PoliTech

By Next Year You Could be Playing Games on a Microsoft PlayStation 360.

Sony … sonybatteryfire.jpegbetween exploding laptop batteries (that must now be replaced), the way late – way expensive – Blu-ray drive, the T.V and Monitor business in steady decline, Sony spyware and rootkits intentionally loaded on their music CDs, and a Sony Computer Entertainment president (Ken Kutaragi) who said about the PS3 that it’s a premium machine, sold at a premium price. If you really want a PS3? Work a little harder!

Don’t believe that one?

Here’s the quote on GameSpot:

ken-kutaragi.JPG

“Our ideal,” Kutaragi said, “is for consumers to think to themselves, ‘OK, I’ll work more hours and buy it.’ We want people to feel that they want it, no matter what.”

Why he almost sounds French!

The Electric Sisterhood has come out with what is sure to be a somewhat controversial opinion (in other words … incendiary flame-bait!):

Do the Math: Will Sony Go Broke?
When things are all said and done, the most valuable piece of the pie at Sony is its video game division. They could very well put it up for sale. And who could be the potential buyer?

Microsoft.

That’s right. I said it. Just think about it.

Who could benefit the most by purchasing Sony’s video game division?

Microsoft.

You might say there’s no way the U.S. government would allow such a thing. Anti-trust, you say.

Just remember who’s running the government. A Microsoft takeover would be treated with the same kid gloves that created DaimlerChrysler.

Who knows? This time next year you could be playing games on a PlayStation 360.

To the Sisterhood, feel free to use the graphic!

Now there’s a lot more to the above article (I just picked out enough to get your attention!). So before you get all breathless and giddy take a moment to read the whole thing…

SEGA_LOGOI remember when some analysts mentioned early on that Sega had some serious cashflow problems, and this was way before the Saturn bombed. Oh! How the Sega fanboys screamed and gnashed their teeth. Now the Sega console is but a fond memory. Sega now sells software.

The lesson to be learned is “Don’t kill the messenger”. Sony has problems and they won’t hesitate to jettison a part of the business to save the overall corporation. Could that be the game console division? The entire game division software and all?

Maybe!

The Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD battle will end up the way it always ends up. Expect to see Blu-Ray/HD-DVD RW combo drives on store shelves soon. The optical drive manufacturers have no choice. They need to appeal to the biggest market they can and it’s a tough business. The only thing that could screw it up is DRM. Which means, it’s by no means a “technical” problem.

But once one international optical drive vendor offers a combo DVD drive the flood gates will open and it’s optical drive alphabet soup all over again. Only this time we get the “HD” DVD variety.

As far as Lithium Ion batteries, it’s long been known that Lithium Ion batteries are prone to fire. But for Sony to lose face over some poor engneering is somthing that Sony could easily survive. It’s the half million battery replacements that are going to hurt.

Disclaimer: PoliTech is NOT a “Sony hater”! It’s Just “Food for thought”…

Reminder:
October 3rd Declared “Day Against DRM”

Wow the Sony fanboys are really in outrage over at the Electric Sisterhood in the comments for this story. Not even the Digg comments were this funny!

4 comments

  2. I love the quote by Sony. Basically they are saying that because it is more expensive it is better? pfft *spits at Sony*

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  3. Hi,

    Interesting ‘food for thought’. However, it would not make sense for Sony to sell their most profitable division and hang on to all the loss-making bits of their business.

    It would be as though Nokia had decided to sell their mobile phone business and use the cash to rescue their old paper pulp business. It’s unlikely that the folks who run Sony are stupid.

    Also, what’s the context to Kutaragi’s quote? It sounds like he could be talking about how appealing the console is going to be. Out of context this could be misconstrued as arrogance.

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  4. The Ken Kutaragi quote is linked to the most reliable source I could find. Since I don’t read or speak Japanese, and thus could not read the interview first hand, you could be entirely correct about the context of the quote.

    The rest is purely speculation that “even its (Sony’s) video game business can’t save the company. In fact, it’s the video game business that could put the whole company right down the toilet.”

    Mostly, I thought the Electric Sisterhood article was a fun bit of speculation and excellent grist for the conversation mill.

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