Sony has a weird strategy to deal with its current crummy year, and it’s one that’s a welcome reprieve from the typical “EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE” song-and-dance: it’s being honest. Sony Europe’s head, David Reeves, told the Guardian (home of the brilliant Football Weekly podcast), “We simply have to suffer a little, go down in market share and mind-share.” Imagine that!
Reeves doesn’t deny that Sony Europe isn’t exactly in great shape: PS3 sales were down 8.9 percent last quarter; PSP sales were down 11.8 percent; PS2, down 53 percent (keep in mind how old the PS2 is, though). Its competitors, which, I’m sorry, includes the money-printing Wii, are doing better than it right now.
But what Sony clearly isn’t interested in is some message board popularity contest, that is, whoever “wins” this generation. It’s a silly concept for a multi-billion dollar corporation to entertain. No, Reeves’ job is merely to make Sony Europe profitable. Sure, Sony could have cut the price of the PS3 last Christmastime, but the company would have been worse off in the long-term. Or, “If we’d cut the price, lost another billion dollars, we might have had a huge Christmas but it would have been followed by a huge loss.” And for a man whose primary objective, is, again, to make the corporation profitable.
Photo: Flickr