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Media Create Sales: Week 50, 2011 (Dec 12 - Dec 18)

Cipherr

Member
You all really dont see a big splash for FF7r? Whenever it comes, if it comes, (I dont see it being on a handheld, I think graphically they will want to push it hard as hell) I think itll be massive. Nostalgia has turned it into sort of a damn near legend. It isnt like OOT that had releases here and there. Its been starved, and teased to death.

I think it would be huge.

SNE:

Cash on hand: ~7.41 Billion
Total Outstanding Debt: ~12.91 Billion

NTDOY:

Cash on hand: ~11.35 Billion
Total Outstanding Debt: 0.00

Emailing this post to Nikkei, Nintendo stock to fall another 4% tomorrow on this news.
 

BurntPork

Banned
SNE:

Cash on hand: ~7.41 Billion
Total Outstanding Debt: ~12.91 Billion

NTDOY:

Cash on hand: ~11.35 Billion
Total Outstanding Debt: 0.00

Damn. Though, Nintendo has a hell of a lot less stuff to spend money on, so I guess it makes sense. (Either that, or Sony has some management issues.)
 

Truth101

Banned
You all really dont see a big splash for FF7r? Whenever it comes, if it comes, (I dont see it being on a handheld, I think graphically they will want to push it hard as hell) I think itll be massive. Nostalgia has turned it into sort of a damn near legend. It isnt like OOT that had releases here and there. Its been starved, and teased to death.

I think it would be huge.
I bet an HD FFVIIr would have a hard time even recouping its budget the way dev costs are now.
 

Opiate

Member
too big to fail status

They aren't getting government loans. Look at my explanation above -- Sony is in no immediate or mid-term danger of being unable to accrue more debt.

I think people who are not especially investment savvy (And I don't mean that as insult, most people are not) would look at those numbers and assume impending disasters. That's not correct, with a company of Sony's size. Sony can bleed for a long, long time before the effects are hugely noticeable to most consumers.
 
Shareholder bonds, enormous operating cash flow, enormous quantities of collateral. It's not nearly as hard as you might expect for an international conglomerate of their size.
That still seems like an unreasonable amount of debt, even for a company the size of Sony. What aspect of their current business holdings will generate enough capital to pay that off?
 

magash

Member
SNE:

Cash on hand: ~7.41 Billion
Total Outstanding Debt: ~12.91 Billion

NTDOY:

Cash on hand: ~11.35 Billion
Total Outstanding Debt: 0.00

Holy shit. Nintendo is swimming in cash. Another thing is that there are less than 5500 people working at Nintendo which makes it arguably the most efficient and well run video gaming company.

No wonder Nintendo was able to quickly slash the initial price of the 3DS.
 
Holy shit. Nintendo is swimming in cash. Another thing is that there are less than 5500 people working at Nintendo which makes it arguably the most efficient and well run video gaming company.

No wonder Nintendo was able to quickly slash the initial price of the 3DS.

Yes, Nintendo knows how to run a business like few other companies.
Hopefully they use some of that warchest to propel the 3DS and Wii U into the spotlight more, though.
 

Takao

Banned
Well that was your mistake. It was really really obvious that MH3P HD was a tool to support the PSP release and not a sign of an impending "real" console release.

I took it as a "dipping our toes into the water" like Monster Hunter G on Wii was, but obviously Tri was announced for Wii prior to that.
 

spwolf

Member
That still seems like an unreasonable amount of debt, even for a company the size of Sony. What aspect of their current business holdings will generate enough capital to pay that off?

heh.

Let me put it this way, to match debt of USA, relative to their respective revenues, Sony would have to borrow another $70 USD billion (or another 7x of what they owe right now).

However, what Sony has is obligation to its shareholders to make money, something thats is currently very hard to do due to their Yen exposure, as well as other factors that really brought them down this year (Thailand/Japanese disasters).

So if you are looking at major changes at Sony, they wouldnt be because of the impeeding bankcrupcy but because of their obligations to their investors who can install new board and make radical changes if needed.

But I wouldnt really judge them on this year, due to yen and those disasters, they lost billions. Both outside of their real of influence. When I last checked their sharholders docs, without those, Sony would have made several billions in profit.
 
Holy shit. Nintendo is swimming in cash. Another thing is that there are less than 5500 people working at Nintendo which makes it arguably the most efficient and well run video gaming company.

No wonder Nintendo was able to quickly slash the initial price of the 3DS.

Was it not reported recently that Nintendo had a new buildings to fill and hiring a lot more staff?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
you guys sure paint a bleak picture of SONY but aren't they just like GM?
Meaning the Japanese Gov would never allow them to fail.

I don't think people actually expect them to fail.

They're steadily losing less money, and taking moves that will make them lose less money as time goes on.

However, it is relevant in terms of how much cash they are willing to throw around in a given division.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
While not quite as disconnected as The Beatles: Rock Band versus the gaming audience in 2009, I feel the amount of people who worship FFVII in 2014+ will be vastly smaller than I have seen many people imply, not to mention that we're now most likely talking about PS4/720 development costs for a game with that level of content and the general development capability of Square Enix Japan.
 

