August 1st, 2007
The people over at Opposable Thumbs discuss what they think about Sony canceling the press event for SOE games. The event would have been all expenses paid and $1,000 to boot. Maybe I am without ethics (I don’t think so), but this seems pretty cool. I guess if you take yourself as a real journalist and think that it is your job to remain neutral then I can see the issue.
I see it more as someone willing to pay me to continue to talk out my ass, sweet.
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Tags: sony
August 1st, 2007
I didn’t know about this. I wonder if any of this actually gets back into real products.
Tags: research
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Tags: sony
July 9th, 2007
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Tags: sony bmg · sony music · sony
July 9th, 2007
I think this is super, very awesome. I have been an unfaithful user since April 2004 and have watched the site progress.
So the big news is that the Sony music catalogue is now available on last.fm. I have no ideas about the details of the deal, but it is very exciting. It’s nice to see Sony doing something a little bit social.
Some of the details from Digitalspy:
“This partnership affords Last.fm users a whole new set of terrific content for building community,” said Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel. “We’ve always aimed to have everything ever recorded available to listen to on our site, and having access to Sony’s collection of some of the world’s most popular music takes us another huge step closer.”
From Electronista
“The Last.fm streaming service will give our established artists a platform through which they can reach new audiences,” says Sony BMG’s Thomas Hesse, “and its unique recommendation system will provide our emerging artists with an important opportunity to build their fan base.”
I’m really interested if Thomas Hesse and Andrea Finkelstein ever hang out.
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Tags: Uncategorized
July 9th, 2007
The price of the PlayStation 3 has been dropped by $100, bringing the price tag to $499 as was expected. What I find so strange is that Dr. Chubacha said three days ago, “We have no immediate plans as of now”. I just have to scratch my head and utter a little WTF under my breath.
I am not a clever and super rich CEO and so it is hard for me to understand the logic behind this seemingly inconsistent statement. It’s true, I guess, because it happened three days earlier. Why not just say, “We are considering what impact a price drop could have on sales.” or how about, “We are re-evaluating the current price of the PS3, but no formal decision has been made.”
I’ll just go back to watching television now.
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Tags: ps3 · sony
July 8th, 2007
Read this article from lynnfredricks.com first. The assumptions of this article are incorrect. I can tell you that employees are clear that it is illegal to fix pricing for retailers. In addition, just because a manufacturer has a direct channel doesn’t mean that something fishy is going on.
I would worry much more about Dell who will be in a sticky position as almost all of their sales are direct. They will have a real challenge keeping things smooth with retailers like Walmart as so much of their business is direct.
Most manufacturers sell a lot more through retail than direct. Trying to push retailers around with your direct channel can seriously damage your retail channel. Just imagine how a retailer would feel if every time they had a sale the direct channel has a better sale. That retailer is going to be very upset and would probably reshuffle their product offering.
You can check this yourself (which you should have before writing the article). Just take any product from Sony Style (except the exclusive-to-Sony Style models) and do a price comparison:
Do a search for VGN-N31Z/W on Sony Style UK. You’ll find the price to be £699. Dabs.com has the lowest price at £653.24, with prices ranging from Dab’s price to £799 at John Lewis. So, in fact, Sony Style is competing to sell the computer just like the rest of the stores. I would say that is pretty healthy for competition. Wouldn’t you.
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Tags: Uncategorized
July 8th, 2007
Greenpeace issues a regular report rating electronics companies progress on eliminating toxic materials from all of their products and to have clear and consistent policies regarding the environment.
Here is the table:
There is Sony: At the very bottom. Oops. Looks like the Sony Group Environmental Vision is more of a dream for that respect. Take a look at the Management of Chemical Substances section:
Sony will maintain strict control over the chemical substances it uses, while taking steps whenever possible to reduce, substitute and eliminate the use of substances that are potentially hazardous to the environment
I hope Sony wakes up on this one before it is shaken out of bed.
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Tags: Uncategorized
July 8th, 2007
If you take what’s considered to be the most expensive and the least expensive – consider the US with its massive land and cheap people. Then you look at the UK – a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium, and the cost of people is a lot more. The cost of retail is vastly more in the UK than it is in the US and that’s before you even stop to consider the US doesn’t have VAT at RRP, they put a small amount on afterwards. Whereas, we get stung by 17.5 per cent. And pity the poor Irish and places like Sweden.
- Ray Maguire from an interview gamesindustry.biz
I’d really like to know what he meant by that. It seems a little much to generalize the entire US population as being cheap. As far as I remember the US seems to buy more of just about everything, regardless of the price, than anywhere else. hmmm?
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Tags: Uncategorized
July 8th, 2007
A Japanese marketing firm has reported that in Japan the Wii is currently outselling the PS3 six to one. The price tags are very different for these units and that definitely has an impact on sales.
Nintendo sold 270,974 Wii consoles in Japan in June, while Sony sold 41,628 PS3 machines, and Microsoft sold 17,616 Xbox 360 consoles, it said.
However, this does seem like quite a big margin.
Looking to buy one or the other? The folks over at Wisebread have a link to a Sony PS3 Locator or a Wii Locator that will help you find what you need.
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Tags: Uncategorized
July 8th, 2007
It seems from recent memory that many movies use the insides of churches for their movies. It seems that a video game and a movie should be viewed in the same way. If a movie recreates the inside of a well know cathedral do they need permission? Can you claim an exclusive right to a well know landmark? I have no idea.
I see how people who are probably already against the strong violence in video games could be deeply offended, which should lead them to prohibiting from buying these games. Sony has apologized and they should make a contribution to the youth programs, because that is a nice thing to do anyway, but that’s as far as it should go.
Personally, I think it looks awesome. Besides, wouldn’t you want someone to help if you had an alien infestation in your church?
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Tags: Uncategorized
