Sony Corp.'s disastrous launch of its next generation video player, the Playstation 3 (PS3), is a factor in the layoff this week of 80 to 100 U.S. employees of Sony Computer Entertainment, mostly at their headquarters in Foster City, California. This follows in the wake of the botched business plan for the PS3 that cost Sony about $2 billon last fiscal year and has raised questions about the long term viability of the Blu-ray hi def format.
Although SCE execs predict the unit will turn a profit this year, and Sony still strongly supports the Blu-ray format, questions have been raised about the long term viability of the Blu-ray business plan.
Sony Corp. was criticized at the end of last year for being late to market with the PS3 due to reported manufacturing problems. Even when they had a machine to sell, it was widely reported that Sony was losing as much as $200 on every sale of a $500 player. Sony called it an investment because the machine owners will then buy lots and lots of discs. It's the classic theory of give 'em the razor and then sell blades forever.
Unfortunately, so far it has not worked. It turns out most people who buy a PS3 actually want to play video games. Few bought it for movies alone simply because it was a cheaper way to get a Blu-ray player, which came built into each P3. Many who wanted cheaper players simply bought the competing HD DVD players at half the cost of the Sony units.
Some gamers were actually angry at Sony for sticking a Blu-ray player in the PS3 at all because it boosted the price at launch by an estimated $200. Microsoft sold the Xbox 360 for about half the price of a PS3, and then offered its high definition HD DVD player as an add on device for about $200 to those who also wanted to show hi def movies.
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“I thoroughly enjoy retro-style games and with that, Magic Orbz modernises the classic brick breaking formula and it has held up beautifully.” - A.J. Maciejewski from Video Chums.
BLG writes, "Some of the most popular games have had a rough start, with some of them being downright unplayable.
Despite that, developers have managed to turn it around for them and make their game worth playing. Here are some games that had a rough start but were pretty great."
Sea of Thieves... I'm not disagreeing that the game has improved in terms of content. But I feel that the most significant change between now and its release is actually the public perception. Nowadays, most people are aware that the game is a multiplayer PvP-focused experience first and foremost, and not "Black Flag made by Rare". Consequently, people dismissing the whole experience because the single-player aspect is lacking or the story is plain are much less common.
Several years ago, i submitted an idea to Rare that would change up the mechanics of battling opponents in the game. whereby if you died in battle, you turned into a skeleton warrior and had to fight your way back to the land of the living. It was an interesting twist on respawning and would allow the player to experience both sides of a battle.
I keep hoping to see something like that get added to the game.
It's sad that this quick retort is more often than not true... The industry's acceptance of release and patch has gone too far.
Days gone! By the end of the game I couldn't drop it down! I went around so many hours killing zombies! It was addictive by the end.
I don't know, I got it abit late, and struggled for a few days, and then all of a sudden it just got good!!
and i post both positive and negative news articles for all 3. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and has the choice to read them or not.
That's an op-ed piece, not a news article. Hardly good journalism.
He could easily have stated pretty much the same things without the fannish hyperbole.
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Captain Tuttle: (below)
Agreed. I wasn't questioning the validity of it's approval, just commenting on the quality of the "journalism". I'm used to seeing much less worthwhile pieces being approved.
will upset a few though.
you see \/\/\/
I disagree with most of the points that Sony has failed, just because something doesn't take off immediately doesn't mean all hope is lost.
When I start seeing 3rd-party companies dropping off support completely will be the days that killed Sony's Playstation brand.
@mp
Why people bother to spend time to write "articles" about stuff that is already known to about every living real gamer is beyond me.
Give us something new already!