Report: Sony facing massive PS3 losses
- Thread starter Darkaber
- Start date
JUMPURS said:
Aye but they don't have it 'now'.
I think the moment Sony have a solution that genuinely rivals MS and if (and this is a big if) it's still free MS will have to adjust their pricing strategy.
But with these losses and MS talking about how Live! is a revenue source I really can't see how Sony and its shareholders will continue to drive it for free.
Soldato
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found this about more info on the PSN network and whats happening, its of some interest
Sony Online Announces Xbox Live-style Centralized Hub
News has it that Sony Online, publishers of MMO's such as the EverQuest series, Star Wars Galaxies, and the recently unleashed Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, has plans of releasing a new online service, designed to help keep track of online worlds players are participating in. Titled, "Station Launcher", the service offers very similar features to Microsoft's ever popular Xbox Live network. Enabling gamers to download games and network content more efficiently, no hints on any achievements scoring system or trophy rooms have yet been revealed, but it does add in several other features, such as Instant Messenger and iTunes.
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Station Launcher will keep tabs on all your Sony Online products, and automatically ensure you're locked and loaded with any patches and (should you wish it) expansion packs that might strike your fancy. It will be able to import your friends lists from all SOE products, so you can keep track of your buddy's progress in PlanetSide (yep - it still exists) even as you explore the newly-announcedRise of Kunark expansion in EverQuest II. It can also port external friends lists from instant messenger clients like ICQ and AIM. Sony Online hopes to cooperate with other MMO publishers (Blizzard and NCSoft come to mind) to incorporate their products into the system as well.
Of course, this is a Sony-owned company, so Station Launcher looks to offer downloads of Sony's music and film libraries, to help occupy those moments when you aren't grinding through some fantasy wasteland in heavy armor.
With such a wide range of functions, Station Launcher seems well poised to earn itself a large collection of direct competitors, and possibly be a jack of all trades, master of none, as the saying goes. However, the PC world is in need of a good, centralized provider of all things digital, and Station Launcher seems as likely as ever to provide that solution when it arrives, hopefully later this year.
Sony Online Announces Xbox Live-style Centralized Hub
News has it that Sony Online, publishers of MMO's such as the EverQuest series, Star Wars Galaxies, and the recently unleashed Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, has plans of releasing a new online service, designed to help keep track of online worlds players are participating in. Titled, "Station Launcher", the service offers very similar features to Microsoft's ever popular Xbox Live network. Enabling gamers to download games and network content more efficiently, no hints on any achievements scoring system or trophy rooms have yet been revealed, but it does add in several other features, such as Instant Messenger and iTunes.
quote:
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Station Launcher will keep tabs on all your Sony Online products, and automatically ensure you're locked and loaded with any patches and (should you wish it) expansion packs that might strike your fancy. It will be able to import your friends lists from all SOE products, so you can keep track of your buddy's progress in PlanetSide (yep - it still exists) even as you explore the newly-announcedRise of Kunark expansion in EverQuest II. It can also port external friends lists from instant messenger clients like ICQ and AIM. Sony Online hopes to cooperate with other MMO publishers (Blizzard and NCSoft come to mind) to incorporate their products into the system as well.
Of course, this is a Sony-owned company, so Station Launcher looks to offer downloads of Sony's music and film libraries, to help occupy those moments when you aren't grinding through some fantasy wasteland in heavy armor.
With such a wide range of functions, Station Launcher seems well poised to earn itself a large collection of direct competitors, and possibly be a jack of all trades, master of none, as the saying goes. However, the PC world is in need of a good, centralized provider of all things digital, and Station Launcher seems as likely as ever to provide that solution when it arrives, hopefully later this year.
Mr Men said:Agreed, it won't be free for long and once 3rd party games start charging for dedicated servers then the £40 for Live all in no other costs, will seem very very cheap
I personally think Little Big Planet will have anough revenue streams to keep Sony offering online for free
smcshaw said:
TBH everyone i know who uses the PS network says it is good enough. The only thing they want is access to the XMB from in game. Give the people that, and everyone will wonder, why pay for live.
