And you thought it was just you UK owners feeling cheated by SONY
14 December 2000, 09:37 AM
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Sony owners got together in Japan to complain about Sony and the PS2. Read what they had to say.
A new article by George Wehrfritz and Kay Itoi for the latest issue of Newsweek has condemned Sony for their mismanagement of the PlayStation 2 introduction in Japan. "Game players from all over Tokyo gathered recently to bash the machine Sony swore would change their lives - and yours too," begins the article, which takes a look at the reasons why the PlayStation 2 has begun to flounder in Japan.
The main revelation was that most PlayStation 2 owners were using their new consoles for two things: playing Dragon Quest VII - a PSOne title, and playing DVD movies. Both of these prospects have developers like Square, Namco, and Konami worried. PlayStation 2 software has been selling at extremely low ratios, like 2:1, with Dreamcast software sales often exceeding PS2 software sales, despite it's smaller userbase.
Most analysts are still blaming the quality of the software, which has been difficult to produce in the time-frame that Sony has given developers. As a result, Sony is expected to lose over $200 million in its game division next year despite what many considered to be a successful launch of the PS2 hardware in Japan last March.
"The model of the gaming business is that you lose money selling hardware, then make money by selling games that run on. Sony hasn't been able to do that with PS2," says Kyoko Murakami, senior analyst at e-Research in Tokyo. Even the hardware itself has dropped off recently to only 8,000 units per week, raising questions about the long term strength of the Japanese next-generation market.
The world-wide situation for Sony is no better, with recent problems at the plant in Nagasaki leading to a shortage of GS graphics processors, and ultimately to a shortage of PlayStation 2 units for the North American and European launches. But analysts are beginning to express reservations about the platform in general. With many consumers dissatisfied with the quality of the software, American and European sales are not guaranteed to pick up in 2001, when units become available again.
PlayStation 2 game development costs have risen to nearly $9 million for some titles, and developers are still experiencing technical problems which cause badly aliased images and framerate problems. "There has not been one killer PS2 title," confessed a game designer at the coffeehouse forum.
Software companies are hurting badly. Namco has poured most of its resources into building titles for the new platform, and has seen a share-price drop of 60 percent since March, and has told the market that it will be posting its first loss ($19 million) since going public in 1988. Most analysts are viewing Sony's upcoming Gran Turismo 3, as the ultimate "case test" for the PlayStation 2's viability. If Sony fails to meet sales expectations with this title, it could be a disastrous sign of things to come.
A new article by George Wehrfritz and Kay Itoi for the latest issue of Newsweek has condemned Sony for their mismanagement of the PlayStation 2 introduction in Japan. "Game players from all over Tokyo gathered recently to bash the machine Sony swore would change their lives - and yours too," begins the article, which takes a look at the reasons why the PlayStation 2 has begun to flounder in Japan.
The main revelation was that most PlayStation 2 owners were using their new consoles for two things: playing Dragon Quest VII - a PSOne title, and playing DVD movies. Both of these prospects have developers like Square, Namco, and Konami worried. PlayStation 2 software has been selling at extremely low ratios, like 2:1, with Dreamcast software sales often exceeding PS2 software sales, despite it's smaller userbase.
Most analysts are still blaming the quality of the software, which has been difficult to produce in the time-frame that Sony has given developers. As a result, Sony is expected to lose over $200 million in its game division next year despite what many considered to be a successful launch of the PS2 hardware in Japan last March.
"The model of the gaming business is that you lose money selling hardware, then make money by selling games that run on. Sony hasn't been able to do that with PS2," says Kyoko Murakami, senior analyst at e-Research in Tokyo. Even the hardware itself has dropped off recently to only 8,000 units per week, raising questions about the long term strength of the Japanese next-generation market.
The world-wide situation for Sony is no better, with recent problems at the plant in Nagasaki leading to a shortage of GS graphics processors, and ultimately to a shortage of PlayStation 2 units for the North American and European launches. But analysts are beginning to express reservations about the platform in general. With many consumers dissatisfied with the quality of the software, American and European sales are not guaranteed to pick up in 2001, when units become available again.
PlayStation 2 game development costs have risen to nearly $9 million for some titles, and developers are still experiencing technical problems which cause badly aliased images and framerate problems. "There has not been one killer PS2 title," confessed a game designer at the coffeehouse forum.
Software companies are hurting badly. Namco has poured most of its resources into building titles for the new platform, and has seen a share-price drop of 60 percent since March, and has told the market that it will be posting its first loss ($19 million) since going public in 1988. Most analysts are viewing Sony's upcoming Gran Turismo 3, as the ultimate "case test" for the PlayStation 2's viability. If Sony fails to meet sales expectations with this title, it could be a disastrous sign of things to come.
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