BBC says "Sony is losing" in wake of Euro PS3 delay

by Blake Snow { Sep 7th 2006 at 3:45PM }

The BBC explores initial British reactions to the European PS3 delay and states that Sony is already "losing" to Microsoft's Xbox 360 in the next-gen console war (camp Gates throws confetti in the air). We just wish one of the lads featured in the segment used the term "bollocks" to describe the situation.

[via Game Break]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

FireLord91 @ Sep 7th 2006 3:51PM

I saw that yesterday! Old news!

1st post!???

LaughingTarget @ Sep 7th 2006 3:54PM

Basic Rule - If the mainstream media says it, then it is safe to ignore it. Sony isn't losing anything. That can only be determined by what happens AFTER the release.

eskwyre @ Sep 7th 2006 3:55PM

^ tr00f

ps @ Sep 7th 2006 4:01PM

Well the mainstream media is what the stock holders and consumers see. So having the BBC news point out Sony's bs is a pretty big deal.

darryl @ Sep 7th 2006 4:02PM

Kinda hard to lose a challenge that you have yet to begin, dontcha think? If they're saying that Sony's hype is losing against Microsoft's hardware, then maybe that makes sense. It would be really sad for Microsoft it that wasn't the case.

Let's start the competition when all the players have shown up at the field.

georgedakota @ Sep 7th 2006 4:03PM

Its pretty obvious to anyone who has been in the industry for a while that sony is now the underdog and ms is favorite. sorry but nintendo is still in the least likely to lead so dont even say wii will win the war cause that will happen when penguins can fly

LunarDuality @ Sep 7th 2006 4:04PM

Saying that Sony is "losing" is easy considering the score is something like 6 million to 0(zero) right now. Under that logic, Nintendo is losing too.

Saying Sony has already "lost" would be a gross under-estimation of the powerful brand that Sony has and the future possibilities of the PS3 platform.

End of story.

Negativecool @ Sep 7th 2006 4:04PM

I like how at the end they edit it to make it look like someone is "playing" the Killzone footage from E3 2005...
Thats funny.

Joey Ryon @ Sep 7th 2006 4:07PM

In other news. . .

JoyStiq says "We are Trolls". Will do anything for sensationalized headlines and hits for our advertisers.

JohnWho @ Sep 7th 2006 4:07PM

Could the BBC be any more patronising?

TehDestroyer @ Sep 7th 2006 4:08PM

I'm not going to make a guess at which console is going to win the console war but I do not think Sony will hold the top spot this time around. There are so many factors working against Sony here I feel it's safe to say the results of this console war will be drastically different.

CP229 @ Sep 7th 2006 4:09PM

For some odd reason this made me chuckle, defaintly the part "but scott is already a convert" XD

GamerG @ Sep 7th 2006 4:09PM

One of those blokes looked like he was going to cry!!

mykie @ Sep 7th 2006 4:10PM

The HD Gaming Era starts when Sony says it does.

arch @ Sep 7th 2006 4:10PM

WOT? WOT? WOT? WOT? WOT? its been delayed!! oh noes!!!! well its still goign to have better graphics and better games and moreo nline play and better!!111. i have no reasoning !!11 im a fanboy in the wild!!11

Jay @ Sep 7th 2006 4:10PM

The BBC. the UKs biggest news reporters say something is going bad? whether or not it's true then that mentality is embedded into peoples minds. Not, not good.

Then again the Guardian have been talking about how bad the PS3 has been doing production wise for so many weeks now.

arch @ Sep 7th 2006 4:11PM

mykie, shut it. the hd era started on in november. oh unless oyu want 1080p games with HORRIBLE FRAMERATES AND AA then yea sure ;)

Huzzah!! @ Sep 7th 2006 4:12PM

OWWWWWWWNNNNNEEEEEEDDDDDDDD!!!!

rjg @ Sep 7th 2006 4:12PM

Whether you are a fanboy our not, more bad press for Sony at this point cannot be good.

Mitchell @ Sep 7th 2006 4:16PM

BBC says "Sony is losing" in wake of Euro PS3 delay.