Especially with yer more 32 player goodness announces in SOCOM for PS3
Mr Men said:Agreed, it won't be free for long and once 3rd party games start charging for dedicated servers then the £40 for Live all in no other costs, will seem very very cheap
Quite funny all xbox fans presume 3rd party games will charge. No they wont, they will just get gamespy/xfire, or someone to controll it and put a tiny banner saying they are in the loby, like they done with PS2 games. and i can live with that.
Also McManicMan that is only for their MMO's. It is a steam style launcher so you can launch all the programs from one launch pad, i been waiting for a while for this, it is meant to be sweet.
FrankJH said:
Add Home to that and they are laughing. The amount of people who buy stupid gamer pictures on xbox live, will no doubt be happy to buy TV's and furniture for Home. Personally i'll be a squatter. Get me a sleeping bag and i'll be happy
Mr Men said:Agreed, it won't be free for long and once 3rd party games start charging for dedicated servers then the £40 for Live all in no other costs, will seem very very cheap
I dunno why people keep saying third party companies will charge. As yet the only service I know that charges is on FFXII on 360 charges you on top of your Live sub to pay. is there actually any other existing 360 games that charge? Or planned? or any on the PS3 or is this just speculation?
JUMPURS said:Add Home to that and they are laughing. The amount of people who buy stupid gamer pictures on xbox live, will no doubt be happy to buy TV's and furniture for Home. Personally i'll be a squatter. Get me a sleeping bag and i'll be happy
i can't see myself buying any content for Home, that seems like an obvious ripoff like MS themes and gamer pics. having said that I bought a set of xbox yesterday (last one I hope!). I bought the Heroes Picture pack and Theme. I set my gamerpic to be the Cheerleader and changed my motto to be "Save the Cheerleader"
rp2000
JUMPURS said:
I think the chances are that if a 3rd party game is going to use dedicated servers for games then either 1 of 2 things will happen.
1. The user pays some sort of premium for the use of the dedicated server games.
2. Sony host the dedicated servers and absorb all the costs.
I don't really understand what your saying about gamespy/xfire. Do you mean that 3rd party PS3 games need a 3rd party piece of software to arrange games?
Mr Men said:You think EA is gonna pay for the servers?
By the same token, do you know for a fact they won't or that Sony won;t absorb the cost?
You saying they will charge in the future is no more valid than me saying the live subs will go up next year. Pure Speculation, based on nothing concrete.
As i mentioned earlier, the only system that charges extra subs is FFXII on xbox 360 atm.
rp2000
Well they have absorbed the costs often enough with PC gaming. I have never had to pay to play any of the Battlefield games online. Same with Couterstrike etc, so if they can do it on PC then why not with consoles?Mr Men said:Sony is losing money, they cant absorb the costs of 3rd party servers....as for will EA try and fleece the customers...if you really think they wont then you really dont know much about EA
Think I might join you - we could be the virtual tramps sitting in the corner of a lobby drinking wine from a brown paper bagJUMPURS said:Add Home to that and they are laughing. The amount of people who buy stupid gamer pictures on xbox live, will no doubt be happy to buy TV's and furniture for Home. Personally i'll be a squatter. Get me a sleeping bag and i'll be happy
One thing that everyone needs to take into account is the fact that Sony must have predicted these losses and built it into their busness forecasts. They were predicting selling more than what they have so far and considering they knew well in advance how much they would lose per console sold then theoretically they havent lost as much as they should have predicted - unless of course they did not cut manufacturing to bring it in line with the lower sales numbers. I know they make their revenue back from game sales but they are never that healthy at the start of a consoles lifespan so they would have known this too.
Bottom line is that Sony are in it for the long term with the PS3 and are probably quite confident that given a few years they will be more than covering all losses made during the launch period and will be forecasting huge profits for the forseable future.
Bottom line is that Sony are in it for the long term with the PS3 and are probably quite confident that given a few years they will be more than covering all losses made during the launch period and will be forecasting huge profits for the forseable future.