Sony chief hails PS3's success in Europe

[Pumpkin Head]

The record-breaking success of the PlayStation 3 in Europe has rescued the games console from "the perception wars" that hit sales in Japan, says Sir Howard Stringer, Sony's chief executive.

Sir Howard said Sony was close to selling 800,000 units in Europe. "I think [in] the first two days in the UK, £100m ($199m) revenue changed hands and that's probably the largest consumer electronics sale in history."

The PlayStation 3 had come into the European market "with more games and, perhaps we lived up to the expectations in Europe in a way that perhaps we didn't in Japan

Sony has yet to confirm whether it has hit its ambitious PS3 global shipment target of 6m units by the end of March.

"In the March quarter of 2008, Sony will start making money on the console," said Yuji Fujimori, analyst at Goldman Sachs. "In the longer term, I see the PS3's market share at 50 per cent within three years. In the shorter term, I see it at below 30 per cent."

Sir Howard, who was in Tokyo for Monday's global launch of Spider-Man 3,– the first time Sony Pictures has launched a blockbuster film outside of the US market – said: "I see no reason why we can't use content to drive the sales of hardware as the network connectivity becomes more sophisticated."

The Welsh-born head of Sony, who has vowed to achieve group margins of 5 per cent by March 2008, admitted the turnround was not complete. "The silo walls are down – we're staring across the walls at each other but we haven't quite shaken hands all the way around," he said.

The consumer electronics arm has been performing very well, driven by robust sales of Bravia liquid crystal display TVs, digital cameras and video cameras.

Sony has raised its full-year operating income forecast by Y10bn to Y60bn ($500m).

Mr Fujimori at Goldman Sachs sees a "strong possibility" that Sony's fiscal 2007 full-year electronics division operating margin could reach a record high of 7 per cent or more, taking into account the weak yen and fixed-cost reductions.

Sir Howard said he was treading a fine line when it came to disposing of lossmaking units. "We are very reluctant to give up on unprofitable businesses."
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[Luis]

Teh PS3 is d00medzord! :dur:

And how come they premiered Spiderman 3 in Tokyo so soon?

[VonGak]

Teh PS3 is d00medzord! :dur:

And how come they premiered Spiderman 3 in Tokyo so soon?

A certain chairman is sucking up to the shareholders, no secret they haven't been too happy with Stringer.

The 1'st part of his comeback was to slander his biggest competitor and remove him from threatening posts.

:) Simple business really.

[Viper]

So 600,000 in the first 2 days and 200,000 in the next 3 weeks. Looks like it's averaging about 68,000 per week.

Japan - 20k per week
US - 35k per week
Europe - 68k per week


We'll see how well it holds up in the coming months, post launch era, but it's still selling much better than in the US and Japan.

[Coded-Dude]

yep, but all they need now are a few more platinum titles and a minor price drop to help those numbers some.
100thousand/week = 5.2million/year

[Viper]

That's what it will do in the coming months until the holiday season. I think it will settle to 50k per week in Euro and with the other numbers already in a holding patter, we'll get 100k to 150k per week.

I get 3.15 million through September. A further 2.8 million for Q3 2007 globally. I get 5.95 million between now and Dec 31, 2007. Grand total of 9.3 million globally.

[frosty]

^Which is still millions more than 360 sold in it's first year. I personally feel titles like Lair, HS, of course MGS4, and Killzone will change those numbers some though. Not to mention I imagine FF13 and vs. 13 will be making huge waves around the end of the year (TGS) which will move even more systems. Let's also not forget Sony mulling a price cut this year.

[mario25]

So when can we expect the PS3 to bankrupt sony as analyst and xbots were saying?

[LiquidEagle]

I'm more interested in the part where that guy says "Sony will start making money on the console in March 2008" and how much truth is to that...

[Segitz]

If they manage to sell Vipers numbers, I would be really amazed.

Simply put, the 360 !! shipped !! 10mil in its first year (to 31.12.2006), while having a rather low price and no next gen competition (only the PS2, which nearly has beaten it to death, so to say). And now, if Sony manages it, they will sell at 600€ and with 2 opponents, which is much harder to pull off.

[Viper]

^Which is still millions more than 360 sold in it's first year.
Actually, it's about the same. Well, depending on which figures you subscribe to, sold to retail or shipped.

MS had 10 million shipped in its first year (plus one month). I just pegged the PS3 at 9.3 million for the same time frame but that's a mixture of actual sales data and shipped data.