Erethian

Member
Was it not reported recently that Nintendo had a new buildings to fill and hiring a lot more staff?

They bought an old golf course in Kyoto as the site for a new major office complex, which will finish construction in 2013. Though it will partly be to house existing staff in a single location, so the various teams can more easily communicate with each other.
 
I don't think people actually expect them to fail.

They're steadily losing less money, and taking moves that will make them lose less money as time goes on.

However, it is relevant in terms of how much cash they are willing to throw around in a given division.

I see so keeping Vita afloat and launching PS4 is going to take a little more hard work than usual.

I want to ask you guys something, who did more harm to Sony games division?

A) SONY

B) Nintendo

C) Microsoft

Although the Xbox brand did not take off in Japan it did cut heavily into what was Sony's core base. So I would have to say MS drove them here. Microsoft takes the loses of its gaming division like it was toilet paper. I don't really like seeing Sony down.

Vita really deserves better so I hope this gloom passes in a few months and they find a way to drive it to success.
 
I just don't think it will make a meaningful impact unless it gets the full HD remake treatment -- and in that case, it's probably better as an early effort for next generation rather than trying to squeeze it out in the insufficient time before new consoles launch.

I strongly disagree with this. A remake of a very popular FF game will wake up the fan base and reignite the interest in a fallen out of grace franchise, and will probably bring new fans to the series due to the popularity of FF7 and good word of mouth. FF7 has been charting on top 10 on PSN since it was released.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I see so keeping Vita afloat and launching PS4 is going to take a little more hard work than usual.

I want to ask you guys something, who did more harm to Sony games division?

A) SONY

B) Nintendo

C) Microsoft

Although the Xbox brand did not take off in Japan it did cut heavily into what was Sony's core base. So I would have to say MS drove them here. Microsoft takes the loses of its gaming division like it was toilet paper. I don't really like seeing Sony down.

Vita really deserves better so I hope this gloom passes in a few months and they find a way to drive it to success.

Sony, especially if we're talking about Japan.

They had dominance with the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, and then a strong position with the PlayStation Portable.

Despite this, we're sitting at the end of 2011 and Sony has next to no relevant owned IPs for the Japanese market.

I'm not sure how they even managed this.
 
I see so keeping Vita afloat and launching PS4 is going to take a little more hard work than usual.

I want to ask you guys something, who did more harm to Sony games division?

A) SONY

B) Nintendo

C) Microsoft

Although the Xbox brand did not take off in Japan it did cut heavily into what was Sony's core base. So I would have to say MS drove them here. Microsoft takes the loses of its gaming division like it was toilet paper. I don't really like seeing Sony down.

Vita really deserves better so I hope this gloom passes in a few months and they find a way to drive it to success.

I guess the answer would be A, because Sony's game division was harmed by the companies flawed thought that Bluray would become the next DVD.
 

Takao

Banned
I'd say the PS3 (therefore Sony itself) did Sony the worst in gaming, though the TV division seems to wants to make the PS3 losses look like chump change.
 
While not quite as disconnected as The Beatles: Rock Band versus the gaming audience in 2009, I feel the amount of people who worship FFVII in 2014+ will be vastly smaller than I have seen many people imply, not to mention that we're now most likely talking about PS4/720 development costs for a game with that level of content and the general development capability of Square Enix Japan.

*Sob*

One of my favorite games of the generation.

As for FFVII, Square-Enix should really be more focused on the Final Fantasy games they're releasing now. The series seems to be plummeting at an alarming rate in sales and quality.
 

jman2050

Member
Sony, especially if we're talking about Japan.

They had dominance with the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, and then a strong position with the PlayStation Portable.

Despite this, we're sitting at the end of 2011 and Sony has next to no relevant owned IPs for the Japanese market.

I'm not sure how they even managed this.

I don't think Sony ever had a relevent owned IP for the Japanese market outside of GT.

HSG?
 

Opiate

Member
Even generally, SE is rapidly running out of remake real estate.

Not because there aren't games that haven't been remade (There are), but that the remaining ones can't be remade on feasible financial budgets. I do not think, for example, that FFX will be significantly "remade" for its HD port, simply because the costs would be enormous for a project that isn't likely to sell more than a million.

NES games can get remade in to PS1 games. PS1 games can get remade in to PS2 games. But PS2 games (and FFVII thanks to SE's own stupidly positioned hype train) will never be things one can remake on PS2 budgets, because the expectation is that a remake would look better than the original, for obvious reasons. Remakes on PS3/360 budgets -- or PS4/720 budgets, as would likely be the case if FFVII began remaking right now -- are a very tough sell to investors.
 
Sony, especially if we're talking about Japan.

They had dominance with the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, and then a strong position with the PlayStation Portable.

