Will Sony Get Out of Gaming?

As I sit here this Saturday morning, a sad thought comes to mind:  should Sony get out video gaming....or perhaps better put....will Sony have to get out of the video game business?  I've had these thoughts before, leading up to the launch of the PS3 and then again after it launched.  Perhaps Sony should get out of the video game hardware business and just focus on the titles?  Perhaps they should spin the gaming arm completely out of Sony?  Perhaps they should just forget gaming all together?   

This morning these thoughts have come back to me after I read this article in Forbes about layoffs happening in the video game division of Sony.

Sony's computer entertainment unit, responsible for the company's PlayStation gaming consoles, has laid off nearly 100 of its 1,600 U.S. employees, located mostly at its U.S. headquarters in Foster City, Calif.

I've always been a big fan of Sony.  Loved the PS2. Love the PSP.  But something within the company seems to be hampering their thinking on evolving the video game market beyond just more powerful concepts and better looking graphics.  In my opinion, the time, effort and money poured into the PS3 could ultimately be Sony's undoing and bring about any number of the scenarios I wrote about in the opening of this post.

The thing that could pull the PS3 out of its third place rank behind Microsoft and Nintendo's runaway hit Wii, would be the BluRay player.  The format is showing signs of strengthening against the HD format with companies like Blockbuster deciding they would only carry the BluRay format and not HD for their movie rentals.  If that happens, then perhaps the PS3 will gain ground and Sony can stay in the game, but I wouldn't count on it. 

Comments

[Mike Ianni-Palarchio (Not THE ONE BLOGGING)]

Theres a few things you have to consider aswell, the PS3 has not been on the market as long as the Xbox 360, not nearly as long, which could be considred in short term a fault on sony's behalf but then again, in the long run, it could prove better off for sony and the PS3. What it did, was give people edging for a new better game system, a single option, the xbox. However, now that nintento and sony have released their systems, anyone looking for the best graphics quality, would obviously choose the PS3 as it is far superior than the wii or 360. And to add on to that, just recently, the ps3 was dropped in price from 699 to 549. since it includes a blu ray player, and it is pretty sure now that blu-ray will come out on top, thats just an added bonus.

Personally I don't think that sony will be getting out any time soon. The biggest factor for upgrading your game console, is high definition. If you don't have an HDTV, then you dont really want an HD game console right? This year, I believe more people will be upgrading to High-definition tvs and will be looking for high def movies, as well as gaming. What device gives you both? Not to mention that when you look at the price, some blu ray players cost just as much as the entire PS3 system. And form what ive read, and used at home, the PS3 blu ray drive is excellent compared to what ive seen in stores with other players.

its just a matter of sales pciking up, which will only happen, once more people are forced into hd entertainment, which will most likely happen through cable and satellite/ bluray and hddvd, within the next year or so, which results in them needed hdtvs.

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By the way lately blockbuster and many other big boy movie rental stores are striking deals with BlueRay and ditch HDDVD. Soon when anyone watch a movie on disk have to be in BlueRay format. PS3 definitely a plus for long term.

Also Xbox360 lately got into trouble with the bugs and had to recall many many xbox. Microsoft is going to waste more than 2 billion of dollar to fix this problem.

It seems PS3 is giving Xbox 360 black eyes at the moment. Wii is still in the top spot because it's cheap and most people can afford it. When PS3 get down to $300 price range, peoples will go for PS3 just like they did with Wii, and by then, more good games are already available for PS3.