I HAVE BEEN SAYING THAT SINCE E3.

heavyness @ Sep 7th 2006 4:19PM

when the general public and the general news starts picking up on this, then you know you have did some damage. only a fraction of gamers read blogs, so when the blogsphere blows up, it doesn't really effect sales. but when the 10 o'clock news starts reporting it, the general public that buys their games at Wal-Mart listens... and unfortunately, that's the majority of gamers.

oblongmouth @ Sep 7th 2006 4:22PM

Somehow watching BBC news on the web makes it look worse.
Nowhere near as bad as US news though - phew!

m3mnoch @ Sep 7th 2006 4:27PM

msm has a huge sway with the average consumer -- aka the 95% of the people who'll buy consoles other than us. if it sticks it in their mind that "ps3 is bad" no matter what the weird circumstances, well, that just makes it so. the mainstream is sort of self deterministic that way.

kinda like how the odds of you dying in a plane crash are about a zillion times less likely than you dying in a car crash, yet, everyone (relatively speaking of course) is afraid of planes and not cars.

thank you mr. sensationalizing mainstream media.

m3mnoch.

Jeff @ Sep 7th 2006 4:27PM

"Well the mainstream media is what the stock holders and consumers see."

It's certainly not *all* that stockholders see. They mostly look at company fundamentals, and Sony's fundamentals are quite healthy.

Anyway, I don't see how you can look at Japan - where the majority of games worldwide still come from - and say Sony is "losing" in home consoles. They haven't even launched the PS3 yet and they're still beating the 360 to hell and back... with the *PS2*.

The situation is not much different in the rest of the world, either - a fact the BBC seems to overlook. But it matters more in Japan, because they can take for granted western game development to a large extent, but they need to do better in Japan in order to do well worldwide. And MS is way off their sales targets there, by about a factor of ten. This is the same reason why the PS2 so handily outsold the original Xbox (by about 5 to 1 worldwide).

The BBC, despite their reputation, is probably about as UK-centric as anybody. They don't really understand how interconnected the industry is, and how reliant different territories are on each other.

As Nintendo fanboys are so fond of saying, delays only last six months or whatever, but once the hardware's out there, it's out there forever. By this time next year, we'll all have forgotten this delay even happened. And then we'll really see who's winning and losing.

urbanstorm @ Sep 7th 2006 4:27PM

I love my xbox360 (just beat dead rising) but to say sony lost when they even havent come into the game is dumb no matter how you look at it.

Ps2 didnt do all that great until 2 years into it.As long as sony has that big "japanese 5" (square-enix,konami,koei,capcom,namco-bandai)backing them with hits like final fantasy ,metal gear,devil may cry,tekken,and dragon quest the system is going to sell.

Microsoft has good games that are coming out but if yu think games like final fantasy and metal gear dont sell systems you been living under a rock for a very long time.....

The games not the console will make the "Next-gen" winner.

Blackmoon @ Sep 7th 2006 4:29PM

Quiet frankly there is no way to tell if sony is losing yet considering the PS3 isn't even out...

That "Xbox convert" at the end clearly has no clue.

boots @ Sep 7th 2006 4:31PM

LOL, arch doesn't get sarcasm.

Anyway, it (PS3) won't have better graphics. It won't because that's future tense, as if we had no tangible proof of that, only theory. It *has* would be correct to say, as was already seen that the same Tennis game, running on a dev kit for PS3, and running on Xbox 360, looks a lot better for PS3 (both real-time). So, it's not that "it will" as if we haven't seen already, it has, because we've seen it in action.

Furthermore a lot of cross-platform games have been confirmed to have extra content on PS3. Also, Xbox 360 is not cheaper as everyone would like to think (nor is it "optional" as everyone wants to think). 1080p "horrible frame rates"? Well, it seems that resistance has been locked already @ 30 Frames/second, 1080p, and that's a launch title; developers don't have a lot of experience yet with PS3 development... think what'll happen 6 years down the road, pal.

Anyway, saying that sony has already lost can only mean your brain is as functional as that of a junky.

SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity @ Sep 7th 2006 4:35PM

Man Joystiqs bias is getting waaaay out of hand. More than 1/2 the articles are just bashing sony like the jealous haters you are. Keep drinking your haterade wiitards and xbots, because once ps3 comes out itz gonna kick ass and take names, within a year wii and xbox1.5 will be sinking like the titanic.

