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Sony To Combine Game, Other Distribution Infrastructure
by Staff [PC, Console/PC]
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December 28, 2009
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Media giant Sony has confirmed that its main company and the PlayStation 3-creating Sony Computer Entertainment subsidiary will combine hardware distribution operations to save money, according to media reports.
A Bloomberg News report confirms an earlier Nikkei newspaper report that the two divisions will combine forces to put physical distribution of Sony products under one unified roof.
Previously, Sony's televisions and other hardware were distributed by a separate set of employees in the parent company, and Sony spokesperson Mami Imada noted that the two divisions would "combine distribution routes and jointly bid for contracts".
Cost savings are the main goal, since the cost of distributing products for the group will probably rise 50 percent next fiscal year, after falling 25 percent to 150 billion yen ($1.6 billion) in the 12 months to March 31, according to Bloomberg and Imada.
Sony boss Howard Stringer has recently vowed that the segment of its business that houses the PlayStation 3 should achieve profitability by March 2011.
But the company has cut over 19,500 jobs in the last year, and, projecting a ¥95 billion ($1 billion) loss for the current fiscal year ending in March 2010, still has "more work to do" - of which this change is apparently part.
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I bought the PSP GT Bundle, which came with 10 free songs. Could I simply download them from the PSN Store? No, I had to go to a sony music website. (Actually ended up giving the code to my father, since all they offer is modern pop and old jazz, he likes the latter).
Beyond that, part of the biggest failure of the new PSP mini initiative, is that each mini, despite running on the same hardware, has to be approved separately by each Sony division. So NA is lagging far behind the EU in terms of content (by about half), and Japan seemingly only has a handful (and no one from there is actually producing any).
Will the channel that markets music understand what the game audience wants? Will the channel that markets consumer electronics be able to come to terms with gaming as an emerging cultural form?
Sometimes a drive toward efficiency can create dystunctional, rigid and brittle systems that are ultimately ineffective. Just an example: 3M a few years ago tried to ram efficiency through, but then some of the brass started to realize that they weren't inventing stuff nearly as much - which is their lifeblood. New products. But inventing is not efficient: it's ponderous and fraught with many blind alleys. Yet that is what it is, and that's what it needs to be.
Kutaragi got it right when he separated SCE and SONY ......concentrate on getting it right for the gaming division because SONY will pull you downon the software side.
It is the same with the combination of game and non game software on PSN. Games and gamers will be sidelined as will games publishers. There needs to be a sharp edge again at SCE.
From a humble Japanese girl who knows just a little but maybe enough
Tomoko