"PS4 Is Not Allowed To Fail", Says SCE President

[DrRipley]

This is kind of an old article (2 months old) but I thought it was pretty interesting even in present context. Sony has a lot riding on their game systems now more than ever, apparently, and reading this reminded me that I hardly ever see anyone buying a Vaio laptop or Sony phones anymore. I guess the upside is that they are treating the game consoles more seriously now, and it shows.

SCE President: we’re not allowed to fail with the PlayStation 4

Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House has come out and said some rather interesting things regarding the business side of the PlayStation 4.

Speaking to a Japanese publication, House said that Sony isn’t allowed to “fail with the PlayStation 4″, and that they are now very aware that the new console has to be more successful than the PS3, at least financially speaking.

Speaking to Diamond Online, House said:

“Sony Computer Entertainment is not allowed to fail anymore with the PlayStation 4, because the game business for Sony is a core business that embodies a fusion of both hardware and software”.

By “core business”, House means that the gaming division is no longer a small sub-division at Sony that isn’t taken seriously and that’s allowed to bleed money. Because of Sony’s struggles in other sectors, the computer entertainment division can no longer afford to lose the billions they lost during the PS3 years.

 

[aperture7]

I think it's just about impossible for either Sony's or Microsoft's systems to fail at this point, barring a gigantic flaw that somehow made it into the development of the system. Both have so much hype around them, I see one or both shattering previous sales records.

 

[CpmPanda]

Well, this is next-generation, if they fail it will hurt them and their customers. Hopefully they have learned from the PS3, security, support and overall keeping up with their system. Go Sony!

 

[baracksyndel]

I understand the sentiment. Remember the PS3 only recently started making profit. I read that Sony was losing $230 per 60gb unit sold. While only recently successful I think we forgot what a bomb the PS3 was when it first came out. SCE needs the PS4 to be a success. I love what I hear about the PS4 and I'm going to buy one soon but I do think that they've learned from what happened and that the PS4 will be a success.

 

[jbepp]

They've learned a lot form the PS3. The PS3 was way to expensive at launch and it had almost no games.
The PS4 looks like a great console and I'm sure it'll only get better.

 

[DrRipley]

I think it's just about impossible for either Sony's or Microsoft's systems to fail at this point, barring a gigantic flaw that somehow made it into the development of the system. Both have so much hype around them, I see one or both shattering previous sales records.

I don't think failure is that much of an impossibility, especially when it comes to Sony. Their consoles and name are famous, but from what I've been reading, they haven't too profitable since the PS2. They sell their consoles to you at a loss in hopes that they will make it back in games a few dollars in profit at a time, a percentage of those customers pirate their games or just don't buy enough games, so they pretty much just handed those people hundreds of their dollars in losses. At least that's how I understand the situation.

 

[TheDarkDefender]

DrRipley, I had no idea about any of that stuff. I just buy the consoles and play the games when I can haha I'm glad they're still going and going though. I love sony

 

[Stuck_X_Button]

I can see where House is coming from. It's more of rally to actually make the PlayStation profitable this. The brand itself is probably in the same condition as the Xbox brand was with the 360 where it still made money, not enough to warrant the amount of advertising going into it, and was a significant money leech in that particular department.

In Microsoft and Sony's cases, there's other things to offset that. The Xbox was the large money drain for the department that included Bing, Skype, and Windows Phone. Royalties from Google pad that so the loss isn't as great as it could be (some $2B), but it still showed Xbox didn't have the legs to support itself.

The "we can't fail" is saying "While we're finally making money with PS3 and PS4 is sure to have tremendous sales, the brand has to be able to stand on it's own legs." Remember, during the summer one investor wanted the specific wings of Sony (the tech and entertainment ones) to be split so that the company could focus and one department wouldn't have to prop up the other. While it was just one investor, looking at things and how performance would be if the specific wings had to depend on just stuff within their wing as opposed to overall probably let Sony know, "We have to do something about it this time around."

 

[Tomba]

While it's possible for Sony to fail after the slow climb for PS3 I'd say it's in no position to fail. It honestly shouldn't especially with Wii U not performing well and people being sour towards the Xbox One. At the very least PS4 should explode out of the gate and make enough profit that it can be deemed #1 for a period.

That's pretty much where the success comes in, being #1 early in the console's lifetime. Being #1 towards the end/when the next generation is starting is like winning a foot race when the other races show up with the gout, sprained ankles, and Lego foot. It's a win, but it's nothing to poke your chest out about.

 

[dragoonblade]

SCE needs the PS4 to be a success, they need to start making money on it immediately there really isn't any other option. It's not Nintendo where they can afford to have their console fail. And the rest of Sony is hurting to much to have the gaming division fail and be able to cover the loss. I think the PS4 will succeed but it's the longterm sales that will bail them out of the hole that the PS3 dug them into.