Despite this, we're sitting at the end of 2011 and Sony has next to no relevant owned IPs for the Japanese market.

I'm not sure how they even managed this.

This answer also makes me think that SONY harmed the Final Fantasy IP as well?

I would blame Square for alienating Nintendo fans by keeping the IP exclusive to SONY but what choice did Square have? Now it seems like FF has no power or hype behind it as it once did after some disappointing titles. FF for the Vita alone would have been the shit a few generations ago.

How the hell has Nintendo been able to get away with not killing off its big IPs is truly pure luck or amazing talent... maybe just crazy fans. (I don't think Nintendogs survived the DS to 3DS transition but Pokemon survives)
 

jman2050

Member
How they hell has Nintendo been able to get away with not killing off its big IPs is truly pure luck or amazing talent... maybe just crazy fans. (I don't think Nintendogs survived the DS to 3DS transition but Pokemon survives)

They're pretty good at using their games to sell their brands and not the other way around.

Even then they managed to almost completely kill Metroid for example, so they're not immune to misreading the market.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
This answer also makes me think that SONY harmed the Final Fantasy IP as well?

I would blame Square for alienating Nintendo fans by keeping the IP exclusive to SONY but what choice did Square have? Now it seems like FF has no power or hype behind it as it once did after some disappointing titles. FF for the Vita alone would have been the shit a few generations ago.

How they hell has Nintendo been able to get away with not killing off its big IPs is truly pure luck or amazing talent... maybe just crazy fans. (I don't think Nintendogs survived the DS to 3DS transition but Pokemon survives)

I would blame Final Fantasy's decline squarely on two things.

1.) Using the brand to sell mediocre and bad spin-offs until people no longer valued it for anything but mainline entries.
2.) Hyping Final Fantasy XIII up to insane levels with a dripfeed news cycle, closed megatheaters, pay for demo, and a plethora of other methodologies, and then releasing a disappointing game. This killed off a lot of the remaining respect for the brand, even among the mainline entries.

Final Fantasy XIV was just kind of icing on the cake. Doubling down on their disappointing mainline entry and their failed MMO is truly baffling, but at that point I feel most of the damage had been done.
 
They're pretty good at using their games to sell their brands and not the other way around.

Even then they managed to almost completely kill Metroid for example, so they're not immune to misreading the market.

I thought StarFox was dead as you could get. Not sure if the 3DS remake helped any. But Metroid maybe dead to some purist that did not like the 3D ones but I am not sure if they would not find success with some 2D versions.

just like Mario seems to have two versions Galaxy eye candy with lower sales and NSMB versions with higher sales

still not sure how they get away with it, anyone else did this split would have killed the franchise
 

Beth Cyra

Member
I would blame Final Fantasy's decline squarely on two things.

1.) Using the brand to sell mediocre and bad spin-offs until people no longer valued it for anything but mainline entries.
2.) Hyping Final Fantasy XIII up to insane levels with a dripfeed news cycle, closed megatheaters, pay for demo, and a plethora of other methodologies, and then releasing a disappointing game. This killed off a lot of the remaining respect for the brand, even among the mainline entries.

Final Fantasy XIV was just kind of icing on the cake. Doubling down on their disappointing mainline entry and their failed MMO is truly baffling, but at that point I feel most of the damage had been done.

XIII certainly didn't help, and the promo stuff was pretty bad. That said I think that is putting way to much on XIII when XII suffered a similar fate from bad development cycle and how long it took them to get it out and as a resort had so much hype built for it only to have it get a negative reaction from a good portion of the fan base as well.
 
I strongly disagree with this. A remake of a very popular FF game will wake up the fan base and reignite the interest in a fallen out of grace franchise, and will probably bring new fans to the series due to the popularity of FF7 and good word of mouth.

This is magical thinking on par with "if everyone asks Santa Claus to bring the FF series back to prominence it'll surely happen!" FFVII has -- in fact, epitomizes -- many of the issues that audiences today routinely bitch about in newly released RPGs: cliche characters, nonsensical and incomprehensible storylines (that fall apart after the first act), obnoxiously long attack animations, pointless cutscenes, random encounters, missable sidequests, lack of meaningful challenge, a battle system that mostly comes down to "Fight" over and over, etc. The idea that people are going to ignore the things that drive them away from other recent RPGs just because this one was popular ten years ago is extremely implausible. FFVII also has an aesthetic straight out of the late-90s era that's incredibly dated today and won't do much to win over new converts.

I mean, seriously: FFVII was outrageously era-specific, lightning in a bottle that came from reading the exact tone of that moment's zeitgeist and serving up a product that tapped it exactly the right way. Square-Enix trying to turn around its fortunes with a slavish remake today is basically the equivalent of if NBC tried to break out of their last-place TV rut with a Friends reunion.
 
These guys need new IPs. They have to be brave enough to put a new name on their products until one sticks
I'm not going to say anything about stupid names like Bravely Default.

The World Ends With You - seem to have grown a nice little fanbase
 
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