Sony’s stock value drop by about $10b after lowering PS5’s sales forecast for the fiscal year, analysts question near decade-low profit margin

[Zzero]

I am okay with "graphics" but stuff like lighting and shadows should be left to a computer to design (and yes, that does mean I want AI to take people's jobs.) Maybe go even further and have AI painting the walls and floors. The other big cost eaters to me are stuff like mocap, celebrity VAs, entire combat systems that only get used in one set piece, etc.

 

[Cool hand luke]

I don’t know if Nintendo games are super cheap to make. They seem to have around the same amount of people working, and in Japan Nintendo is viewed as a white company in the sense that they pay really well, provide a positive work life balance environment.

Their games also seem to take a long time to make and Nintendo has always been notorious for not rushing games out.

We have seen from Insomniacs leaks that actually, the vast majority of the cost is simply.. headcount.

Over a thousand people worked on Tears of the Kingdom, and the game was in development for five to six years?

This idea that Nintendo games are low budget needs to end.

Isn't there a notorious crunch culture at Nintendo of Japan?

 

[Jim Ryan]

Costs need to be cut.

Having studios in the most expensive cities and the most expensive countries tries in the world will, of course drive up costs.

Then superfluous initiatives, wellbeing programs, days out, fiesta lunches, industry events not aimed at customers....

Costs have been allowed to balloon for no good reason.

The answer was never going to be putting games in more places, it was always going to be cutting costs aggressively.

In Sony / PlayStation generally there are too many people in PR and too many analysts that don't add anything to the business.


Bringing this even further: first party studios serve no purpose if they are neither making fully exclusive games or making MASSIVE profits.

Either they make FULLY exclusive games or they have something that is everywhere and making absolute bank.... Otherwise they should be shuttered, because they are useless.

 

[Johnic]

Eventually all companies will have to dial down on the graphics arms race and follow Nintendo's approach. I could have gotten 2 college degrees in the timeframe between Arkham knight and suicide squad.

A kid born when GTAV released will be 12 by the time VI is out.

Yeah, something has to change. Graphics are fine the way they are or even were last gen. Not everything needs to be open world as well.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Isn't there a notorious crunch culture at Nintendo of Japan?

No but there is in most Japanese studios.

 

[Cool hand luke]

No but there is in most Japanese studios.

They certainly used to be. 6 months of people living In the office for Super Metroid. I'm not sure that much has changed at a Japanese corporate

 

[Systemshock2023]

Yeah, something has to change. Graphics are fine the way they are or even were last gen. Not everything needs to be open world as well.

Maxed out PC ports of 7th generation games still look great. Nintendo games 6th generation and up stand up once you increase resolution and add a texture pack.

 

[Johnic]

Maxed out PC ports of 7th generation games still look great. Nintendo games 6th generation and up stand up once you increase resolution and add a texture pack.

I don't even care about maxed out or even higher res textures. Just make fun games.

I'm playing Sea of Stars right now and having more fun than I did with FF XVI, with all its flashy graphics and framerate. Just give us great games. Why not horror games with pre-rendered backgrounds again? RE Zero and REmake still look great.

I can go back to a PS1 game and have a better time than with a lot of these flashy new AAA games.

I don't know, nostalgia or getting old?

 

[SLB1904]

Less revenue with higher profit will be always better than higher revenue and less profit.
Business 101.

If a company had 1B revenue and 200m profit last quarter but this quarter they had 2B revenue and 100m profit then something really bad happened.
You can't grow your revenue using your profit margins.

What you saw in last quarter on Sony was...

+ Revenue rise
- Costs rise
- Profits killed
- Margins killed

A company is not a clarity business... they needs margins... drop in margins like happened with Sony is really bad if you don't take action to fix it the next quarters.

Profits isn't killed. Do I don't know what you talking about.

 

[Zzero]

I don't even care about maxed out or even higher res textures. Just make fun games.

I'm playing Sea of Stars right now and having more fun than I did with FF XVI, with all its flashy graphics and framerate. Just give us great games. Why not horror games with pre-rendered backgrounds again? RE Zero and REmake still look great.

I can go back to a PS1 game and have a better time than with a lot of these flashy new AAA games.

I don't know, nostalgia or getting old?

Honestly, it probably is nostalgia. When I go back to my old favorites I am a lot more forgiving of learning curve issues, crashes, falling through the floor, etc than I am of new releases.

 

[Johnic]

Honestly, it probably is nostalgia. When I go back to my old favorites I am a lot more forgiving of learning curve issues, crashes, faling through the floor, etc than I am of new releases.

Yeah, even bad game mechanics.

 

[Zzero]

They certainly used to be. 6 months of people living In the office for Super Metroid. I'm not sure that much has changed at a Japanese corporate

They outsource most of the grunt work now (and did a fair share of the time back then too), thats really what changed. So its BandaiNamco, Gambarion, Craft&Meister, etc. who are crunching and not actual Nintendo employees. There's also the FE group who are so far ahead of schedule that they can complete their games without crunch and then bank them for a year.

 

[KnittedKnight]

I like it.

Console hardware sales matter. Bottomline of the business - without it there is no such thing as "PlayStation". There is no such thing as PlayStation outside the hardware. Mere delusions. There is only one Steam, with a tight grip, propelled by PC hardware and getting stronger by the day, thanks to Sony as well.

"When we all make money we all win." Right.....

Good luck to them pushing units. At least GTA6 is going to bail them out for a while.

Can't wait for the PS6 reset at 0.

Rule #1,000,001 of the untold hardware playbook.

Never signal that a rivaling ecosystem, that rest on hardware may be a better consumer choice and a better developer choice. Folks will take notice, even the dumb ones. It's literally a domino theory effect.

 

[Yurinka]

Isn't there a notorious crunch culture at Nintendo of Japan?

Yes, but it's something that happens pretty much in every Japanese companies/studios. Not only in gaming.

 

[nongkris]

I'm not alt right, not even close. I was accused of being woke a while ago on this forum.... The DEI stuff has a lot to do with it, Spider-Man 2 costing 3x more than Spider-Man 2018 has nothing to do with anything actually technical related....

It has to do with the marvel license costing nearly 100 million... You literally just made the DEI nonsense up as a boogeyman because Sony sucks at budgeting.

 

[ForzaJuve]

It has to do with the marvel license costing nearly 100 million... You literally just made the DEI nonsense up as a boogeyman because Sony sucks at budgeting.

DEI is a huge cost driver, look at Naughty Dog's productivity falling through the floor due to it. I don't care if you like it or not, we are talking about costs.

 

[JAHGamer]

It has to do with the marvel license costing nearly 100 million... You literally just made the DEI nonsense up as a boogeyman because Sony sucks at budgeting.

This is completely wrong…Sony pays Marvel royalties on the back end, not up front. So that has nothing to do with the 300 million dollar dev cost…

 

[nongkris]

This is completely wrong…Sony pays Marvel royalties on the back end, not up front. So that has nothing to do with the 300 million dollar dev cost…

Another lie. But anyways I'm exiting the conversation. You literally just made the DEI nonsense up as a boogeyman because Sony sucks at budgeting.

 

[JAHGamer]

Another lie. But anyways I'm exiting the conversation. You literally just made the DEI nonsense up as a boogeyman because Sony sucks at budgeting.

No I didn’t, but ok

 

[Evilms]

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