subtle about it, quite the opposite, it's blasted and force fed to you and it's just getting exhausting

Einhander197212h ago

People are taking a whole interview and cutting it down to clips that make him look bad and take what he actually was saying out of context. For example he also said things like this AI has "ethical issues we need to address"

-Foxtrot11h ago

@Einhander

Why defend him at this point?

It’s not taking things out of context, he said what he said.

Old ND would never talk about soulless AI taking over so many creative things they are well known for. The whole “ethical issues” is just a good PR spin people who push this crap fall back on to make their statements not seem as bad. So many AI lovers do this.

AI has no place is so many creative based things.

Einhander197212h ago

Well yeah, because everyone else is using it so they need to stay competitive. It's the same as paid online, they didn't want to go that route but their competition was making so much money they needed to add paid online just to keep up.

RaiderNation9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

AI will never replace humans in game development in terms of conceptualizing new games. Humans still need to come up with the ideas and what they want to implement. However much of the day to day menial coding could be AI driven to reduce production time and team size. I could also see AI being used for bug testing/optimization that could lead to better quality games at launch. I'm actually very optimistic about how AI can positively impact game development.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 9h ago
XiNatsuDragnel1d 5h ago

Good statement but hopefully this holds up

NotoriousWhiz10h ago

People that aren't software developers just don't understand the benefits of AI. People who's only exposure to A.I is the Terminator movie and other related sci fi films won't understand the benefits it provides.

It's not about replacing human labor. It's about making human labor easier.

Many years ago, I had laser eye surgery done. It was performed by a robot. The doctor took my measurements and calibrated the machine to make sure it would do what needed be done. And then the robot corrected my vision in 10 seconds.

15 years later and I still have 20/20 vision.

Eonjay10h ago

AI in and of itself is not a 'bad'. Money is bad. Money is evil, and corporations will do whatever they can to get more of it. They will find ways to implement AI to replace as may jobs as possible. This isn't even up for debate. It is the charge of the corporation to maximize returns for the investors. They have no choice. I'm a developer and I know that my job will absolutely be replaced. Therefore, I have decided to become an AI dev. AI has a lot of potential to help us solve problem on a scale most can't even imagine. The issue, as ever is that our monetary system only ever allows us to focus on greed and fiscal growth.

But I am a pragmatist. Perhaps an AI model can be built to help protect us from our most dangerous instincts and habits. And perhaps Congress can pass laws to protect us from people who would use AI to manipulate and control us (spoiler: they wont).

150°

Sony Patents To Prevent You From In-Game Harassment By Reading Your Emotions

A new patent recently published by Sony wants to gather biometric data of gamers to track whether one is being harassed using AI tools.

Profchaos29d ago (Edited 29d ago )

I hope this is one of those patents that never comes to fruition.

I already dislike the fact you can pay a significant amount for a online service buy associated games and content on said service and get banned from that service over potentially a misunderstanding the bans are already handed out for flimsy reasons

I'd rather see money invested in a ban that simply removes the offensive players ability to communicate with unknown players allow them to continue party chats with friends but not with Joe blow on cod.

exputers29d ago

Agreed. Blizzard recently banned a college Overwatch 2 player who's dependent for saying "shit." Pretty harsh.

Profchaos28d ago (Edited 28d ago )

How rediculas really. You can't say a word that's allowed in most PG films and prime time TV but the game is based around killing the enemy team using guns, explosives etc.

It's just backwards.

just_looken29d ago

What your talking about is called block list

In 2006 a spaceship dropped of the playstation 3/xbox 360 i say that that generation was the last great gen with game functions/tech that has yet to comeback

Anyhow the playstation 3 if you block listed a id they could not talk to you in chatroom with either text or voice. But that was pre mind fucked 2018 when people were more human than sheep.

But hey gta 6 is coming out billion dollar budget without a single player custom character creator and without singeplayer coop off/online something saints row 1-3 had on the xbox 360.

z2g29d ago

Take my social security and bank account numbers too! Here’s a picture of my wife and our address.

phoenixwing29d ago

Cmon where's the pictures of your children. Don't hold out on them.

H929d ago

At this rate I feel Sony will eventually sell a room to play games in it where they can monitor your every breath

jambola29d ago

I genuinely get a bit worried sometimes when a friend says something that could be offensive In a party
Because I have no trouble believing some bans would happen when in a private party for saying something wrong

SegaSaturn66929d ago

I want them to censor erotic content by measuring my groin temperature so i dont get too distracted while playing black ops 2.

Popsicle29d ago

Terrible idea. Not only do I not consent to providing my biometric data, the potential for mishandling biometric data is almost a certainty. Positive stress and negative stress can produce similar changes in biometrics. Interpreting the precise emotion a person is feeling is not only invasive but could be easily misconstrued. I hope this never comes to fruition.

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130°

Sony Could Increase Your Game's Difficulty If It Sees You Complain About It

Sony has recently published a new patent that wants to dynamically handle the games' difficulty and gameplay based on the player's emotions.

jznrpg30d ago

This is something I might use. Sometimes I play some good games but they don’t have difficulty option and are a little too easy.

Profchaos30d ago

Souls games will be like that players struggling make it harder

PassNextquestion30d ago (Edited 30d ago )

I think if used correctly it could work well

jambola29d ago

cool idea
cool idea for horror games especially
the way it's explained here sounds like it could never be forced hopefully, so that's ok with me

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