businessweek.com— Ok, it's an upgrade from their previous advice of 'Strong Sell,' but it's interesting to note the phrase "a lack of visibility in Sony's games division."
Jun 1, 2006View in Crawl 4
It's really too bad to see how Sony's fallen (both in real terms and in their image among the geek continuum).In the halcyon days of the CRT, Sony was the only way to go -- only the Trinitron had a vertically flat tube, the best focus, and longevity that made everyone else's stuff look disposable. Sony VCRs had the best industrial design and component quality, and Sony camcorders were the absolute top of the crop.Then the 90s ended, Sony began to spread its brand too thin (Sony BMG, I'm looking at you), and it became obvious that the top dog had begun to take its place for granted with proprietary formats and user-unfriendly design.I don't hate Sony. I don't think any of us should hate them. But the mighty has fallen, and it's time for them to truly prove themselves to the market once again if they are to regain their former glory and geek cred.
I still think it's consumer wearniness. There's a reason that no company has won the console wars three times in a row. It's because once something gets popular for long enough, the masses turn against it. It happens in every market. And it's cyclical. If Nintendo had owned the last two console cycles, they'd be the ones under the gun. Same for Microsoft. Heck, even the Dreamcast wasn't all that popular until after it was gone. And I still say it was smart for Sony to announce the price at E3. Another trait of the masses is that they don't tend to stay miffed for all that long. By launch, a lot of folks won't have nearly as big an issue with the price as they do now.
"It's because once something gets popular for long enough, the masses turn against it. It happens in every market."If windows Vista bombs and everyone buys a Mac (or maybe a Linux box), then I might buy your logic. Till then, I'll be a little skeptical about that statement. ;-)
your logic doesnt make sense. concentrating on hardware i what got sony into the industry. their attention to the hardware is the reason why developers left sega and nintendo in droves to develop for the ps1. their attention to hardware is what made the ps2 an attractive buy for alot of consumers at the time that wanted to see what dvd was all about. that minor detail may or may not have been what held back two superior systems, and helped to run one gaming giant out of the console industry. make no mistake, sony does make games... sony does make software... but unlike most other major console makers, they are a hardware company first. way i see it they made a few bad design choices with the ps2, that hurt them when MS and nintendo both released consoles that dwarfed the ps2 in comparison. this generation, they are trying to overcompensate for that. unfortunately consumers are the only ones losing, because someone [read: consumers] have to pay for all that. if the hardware sucks, the gaming will suffer for it; ask any xbox fanboy why he would choose an xbox version of a game over the ps2 version.
streetstealthJun 1, 2006
It's really too bad to see how Sony's fallen (both in real terms and in their image among the geek continuum).In the halcyon days of the CRT, Sony was the only way to go -- only the Trinitron had a vertically flat tube, the best focus, and longevity that made everyone else's stuff look disposable. Sony VCRs had the best industrial design and component quality, and Sony camcorders were the absolute top of the crop.Then the 90s ended, Sony began to spread its brand too thin (Sony BMG, I'm looking at you), and it became obvious that the top dog had begun to take its place for granted with proprietary formats and user-unfriendly design.I don't hate Sony. I don't think any of us should hate them. But the mighty has fallen, and it's time for them to truly prove themselves to the market once again if they are to regain their former glory and geek cred.
samduJun 1, 2006
I still think it's consumer wearniness. There's a reason that no company has won the console wars three times in a row. It's because once something gets popular for long enough, the masses turn against it. It happens in every market. And it's cyclical. If Nintendo had owned the last two console cycles, they'd be the ones under the gun. Same for Microsoft. Heck, even the Dreamcast wasn't all that popular until after it was gone. And I still say it was smart for Sony to announce the price at E3. Another trait of the masses is that they don't tend to stay miffed for all that long. By launch, a lot of folks won't have nearly as big an issue with the price as they do now.
killtheratJun 1, 2006
"It's because once something gets popular for long enough, the masses turn against it. It happens in every market."If windows Vista bombs and everyone buys a Mac (or maybe a Linux box), then I might buy your logic. Till then, I'll be a little skeptical about that statement. ;-)
apoc06Jun 1, 2006
your logic doesnt make sense. concentrating on hardware i what got sony into the industry. their attention to the hardware is the reason why developers left sega and nintendo in droves to develop for the ps1. their attention to hardware is what made the ps2 an attractive buy for alot of consumers at the time that wanted to see what dvd was all about. that minor detail may or may not have been what held back two superior systems, and helped to run one gaming giant out of the console industry. make no mistake, sony does make games... sony does make software... but unlike most other major console makers, they are a hardware company first. way i see it they made a few bad design choices with the ps2, that hurt them when MS and nintendo both released consoles that dwarfed the ps2 in comparison. this generation, they are trying to overcompensate for that. unfortunately consumers are the only ones losing, because someone [read: consumers] have to pay for all that. if the hardware sucks, the gaming will suffer for it; ask any xbox fanboy why he would choose an xbox version of a game over the ps2 version.
ilitiritJun 1, 2006
I think I'm gonna some Sony stock.Buy when the market is pessimistic, sell when the market is optimistic.
majin_raditzJun 2, 2006
Sounds like a great time to buy Sony stock.
snapcaseJun 2, 2006
I figure Sony stock will still drop a little more before the release of the PS3. I'll be buying around then.