The fact is the next gen console war hasnt even started yet, the only new consoles out are PSP, DS, and Xbox1.5. None of them are next gen, I've seen xbox1.5 games and they look like xbox games in a slightly higer res with that lame sun in your eyes effect and super shiny textures. Not to mention that all the games are gay as hell so far. Ps3 will usher in the true next gen, with a massive new disc format that will make for way bigger games, and TrueHD graphics that will actually look like a big improvement over ps2, unlike xbox1.5, way better ai and physics from the cell, and so on. Wii isnt really next gen, but at least it has a new controller so theres something new. You joystiq pussies enjoy your time in the sun, because its all going to come crashing down on your heads real soon and playstation will rule the mindshare of gamers just like the last 2 gens.

skr1lls @ Sep 7th 2006 4:35PM

@ 2

"Sony isn't losing anything. That can only be determined by what happens AFTER the release."

Uh ok.. After their release? Or lack thereof... point is they're not releasing when they should. So you're saying they can't lose by leaving they're product off the shelves longer? And that losing fanboys to another system isn't considered a loss? What if it gets pushed back again until summer. Is Sony still not losing?

You're grasp of winners and losers is quite distorted my friend.

m3mnoch @ Sep 7th 2006 4:35PM

also, to be noted: stockholders don't buy consoles. general consumers do.

piss off the general consumers of the 2nd largest video game consuming territory enough so that it makes the mainstream media THE SAME DAY? oops. something so niche blowing up like that is pretty much unheard of.

m3mnoch.

idioteraser @ Sep 7th 2006 4:36PM

Lets face it 99% of the people who stated they are going to buy a PS3 have no idea of it's specs/what they actual mean which is not any better graphics/sounds/AI then what the xbox 360 has even the Wii can trump the xbox 360 and PS3 in certain departments such as game AI in FPS as well as built in physics. Graphics won't be better then the other consoles in standard tv heck the PS3 could be said to look far worse. Games load far slower.

99% of the people who when asked said they would buy a PS3 don't read gaming mags or go to gaming news websites, they cannot even name any games coming out they have no knowledge of E3. Heck they bought PSPs and haven't played them for months. They also don't know the price.

When you ask a 100 people if they will pay 499/599 dollars or more for a game console I would predict 99 of them would say hell no.

Recall a lot of people bought ebayed consoles and were disappointed as a result since they often bought lemons.

The PS3 well sell out on it's launch but will it still be selling well six months or a year down the line? Even the dreamcast did well it's first year. Even the psp did well it's first year and we all know that psp movies and game sales are in the toilet. Ask any retailer and they will tell you they haven't moved psps in months if it all while they sell DS and DS lites frequently.

This bit of news has just keyed the European public about what some of us have known for a while that Sony doesn't keep any promises and will deliver a shoddy rushed product if they can.

Hell the factories aren't even producing PS3s yet. I wouldn't put it past Sony to announce two months from now they will be delaying the US and Japan launches to March due to factory production issues.

Mal F4cti0n @ Sep 7th 2006 4:37PM

The jabs at Sony just keep on coming. But as they say, you gotta roll with the punches.

Recently, Grand Theft Auto creator Dave Jones has divulged that he's not convinced about Sony's online gaming strategy and that beating MS' Xbox Live is a long-shot. He mentions in an Edge magazine interview that he "seriously questions Sony's policy of leaving it down to publishers to come up with their own standards for each [online] game."

He elaborated his statement by saying that "I completely disagree with it. I'm not going to put my credit card details with five different companies for some bits of downloadable content. Sony is a huge force, and definitely has been with the PS2 - but now I see it being, at worst, a 50/50 race, but as time goes on I lean more and more towards Microsoft."

Jones, leaning towards MS, isn't surprising since he is currently working on a Xbox 360 title- Crackdown. Both companies, Sony and MS, have become formidable forces in the game console arena, it would definitely be exciting to watch them wiggle their way out of their troubles and match-up in the coming console wars.

idioteraser @ Sep 7th 2006 4:40PM

boots don't beleive everything a PS3 developer says. Remember that noninteractive prerendered cgi footage holding a player hostage to a PS3 developer is in fact interactive realtime footage that would in fact reflect what a player would see while playing the game.

Mal F4cti0n @ Sep 7th 2006 4:47PM

Hey boots, where is your Toy Story quality gameplay from the PS2? Oh wait, that's right, SONY LIED TO US ABOUT THAT!

