I know Home is coming out someday.  And they've added movies now, and sackboy is supposed to drive up some sales.  But right now the Xbox 360 is outselling both the PS2 and the PS3 in Japan.  In JAPAN!  What the f*ck?  How did that happen?  It's not like it's just one off week either.  The PS3 is barely selling anything at all over there.

  So what is up?  Microsoft has basically taken all the good franchises from Sony while maintaining its own.  Nintendo is just ridiculously unstoppable.  And Sony has opted to not drop the price any further this year so they can be profitable.

  Did you hear Sony revised their profit forecast by a reduction of 59%?  Their company value has slid 14%.  And they haven't announced earnings yet.  That'll be Wednesday, and it's not looking good at all because of the strong dollar to the Yen. 

  Sony's stock was over $50 a share in May.  They are now at less than $20 a share today.  Their Marketcap is 20 billion.  With a recessionary forecast, things are looking bleak.  The company could get bought out.  Or Sony could start trimming more fat from the bottom line.  They have cash in the bank though, so they can weather this for a little while, but if their stock falls any more, they risk getting purchased.  But don't think it's Nintendo.  They're feeling the burn too.  Their stock is at a crazy low of 33.20.  Oh my God!  That is so cheap.  If I only had 10 grand laying around, I would SO buy Nintendo stock right now.  Apple is at less than $100!!!  What a bargain.  Man, if I only had some money.

Anyway, back to Sony...

  Here's a quote:

"The maker of Bravia flat TVs and PlayStation 3 video game said when it cut its annual operating profit forecast by 57 percent on Thursday that it may have to shut some plants and cut jobs to bolster profitability."

  Interestingly enough, Sony has not provided Toshiba with the specs for the 45nm Cell.  Toshiba is ready-to-go, and Sony is tardy with their end for the chip.  Why is this?  Most likely Sony is just late, but it could be a sign that Sony is rethinking a prolonged PS3 model and may be shifting focus to leave it at 65nm and reduce inventory instead.  (Burn them out.)

  This after the whole Sony Ericsson layoff situation.  It's not good for Sony man.  It really depends on how long the world wide recession lasts for them.  Their biggest threat is the ability for someone to come in and scoop them up.  If their stock crumbles to $10 a share, they'll be in real jeopardy.  If they're lucky, some Abu Dhabi type will buy the company shares and prop them up.  If they're unlucky, they'll get bought by Nintendo, Microsoft, or a bigger electronics firm like Panasonic.

  It may not matter if the PS3 sells well now.  The damage might already be done.  Sony could be a major victim of the economic crises.

We should all watch and be wary.  As it is true they have made many a bone headed decision as of late, the world would be a darker and less happy place without Sony and the PlayStation brand.  Hopefully they'll weather the storm alright.  No thanks to the loyal Japanese population.  Sony is even talking about moving more manufacturing overseas because Japan has become unprofitable for them!  I wonder why the Japanese would rather buy a 360 than a PS3.  Seems so unusual.

Amazing stuff...
K

The 360's recent success in Japan can be attributed to a couple very simple things. Good games+price drop. The 360 is cheaper than the Wii and a bunch of Japanese RPGs just dropped for the 360. Tales of vesperia in August, Infinite undiscovery(square enix) in September, and The last remnant from Square enix is coming in November. The Last Remnant will eventually be multiplatform(360 first, PS3 later. Date is still TBA), but Microsoft is doing a good job of making it LOOK like it's exclusive.

On top of that, Microsoft is also doing a lot of bundles for Japan. Just this month they introduced a bundle for the 60 GB Xbox 360 that includes Beautiful katamari and Ace combat 6. There will also be a bundle for the last remnant.

I think it just comes down to the Xbox 360 being cheaper and having more games right now. Sony really isn't trying either. Probably because they haven't had to actually try to compete in over 10 years.

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Despite all the bone headed moves they have made with the PS3, I really hope they don't go away.  Gaming on the consoles would be reduced to essentially a bunch of mini games and FPS's.

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I'm honestly excited for the 360, they seem to be making all the right moves, and if sony does bomb then that means all of their exclusives will have to go somewhere.  Nintendo doesn't have the horsepower, so it would have to be Microsoft, I think it would be great to play God of War 3 on the xbox.  Publishers still need to make money, i'm curious to see how the next year or two plays out.  Do you think sony is going to have a competing console for the next xbox that comes out?

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So how many JRPGs on are the PS3? I think you can count them all on one hand if you include the games that are also on the 360.

What makes your post so funny is that you say the Xbox has nowhere near the same amount of JRPGs as the Playstation. Ok that was true 5 years ago. This is the year 2008. JRPGs(RPGs in general) are found on both the 360 and PS3, but currently the 360 has way more. I can't think of many exclusive JRPGs on the PS3 right now. Folklore is the only one that comes to mind. FFXIII is even coming to the 360.

Eh whatever. Its just annoying to me when I see people that still think the 360 only has shooters.

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Wow Ive been out of the loop for too long. Japan. Microsoft! i dont think Microsoft would ever buy Sony, would they....

thanks Kevin

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If Sony were to get bought it would probably be by Samsung. Is Microsoft even interested in the business of selling general consumer electronics? I think they would keep the Playstation name since it IS a strong and recognizable brand.

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I agree with most of what Rapier said since I'm a J-RPG gamer myself.

I dont care what arguements you guys are gonna try throwing at me, but microsoft cannot TOUCH the playstation brand when it comes to this genre of games.

If your bringing it just down to x360 and ps3, then yeah. A few bad decisions and sony slinging down the gutter.

But ps1 ?...ps2 ? If you see the amount of contribution just those 2 consoles have done to the gaming world, you'd understand. In terms of quality of game titles released as well as the raw no. of games released they would just mow down microsoft and nintendo.

Heck, I wanna know wtf happened to the xbox. The classic one. Someone give me a good answer as to why the PS2 is still a relatively widespread and popular console, and you cant even see xbox's anymore.

Rooting for Sony.

Cheers.

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"Everyone is judgemental, just that most are'nt honest about it... "
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"To destroy is to challege man .
      To create is to challenge god ."

All I'm seeing here is that both "next gen" consoles "suck" for JRPGs.  Last generation, by this time in the console cycle, there was a shit ton of good J/RPGs.  Most of these are mediorce at best.

Seriously, I do see what your saying Nutman.  But I also see the list you provided as proof of how bad the JRPG selection will get if Sony went away completely.  But whatever, having both consoles is the way to go for most gamers. 

One thing though.  Stop going on about FFXIII.  The Xbox is getting only the normal version.  The other game in the series (FFXIII Versus) is still PS3 exclusive.

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