14 DAY TRIAL // The new leader of Sony is Kazuo Hirai, the man that has long led the PlayStation building and game publishing division of the company, and some of his early remarks about the future of Sony have suggested that the Japanese company will rely heavily on gaming and on television business.
Surely Sony also has plans linked to mobile sales, medical tech and new communications infrastructure, but game related sales and TVs are set to become the core revenue and profit drivers for the company, which is projecting record breaking losses at the moment and is getting ready to let 10,000 employees go.
The PlayStation 3 was not the most successful console of the current generation, lagging behind the Nintendo Wii at first and now coming behind the Xbox 360 in the United States, while anecdotal evidence suggests that its performance is much better in Europe.
The Vita handheld is having a rough six months so far, but could bounce back near the end of the year, following the example that the Nintendo 3DS has set last year.
Many of Sony’s chances for success in the long term are linked to the much rumored, but officially inexistent, next-gen PlayStation home console.
So far the signs are not too good: Sony seems to be ready to allow Microsoft to announce and then launch its next-gen effort first, maybe even before the end of this year, and then deliver a superior product with a big marketing push.
A lot depends on the exact hardware of the coming two consoles and the video games that are available on launch, but the scenario seems a bit too similar to the Xbox 360 versus PlayStation 3 battle to bet on Sony.
What the company needs is something entirely disruptive for its PlayStation 4 or we might witness the slow decline of one of the most powerful forces in the history of video games.