Once upon a time Sony was one of those companies that wanted to do everything: phones, tablets, laptops, TV, cameras, music players, headphones, speaker systems… and video games. Nowadays that’s been stripped back, with Sony abandoning laptops, and mostly abandoning tablets. Now Sony is continuing in that vein, focusing on its successful divisions. One of those is the PlayStation division.
Sony’s plan: increase its profit margins 25-fold by focusing on the products that actually make money, whilst pulling back on ones that don’t. Sound business strategy, particularly after Sony recorded its sixth net loss in seven years.
But Sony’s stock is on the rise, growing by 80% in the past year as a result of new CEO Kaz Hirai’s restructuring of core Sony businesses to focus on less products, and making sure those products are the right products. That restructuring will continue.
According to Reuters, it’s all about PlayStations and camera sensors. That’s been Sony’s best bet over the last 12 months, and many see that as the key to Sony’s future profitability.
Interestingly, Hirai stated that Sony would consider exiting the Television market. Sony’s Bravia brand has been a great performer in terms of quality, but Samsung and LG have increasingly cornered that market.
Sony still expects to post a net loss in 2014/15, but a smaller one than previously expected. Sony, as a company, appears to be turning itself around.
Sony sees 25-fold profit jump by 2018; could exit TVs, phones [Reuters]
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16 responses to “Sony Is Now Focusing On PlayStation (And Other Stuff)”
As much as their ego would take a hit from it I don’t think that would be a terrible idea for them. I find with their TV and audio equipment it’s not a matter of quality it’s a matter of competition. They make a really high quality TV but you can get one with similar specs in a larger size from another brand. It pushed them towards trying to separate themselves from the pack with buzz word features that don’t have that much appeal. If you want a TV that is definitively better you can get that from Sony but most people struggle to recognise the difference without looking at the specs.
The only other market Sony TVs appeal to is people who want a brand name and don’t care about cost. Even then they don’t seem to try and get their prices down relative to the other big brands, they try and put stickers on the box to convince you to spend $1,800 on a 40-inch TV. Attempting to inflate the value rather than reduce the price.
They could try offering a cheaper range of TVs but I think Sony as a brand prides itself on producing premium quality equipment. Even if they could offer Sony quality at a Hisense price I don’t think they would want to damage their name by throwing it into that arena.
If Sony are going to be more Playstation focused, then I would like to see more useful firmware updates rather then all these stability updates. Almost once a month I hear of new features the X1 have gotten in a new update, Yet Sony just haven’t given us anything new in months.
Yes!!!! Focus on Playstation!!!
need more games, for a system marketed as for games it’s been lagging behind both nintendo and microsoft so far.
IMHO, both Sony and MS don’t have a strong exclusive line up so far (’cause the consoles are still new). At least nothing to be excessively proud of in comparison to each other, especially when compared with Nintendo. (I say this as a PC gamer with a PS4 and WiiU)
I have a wii u, pc, vita, ps4, 3ds and xbox one. Personally I’ve enjoyed the xbox one exclusives more then the ps4 and wii u ones, sunset overdrive is probably my goty for last year and I enjoyed ryse, dead rising 3, forza, titanfall and the halo collection quite abit. Most of those are on pc or will come to pc though but I prefer console gaming these days. On ps4 the only games I’ve liked were the last of us and little big planet (the last vita one was better though). To be honest though this generation if you have a PC you don’t really need an xbox or ps4 so far. The best console of this generation for me so far would be the 3ds.
Yeah, I’m loving my 3DS too and, for the most part, I stick to my PC (Although I do enjoy the ‘console’ experience and indulge in that when the game seems like it’s ‘good enough’ on the PS4 in comparison to how I’d run it on PC)
And yeah, I have to agree with you about the consoles. I personally don’t have an X1 because most the exclusives I did want are on PC too, but that’s not to say other people shouldn’t count them as worth wile ‘exclusives’. I guess you could also debate whether they are ‘better’ than the exclusives offered by Sony, but I feel that’s pretty subjective. I think we can just put it down to this: IMHO Neither system has had exclusives that really compete with the top tier exclusives of last gen and many are out done by multi-platform games. (Something that IMHO didn’t happen a lot last gen.)
There are a handful of exclusives on each system that are ‘good’, but I don’t think there’s anything that you can’t wait a while for on either system.
And yes, while I have enjoyed the PS4, I don’t feel like the exclusives are the reason to upgrade (Yet). So far, I’ve enjoyed Infamous (but not as much as 1&2), Driveclub and the last of us. Other than that, the games I would consider ‘upgrading for’ are games that run etter on next gen. Games like Wolfenstein and Far Cry 4 (FC4 stutters more on my more powerful PC than on the PS4. Yes it’s because it’s a bad port, but it’s still a better experience for me on PS4.)
That’s not to say that there wont be good/ better exclusives, but I think many people were expecting the PS4 (especially the PS4 because of Sony’s exclusives last gen) to instantly have great exclusives like the PS3 had, which it doesn’t yet.
My point was that, so far, I don’t feel like the X1 has that ‘killer app’ yet either.
Apparently one of the right products is a 150 buck 64gb micro sd card marketed towards audiophiles!
FFS Sony, knock it off with the stupid memory cards already!
They also have a Walkman targeting the audiophiles for over $1000. They would be wise to focus upon serving the masses rather than the niches.
Shame about the TV’s and phones getting the rough end of the stick, never had a problem with any of my Sony devices, yet I’ve had problems with every Samsung TV I’ve owned, and seen countless friends have issues with their Galaxy phones.
Same. My Sony TV is excellent. High quality. Paid more than the competitors but feel I get a better product.
Agreed, I’ll be disappointed if Sony stop making TV’s, they’re great.
I have had a lot of Sony products over the years…. A LOT…and I would like them to focus on the following things only:
1. PlayStation
2. Cameras, Lenses, Sensors
3. Smartphones
4. Personal Audio
5. Home Automation Systems (a new area which has huge potential. I think they could do well here.)
I have nostalgia for their personal audio equipment, especially since I owned the Sports Walkman… but that’s one area they probably should let go.
Their Xperia smartphones are really good and with the micro-SD card slot, you have a reliable personal audio device right there.
Personally, the thing I most would like is a combination of PlayStation Vita and Xperia phone.
For me:
1. PlayStation
2. Xperia Smartphones
3. Cameras, Lenses, Sensors and Morpheus
It’s kind of weird their most profitable division is their financial services one. There’s a nice interactive graphic towards the bottom of this page.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/18/8063269/sony-electronics-future-selling-off-pc-smartphone-tv
I hope they don’t exit the TV market. They are a little more expensive but occasionally you can get decent Sony TVs on sale for much cheaper. I have 2 Bravia TVs and they are both excellent.