MS shipped 4.4 million in just Q3 2006. Granted I believe they overshipped the channel just to make their 10 million target, it is still the numbers Sony will use for their quarterly data. Case in point: PS3 has 3.2 million sold right now but for their Q4 2006 data (which ended March 31st, 2007) that they'll reveal next week, they'll say ~6 million because that's how many they made and shipped.

[purchaser]

800 000 in Europe is astonishing. We had just Final Fantasy XII, yesterday came God of War 2, still on the road are Shadow Hearts, Rogue Galaxy, Obscure II ... It's hard to forget the PS2 and jump unconditional to the PS3. This point was easier for Microsoft and Nintendo.
Yes, 800 000 is something.

[OmniStalgic]

Looks like Europe will help Sony greatly in the early days as Japan and U.S stick to cheaper systems more heavily. A price-drop might do Sony wonders this year with all the potential blockbusters coming.

4 games that may just do some damage to the massive Halo sells in the U.S & Europe...

Singstar
Killzone
LBP+Home
MGS4

Interesting 07....

[rpgamer_2k5]

This may sound like a stupid question but when was Halo a significant title in Europe?

It isn't. At most Halo moved 1.6m versus 4-5m or something like that for Gran Turismo. Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven, etc are much larger than Halo in Europe. Since Sony has most of these titles on board along with those SCEE, they'll do fine in Europe.

Sony really needs to make gains in Japan/East Asia and North America.

[OmniStalgic]

This may sound like a stupid question but when was Halo a significant title in Europe?

It isn't. At most Halo moved 1.6m versus 4-5m or something like that for Gran Turismo. Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven, etc are much larger than Halo in Europe. Since Sony has most of these titles on board along with those SCEE, they'll do fine in Europe.

Sony really needs to make gains in Japan/East Asia and North America.Indeed the franchise is a U.S dominated title, but selling over a million units in a territory is a great feet on it's own....

[Segitz]

Indeed the franchise is a U.S dominated title, but selling over a million units in a territory is a great feet on it's own....

Yeah, but if it is the only one at all, then it is not very good^^

[jaxmkii]

So when can we expect the PS3 to bankrupt sony as analyst and xbots were saying?
oh dint you know? Sony is bankrupt, blu-ray is failed, PS3s overheat and Home is stupid.:queer:

[Viper]

Sony Europe is cutting 160 people as a result of the higher than expected costs associated with the PS3. It may not bankrupt them, that's crazy talk, but we already know the next quarter losses are going to be twice what they had originally expected and now their laying people off too.

They'll pull out of it eventually though.

[Segitz]

Is it true, that they laid off these people because of associated costs of the PS3 launch?

And the whole gaming division will not be able to tear down Sony. Remember folks, Sony makes more stuff than games and hifi stuff... They also have a big Movie and Music business and also do compete reasonably well in the Laptop business (they also manufacture "usable" goods like batteries and much more).

Maybe these 160 people were no longer needed for whatever reason. For comparison, as the PSN interview said, Sony established a new company solely for the PSN.

[VonGak]

Sony Europe is cutting 160 people as a result of the higher than expected costs associated with the PS3. It may not bankrupt them, that's crazy talk, but we already know the next quarter losses are going to be twice what they had originally expected and now their laying people off too.

They'll pull out of it eventually though.

Not true, it's people mixing up things.

SCEE which employs 1900 people is changing e-communication systems and there'll be up to 160 (depending on the solution packet) redundant workers (as in their jobs will be handled electronically).

Only ~700 actually work with games while the rest work with shipping, PR, advertisement, 3'rd party relationships and so on.
Programmers and artists obviously aren't redundant, they actually still expand in these areas.

This happens all the time and isn't as much a financial issues as it's streamlining internal communications (Microsoft for one makes these kinds of solution packets for companies).
There can be no doubt about this is a needed step for SCE after the European commercial campaigns and in particular the French launch event.

It can actually be seen as a positive thing (for everyone else than the 160 people and their families) as response time concerning 3'rd party, retailers, between studios, press and yada yada will be made faster (has to go through less people). :trismile:

[Viper]

News emerged earlier this week that up to 160 SCEE employees could be made redundant as part of plans to reduce the company's cost base.

It's part of an overall plan to reduce costs. It's also noted that US and Japanese operations are next in line for the cuts. You honestly think they'd come right out and claim they're cutting work force due to losses? That would crush their now rising stock price.

The only thing that I find that would separate the two issues is the fact it's only 160 employees of which would only account for less than $7 million of the expected $1.9 billion in losses so that's hardly making any progress on the losses by cutting just 160.