Sony y su nueva estrategia.

Last Thursday Sony released its financial report for the first quarter in their fiscal year, and while losses in their games division totaled ¥96.7 billion ($847.6 million), the profits for the company overall were strong at ¥90.5 billion ($793.4 million). Based on its first quarter, Sony has released guidance for the remainder of the fiscal year. According to Reuters, Sony figures that its games division will double its expected losses, from ¥50 billion to ¥100 billion.
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Considering that Sony has already lost the vast majority of that sum in the first quarter of the year, the game unit needs to be at break even or become profitable in the coming months if Sony hopes to avoid upping the loss estimates again. So how does Sony plan to turn things around so quickly?
Sony has already announced the launch of a lower-priced 40GB PlayStation 3 that has taken backwards compatibility out of the feature list, a move that has allowed Sony to both drop the price and the cost of the unit. As Sony continues to refine the production costs of its hardware with lower-priced components the burden of the hardware being a loss-leader will lessen.
Sony also has recently seen the launch of two high-profile games in Eye of Judgment and Ratchet and Clank Future, titles that have been well received by critics and have the bonus of being published by Sony itself. If those games, along with the future Sony-published titles Gran Turismo 5 and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, are hits, Sony could gain back some needed momentum. Sony will also enjoy the only version of Rock Band to ship with a wireless guitar, along with exclusives in Haze and Metal Gear Solid 4. Add in a strong business in full-sized downloadable titles as well, a key advantage Sony has over Microsoft when it comes to distribution, and the future looks bright.
Sony's more open online service also allows for Unreal Tournament 3 to support user-created modifications, which may cause gamers to make the PlayStation 3 the system of choice for Epic's new shooter. These games and features are all in the future though, so we're dealing with best-case scenarios at this point.
This uncertain future hasn't affected Sony's other businesses however, as the company is now estimating a 5 percent operating profit margin in their electronics division, up from the expected four percent. Sony continues to do brisk business in both high-definition televisions and digital cameras, and the profits from those products easily swallow what Sony hopes to be short-term gaming losses.
Investors don't seem worried about Sony's prospects, as last week's earnings caused stock to jump on the Tokyo Stock Exchange; Sony shares are now trading at ¥5,720, up from the sub-¥5,200 price before last Thursday.