@snaffe SOE Planetside 2 Financial Situation

Ipimpnoobs · 2012-09-10, 06:00 AM

I thought I would create a thread out of this, it really is eye opening.

Originally Posted by snaffe

Remember Sony isn't doing great financially, there will be, I think, pressure to deliver the moniez on this game substantially before whenever their fiscal ends (this is what I think at least, happy to be corrected!).

This is the most important thing you wrote and imo right on. They are definitely banking on this. I was looking at their other games and there is no way they are raking in enough to cover their nut in this division. Lucky for them Sony still has the best A&V equipment and customer support in that division to boot. IMO that money is keeping the lights on at SOE san diego and it is also the reason we love sony. Quality electronics and MOVIES!!

Also, they are releasing PS2 close to xmas (4th quarter) to justify losses midyear. If I was the CFO, I would be pleading with Smed saying something to the effect, "it's the job loss factor. Things will pick up!" He may have very well probed the potential customers with "Alpha squad" to see if they have a "hit" to report back. Then when he got home, checked the corporate website for a ehem, "lateral growth opportunity," as should everyone else currently working there. How's everybody's Japanese? When you run out of cheese, you got to find some more, no?

Here is their stock info:
Select a 5 year trend. Ohhh noes, it's going the wrong way.
https://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:SNE

I can guarantee you, if this game doesn't do well Smed is going to be replacing whoever he has in the SOE division that is calling shots or even be replaced himself. Oh and I know it won't be the art director. In poker, we call this All-in with no outs.

Take a look at what they are pushing on the sony website...cell phones. Tell me one person you know of that said I'm going to Verizon or At&t to get a sony cell phone. http://www.sony.com/index.php

Now check out this article from the first quarter of this year 04/12/12 07:49 AM
Sony Layoffs Confirmed: CEO Will Cut 10,000 Jobs
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1420229.html

TOKYO -- Faced with mounting losses, Sony Corp. said Thursday it will slash 10,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global workforce, and try to turn around its money-losing TV business over the next two years.

New CEO and President Kazuo Hirai outlined his business strategy at a big press conference where he pledged to revive the electronics and entertainment company. Sony earlier this week more than doubled its annual net loss projection for the fiscal year through this past March to 520 billion yen, or $6.4 billion. That would be its fourth straight year of red ink and worst loss ever.

"As CEO, I take this very seriously. But at the same time, it strengthened my resolve to transform Sony," Hirai told hundreds of journalists. "Employees too want to restore Sony to its former glory and go beyond."

Sorry for the doom and gloom. Miracles do happen though. Maybe tomorrow we'll all wake up and the economy will be back to full throttle. Until then, I surely won't be buying Sony stock for at least 5 years.

But, I will be supporting Planetside 2 and so should you. Discuss?!

Disclaimer: This is my opinion and they say they are like aholes... everyone has one.

Sledgecrushr · 2012-09-10, 06:51 AM

Rght now sony is desperate. And this desperation has led them to take a massive risk on a free game. I have been playing PS2 beta for the last few weeks and this company has worked a not so small miracle. This game will be the engine that drives soe for the next five years at least.

Canaris · 2012-09-10, 07:09 AM

well I do my part, bought 2 Alpha squad sales for myself & my bro.

Also my ancient creative mp3 player finally died on me last week after about 8 years of good service, went to get another and told the electro clerk guy "Whatever your going to show me it had better not be an Apple".
Guy replies "I can see you know your players, I'd only recommend the Sony on then"

My new Sony Walkman is the bomb

snaffe · 2012-09-10, 08:25 AM

Dafuq a thread title with my name must read it

Ipimpnoobs: I think one of the main reasons they launched the Founder's package, is obviously not just get money, but rather use it as intel as to purchase rates etc. Stuff they can either use to project their...projected future income, or to talk in investor calls. One would be surprised as to what stuff they hold onto in investor calls and something that is quantifiable is probably actually quite good to hold off any potential angry large scale investors (I haven't followed Sony closely at all, and have no idea if the investors are crying out for blood or not, or who the investors are, if there even are any).

My off the *** pack calculations with a 5 million player count, where
50% spent 40 dollars in the first year,
5% spend 100 dollars, and
20% spend 10 dollars and
25% spend nothing.

You're looking at 165 million US. So, considering Playstation is running losses in the billions, Planetside probably need to sell a heck of a lot more content than that.

I think they must be toying with subscriptions with serious incentives to keep people spending. I have no idea about the cashflow situation at Sony, but you can't take billion dollar losses without serious cash resources, or investor confidence. If investor confidence is gone, people would probably have to ehm.....expect some ....well, "creative" ways to part money from people (pay to win?). Just speculating.

Note: I have no idea if 5 million players is low or high or expected. It could very well be 10 million. Or 15 million.

Just re-read your post and you're saying what I'm saying, again (with the "is the Alpha squad concept working).

