Thread: Finally, new Sony rumors
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Old 08-25-2010, 03:31 PM   #234
EatingPie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kikar View Post
When Stinger took over Sony they were in bad shape. Sony had lost Billions developing the PS3 and paying off billions to studios in order to win the "High Def wars". The Computer Entertainment Division is starting to come around but for the past five years, thanks to the PS3 and Blu-ray, it has been dragging Sony down. Here is a good article about String and Sony along with an selection about the reader.
I'm going to go a little off topic here...

Where is the record of "paying off billions" to studios during the Blu-ray/HD-DVD format war? Nowhere, because they didn't.

The article doesn't even mention Blu-ray as being part of Sony's financial woes. At. All. (Unless you count it being in the PS3.)

Here is a more accurate account, written by Forbes.
Quote:
Forbes:
Despite rumors to the contrary, Sony executives say they did not pay movie studios to side with Blu-ray in the format war. But Sony did spend more than $60 million advertising PlayStation 3 from November to January in the U.S., according to tns Media Intelligence, bringing free attention to Hollywood movies and retailers alike.

The swing vote turned out to be home entertainment giant Warner Brothers. After scrutinizing holiday sales of players, Warner announced on Jan. 4 that it would adopt the Blu-ray standard.
http://www.dvdtown.com/news/forbes-h...er-hd-dvd/5754

Ironically, the real "pay the studios" culprit was Toshiba, trying to get HD-DVD traction. As stated specifically by Paramount, they were paid to go HD-DVD exclusive, and make Star Trek TOS HD-DVD only. You can bet this played a role in Warner's decision to go Blu-ray, as the highly anticipated Star Trek release sold approximately 300 copies on HD-DVD after it's pre-Christmas release. The format war ended 6 months later after Paramount went HD-DVD exclusive and Paramount waited about 4 months for their payment before producing any Blu-rays.

So we go from "billions" to the truth: zero. Not counting "bundled ads" with the PS3 and and display space at Best Buy (which doesn't count, as Toshiba really did pay off studios).

The real problem with Sony's financial situation has been stated about 10 thousand times in the press: The PS3 and the economic downturn. Sony expected PS2-level sales, and did not get them. They've experienced some rebound due to multiple lower-end SKUs over the years, and the introduction of the much cheaper PS3 Slim, but they still aren't experiencing the sales they expected.

I realize this is a Reader thread (the health of Sony at large is tangentially applicable), but I despise this rewriting of history after the Format War. And the casting of Sony as the bad guy by claiming they did something their competitor actually did!!

Sheesh.

-Pie
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