How Sony Lost Its Way

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The crew at Gizmodo has posted an editorial today titled “How Sony lost its way.” The author believes that the company has lost its spirit and has turned into an “also-ran” that wants to be treated like a market leader. Ouch.

More than anything, Sony's lost its spirit, spending too much time telling us it's the greatest electronics company in the world and not nearly enough showing us.
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Wasn't mentioned in the article, but intentionally (by their own admission) making the PS3 hard to develop on was also just plain stupid.
 
It's also worth mentioning that when Valve refuses to do further development on the PS3, much less update their only foray their, the Orange Box, (but is happily expanding to Mac OS X) you know something is wrong.
 
I've cared little for sony for quite some time. I don't remember the last Sony product I purchased. Aside from the odd dv
 
I find myself generally looking for alternatives to Sony products. I'm not saying all their products are bad, but my recent experience has put a sour taste in my mouth, and their lackluster customer support keeps me away.
 
muhahaha i think some college-edumacated journalist is about 20 years behind in writing that article! NO JOKE.
 
rflcptr said:
It's also worth mentioning that when Valve refuses to do further development on the PS3, much less update their only foray their, the Orange Box, (but is happily expanding to Mac OS X) you know something is wrong.
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True but this 180 stance on the issue did confuse me.
Valve: We messed up on PS3

But I tend to agree, because they have done and said so many stupid things publicly with an easy to follow trail of proof. it amazes me that they are still getting away with just cutting costs and re-arranging management so much,
 
it took me a year to love my ps3.
however valve and other companies have said it costs 2x more to program for it... and now the ps4 is rumored to use a different chipset its assanine.

they should work with developers to make the programming transitions easier. also i'm sick of sony's fake markup of products... such as charging themselves and other departments 10$ for a blue ray disc that costs 25 cents then say its a 9.75$ loss. thats crazy
 
I loved my Sony stereo components back in the day, but they lost me after the cd rootkit incident.
 
I never really thought Sony products were better than the competition anyway.
 
IMO the only thing Sony still makes that's worthwhile is their laptops. Notably the Z series. Everything else is meh.
 
Lots of truth in that article...lots of truth. This coming from someone who has owned many sony products over the years.

rflcptr said:
It's also worth mentioning that when Valve refuses to do further development on the PS3, much less update their only foray their, the Orange Box, (but is happily expanding to Mac OS X) you know something is wrong.
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To be fair, when has Valve ever released anything meaningful as a console exclusive? Honestly their focus has always been PC first and foremost (Thank god), and doubtful that will ever change. So really, them saying that was pointless.
 
i go out of my way to not buy sony. The lifecycle on their products is less than stellar and i dont see the reason to spend extra money on their brand.
 
Dekoth said:
To be fair, when has Valve ever released anything meaningful as a console exclusive? Honestly their focus has always been PC first and foremost (Thank god), and doubtful that will ever change. So really, them saying that was pointless.
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I never said they would release a console exclusive and they probably won't as it doesn't make sense to, for market and technical reasons. Architecturally speaking, PCs and the XBox 360 are much more similar to each other than PS3 is to either of them. It's relatively easy for Valve to develop a game or more content on both platforms.
 
I am another person who actively does not buy Sony products. I did however purchase a PS3 to watch Blu-ray movies. However since I bought the console when they losing quite a bit of money on each console and have only bought 2 games for it (both second hand) I don't have a problem with it.
 
Only Sony product I bought (aside from family members and friends) was the Playstation 1.
 
Not sure if sony ever had "its way" to start with. Only sony things I bought were PS1 and PS2 and that had nothing to do with sony but rather developers like Square and Atlus.
 
rflcptr said:
I never said they would release a console exclusive and they probably won't as it doesn't make sense to, for market and technical reasons. Architecturally speaking, PCs and the XBox 360 are much more similar to each other than PS3 is to either of them. It's relatively easy for Valve to develop a game or more content on both platforms.
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I am aware of that. I was merely pointing out that since they are primarily a PC developer, for them to swear off the PS3 is meaningless. It is akin to Apple refusing to allow Ford to put Ipod exclusive docks in their cars for example.
 
Its kind of true. They seem to make amazing products, then purposely screw them up somehow. Take the new Vaio Z as an example. Incredible feat of engineering. But then they choose to adopt a proprietary SSD format and make them mandatory...
 
For those people who are still Sony fans, where are the succeeding and 'clearly' far beyond the competition? Their TVs are pretty arguably equal to the competitor and its not a clear cut 'they are ahead of the curve' situation' if they are ahead of the curve. Some would give that honour to Samsung, etc. Their gaming system is arguably somewhat tied with the xbox 360 and far behind the pc market ;) :D. Mp3 players are nothing special feature wise. Laptops are alright.
 
I love my ps3 <3

a lot of their other stuff is good but just too expensive. We buy sony laptops here at work sometimes and cant believe they arent interested in any sort of discount even when buying three $5000 laptops in one go
 
I saw a guy walk out of best buy the other day with a Sony TV, Sony Blu-ray player, and a Bose surrond sound system.. just had to mumble "sucker" under my breath on my way by, no other description fit quite so well.
 
darkpaw said:
I saw a guy walk out of best buy the other day with a Sony TV, Sony Blu-ray player, and a Bose surrond sound system.. just had to mumble "sucker" under my breath on my way by, no other description fit quite so well.
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Ignorance is bliss. But there's really nothing wrong with Sony TVs, they can be found competitively priced.
 