Diehard · 2012-09-10, 09:17 AM

I bought the alpha squad already. I am also planning to replace my old Sony Ericsson W995 with the new Xperia T once it comes out.

Poser · 2012-09-10, 09:31 AM

I was going to buy Alpha Squad but I already have $40 worth of SC.

Hmr85 · 2012-09-10, 09:37 AM

I will be buying the Alpha pack but not till this weekend. All the bonus goodies along with 40 bucks of station cash. Why would you not want to get it?

Crator · 2012-09-10, 09:39 AM

Only reason I was holding out on not buying the Alpha Squad offer was I hoping for a better offer with more stuff. T-Ray confirmed last night that they are not planning on anything else so I'm probably going to be buying this soon.

Mox · 2012-09-10, 10:13 AM

Another interesting issue regarding the finacial situation of SOE is the saleout of the european marked to Pro7/Sat1.

I'm not sure why they did it.
Perhaps they think they aren't able to press enough money out of europe and Pro7/Sat1 will do a better job in this.
Or they just sold all there games because they needed the money really fast,

sylphaen · 2012-09-10, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by Mox

Another interesting issue regarding the finacial situation of SOE is the saleout of the european marked to Pro7/Sat1.

I'm not sure why they did it.
Perhaps they think they aren't able to press enough money out of europe and Pro7/Sat1 will do a better job in this.
Or they just sold all there games because they needed the money really fast,

And not least, they also sold the Chinese customers to The9. It will be interesting to see how the game will progress in those 3 markets. Especially during crisis time.

As a matter of fact, the whole picture will also be interesting to see evolve.

Crator · 2012-09-10, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by Mox

Another interesting issue regarding the finacial situation of SOE is the saleout of the european marked to Pro7/Sat1.

I'm not sure why they did it.
Perhaps they think they aren't able to press enough money out of europe and Pro7/Sat1 will do a better job in this.
Or they just sold all there games because they needed the money really fast,

I believe SOE has said they did this due to different laws in those countries.

snaffe · 2012-09-10, 10:46 AM

The Pro7 and The9 are quite interesting as others mentioned above.

I work in managing contact centres in my day to day job - and setting up an operation for Europe if you don't have it already would be quite costly (not to mention time investment and keeping on top of things). It seems that SOE's Planetside 2 is operating as fairly ..hmm, well on their own? I don't know what setup other SOE games have. I would have thought there would have been some EU support previously, but maybe not.

It seems like SOE are trying to press for new markets - but can't get the funding to setup the EU "infrastructure" required (publishing, customer care, content etc) - so have to to utilize joint ventures until there's enough proof in the pudding that they are creating games that lead to revenue and profit. Who knows, there might be the need to setup a EU "support infrastructure" under SOE leadership.

SOE - I'm happy to take on a consultancy role when that time comes, as required :P

Originally Posted by Crator

I believe SOE has said they did this due to different laws in those countries.

It means they don't have the resource-time-setup to cope with the markets.

There are global companies with a presence in all possible countries - and SOE say they can't because of "law reasons" doesn't exactly ...ehm..well, pass the "is this the real reason?"-test.

Right, I'm off to shoot some smurfs and fishies.

Fenrys · 2012-09-10, 12:12 PM

Last I read, SOE MMO's and the Playstation lineup were the only profitable ventures at Sony. They made the Playstation honcho into their new CEO (replacing the white guy who didn't speak Japanese who's orders were not being followed).

Planetside, Everquest, Playstation, and a pocket full of maxed-out credit cards is all that's keeping Sony floating.

To say they are unusually interested in seeing Planetside 2 succeed would be an understatement.

Mox · 2012-09-10, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by Fenrys

Planetside, Everquest, Playstation, and a pocket full of maxed-out credit cards is all that's keeping Sony floating.

To say they are unusually interested in seeing Planetside 2 succeed would be an understatement.

Don't overestimate the role of SOE for Sony. Sony is a multi billion global player. SOE makes around 150 millions a year. They are peanuts for Sony.

SpottyGekko · 2012-09-10, 01:04 PM

Don't focus too much on Planetside 2 as the sole saviour of SOE. It is the cheerleader for the LightForge engine, but they'll be rolling out other new games built on this engine.

So Planetside 2 has to prove it can cut the mustard performance-wise, but it doesn't have to carry the burden of being the only source of revenue indefinitely. There's more MMO's in the development pipe at SOE.

SOE's biggest gamble is in developing "AAA MMO's" straight for the F2P market. This is their stated policy for all future MMO's. That means no huge revenue spike from initial box/digital sales followed by 6 to 12 months of monthly sub income. The "Alpha Squad" package is the closest they'll get to initial box sales.

At least they are trying new and risky things like the player-generated game assets. It IS industry changing. If they keep on pushing the boundaries like that, they will probably survive. They might even thrive.