I like my PS3, but I use it more for a DVD/Blu Ray player than I do as an actual console, mostly because of time issues on my end, but I do think they deserve to be hammered on for making the PS3 launch go so badly and for making the PS3 itself too expensive at launch, they coulda hammered Microsoft really hard if they had made the PS3 more competitive of a console.

Nintendo blew past both of them because they focused on their strong suits, making a good console that is easy to develop for at price points that wouldn't cause gamers to go broke at, most of their software launches at $50 and often drops below $40 only a few months after release.

Only problem with the Wii is shovelware :(

But in the interest of full disclosure, I own both a PS3 and a Wii, and I own more PS3 games than I do Wii games.
 
Peteman100 said:
Its kind of true. They seem to make amazing products, then purposely screw them up somehow. Take the new Vaio Z as an example. Incredible feat of engineering. But then they choose to adopt a proprietary SSD format and make them mandatory...
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This is in essence why, imho, they are losing market share. Some fantastic products and then they manage to mess many of them up by doing something ridiculous to it. That said i have a number of sony products that are all aging but have always worked and worked very well. (Super slim camera, 32 "lcd and chc-cl1 stereo that still sounds great.)
 
Talonz said:
Ignorance is bliss. But there's really nothing wrong with Sony TVs, they can be found competitively priced.
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Its the speakers that really got me :D

I listened to some of those noise canceling Bose headphones and WOW was I disappointed.
 
Definitely have to second the opinion about Bose. They're overpriced junk.
 
darkpaw said:
I saw a guy walk out of best buy the other day with a Sony TV, Sony Blu-ray player, and a Bose surrond sound system.. just had to mumble "sucker" under my breath on my way by, no other description fit quite so well.
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Well, had he got the TV and blu-ray player at a price that was on par with its competition (Not hard to do right now as most of the Bravia line are equal or better in quality then most others and usually close in price). Then he wasn't a sucker. Had he paid more then yes he was. While I prefer my Samsung, in terms of quality it runs neck and neck with the Bravia. Now the Bose system, yea that pretty much makes him a sucker.
 
Dekoth said:
I am aware of that. I was merely pointing out that since they are primarily a PC developer, for them to swear off the PS3 is meaningless. It is akin to Apple refusing to allow Ford to put Ipod exclusive docks in their cars for example.
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A market of ~33.5 million units is not meaningless. Valve ignoring it like they did means plenty when the XBox 360 got (and still gets) far more treatment. Sony shot themselves in the foot on it, no questions asked.
 
darkpaw said:
I saw a guy walk out of best buy the other day with a Sony TV, Sony Blu-ray player, and a Bose surrond sound system.. just had to mumble "sucker" under my breath on my way by, no other description fit quite so well.
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But at the same time he might of been saying 'man how am I ever going to spend all this money I have in a way that will make other know I have money' In which case he got exactly what he was looking for. Also probably has a few apple products.
 
Dekoth said:
To be fair, when has Valve ever released anything meaningful as a console exclusive? Honestly their focus has always been PC first and foremost (Thank god), and doubtful that will ever change. So really, them saying that was pointless.
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Portal bonus maps. "Still Alive" is an XBox Live exclusive.
 
When I started repairing consumer electronics in the late '70's/early '80's Sony was the shit. Their TVs were hand assembled and hand soldered, their audio/video products were excellently constructed and repairable. In the early '90's I worked for their competior/partner Philips and we did side by side comparisons in quality. The philips products made in the US were superior in build quality and components, and equal or better in Picture Quality. Sony was once the gold standard, but now all I see in them is tarnished brass. I have repaired so many PS/3's and PS/2's it isn't even funny. I got a PS/3 the other day that had a bad hard drive AND a bad Blu-ray reader. And it's less than 3 years old! Warranty?? no way, $160 just for them to LOOK at it. I actively steer people away from their stuff. Oh and laptops? I repair them, the sony's can only be taken apart once for the most part, the little clever clips break and won't stay together after one repair/dissambly job. I quit taking them in becuase I couldn't make them look good after reassembly.
 
rflcptr said:
A market of ~33.5 million units is not meaningless. Valve ignoring it like they did means plenty when the XBox 360 got (and still gets) far more treatment. Sony shot themselves in the foot on it, no questions asked.
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Units != sales. Not saying sony didn't screw up making the platform difficult. I am simply pointing out that valves statement is meaningless. Look at the numbers of console sold software for them vs PC. It is hardly a meaningful number, and if it was Valve wouldn't be so stupid to make a statement like that no matter how hard it was.

techrat said:
Portal bonus maps. "Still Alive" is an XBox Live exclusive.
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I said meaningful..a portal map isn't meaningful, or even relevant to the discussion. :rolleyes:
 
And also the fact that they obscenely overcharge for all their products.
People are just finally saying NO ! I will not pay those prices!! Sony, you can't have our money!!

Look at VIZIO, see how they are offering huge panel displays and cutting technology for a fraction of the cost. This Fall they will release a 72" 3D HDTV with LED lighting and local dimming for only $3,500 msrp. Unbelievable, but completely true !!

Sony is arrogant, lazy and not to bright. Kind of like General Motors. lol

But this is the circle of life for all large conglomerates. They come and then they go.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
I never really thought Sony products were better than the competition anyway.
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They "may" have been better than Emerson, RCA, Magnavox, Technics, etc. But that was back in the 70's and 80's. Strange, when I see someone who's purchased a Sony product, in the back of my mind, I think they must be a dope.
 
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