FooAtari @ Sep 7th 2006 4:48PM

boots, I'm a little confused.

How exactly is the 360 not as cheap as everyone thinks it is. And don't give me that blu-ray/HD-DVD crap, im in it for the games personally (unlike sony, blu-ray in the PS2 is as much about getting a new film format established as it is about games)

The problems with 1080p is comming from the devs and Sony I belive.

And 6 years downline we will be entering another generation.

If graphics are so important, why didnt the xbox wipe the floor with the PS2? One rule for some, a different rule for others...

I don't think the PS is dead, they will be around for another gen at least, and maybe still have market lead in a few years, but there is no doubt in my mind they will loose a big chunk of it.

reebo @ Sep 7th 2006 4:50PM

It's the BBC! It's the BBC! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
BBC 1!
BBC 2!
BBC 3!
BBC 4!
BBC 5!
BBC 6!
BBC 7!
BBC Heaven!

semi @ Sep 7th 2006 4:51PM

why does sony always lie? always make dumb ass promises? dumb ass release dates?

its getting to be some kinda marketing ploy by sony, to announce that it will come earlier to keep the people from buying competitons products, then keep extending the date, and the consumer feels if he has waited this long he might as well wait a few more months.

when sony announced the delay of psp in europe i said i wouldnt get one, but in the end i got one, i'll prolly do the same, unless of course Wii lives up to expectations! i'll be a Nintendo Convert!

time to use that saved up money for a nice holiday ;-)

LaughingTarget @ Sep 7th 2006 4:56PM

Jeff -

Uh, Sony isn't financially healthy. While they have posted an increase in profits, all of those profits are paper profits. They're STILL dealing with a massive negative cash flow problem. They're down another $1.6 billion in the first quarter 2006 (ends June 30).

Their current ratio, the amount of current assets (anything they can have available within the year to pay expenses) divided by the current liabilities (everything they need to pay off by the end of March 2007) is only 1.14. This is REALLY BAD, especially since 52.4% of their current assets is tied up in accounts recievable. Factor in their doubtful accounts predictions, and Sony barely has enough money to pay what they owe. This has been steadily happening year after year after year. Sony cannot continue to absorb this huge cash loss and NEEDS the PS3 to be a massive success to start generating cash inflow from royalties.

The news only gets worse when considering quick ratios, amount of immediate funds on hand available to Sony if liabilities need to be paid NOW. Sony only has half the available resources to pay off their liabilities, a quick ratio of 0.55. Sony is far too reliant on what its customers owe them to keep them afloat.

For comparison, Sony's industry peers have an average current ratio of 2.6 (more than double the funds available to pay off current liabilities) and a quick ratio of 1.4 (more than enough cash and marketable securities to handle payments, no reliance on loans and vouchers to pay off debt).

This kind of news is not something Sony can simply shrug off. While it is BS to call this a win for Microsoft without the PS3 being released, average consumers assume it is true and will end up thinking the $600 investment won't be worth it.

indysurfn @ Sep 7th 2006 4:58PM

Oh my goodness did you listen to those guys they interviewed? They still think the system will have more games. And better graphics. This is out of the mouths of two grown men that just found out what everyone else already knew Fony lied again!
Guess what, they didn't continue developing the chip after Microsoft finalize the xbox core. It has the same transmitter count as it did in late 2004! They said so themselves! Hello the GPU was just downgraded (and I predict the CPU to 2.8ghz will be soon) I can't believe people STILL believe all these lies! Stupidity multiplied by infinity (meaning there is no end to it).
Goes to show you. Once some one pumps you over, you tend to be blindly loyal to them.

Go on: still believe these Hint the technical ones are confirmed.

Wait on the PS3 cure for cancer!
Wait on the third super computer from Fony.
Wait on the human Genome to be mapped.
Wait on the CPU used for weapons of mass destruction!
wait on the eight cpus.
Wait on the 550ghz GPU
wait on the 4.0ghz speed (ops already down to 3.2?).
Wait on the over letter for that 2nd job to afford it.
Wait on the great that value.
wait on that dual 1080p!
Wait on those 120 frames a second!
wait on those eight ports!
wait on Fony that dogged MS's high price to insert.
Wait on Europe to classify it as a computer.
Wait on the bus speed!(LOL Actually it was never high)
Wait on China to use it for missiles! (what a insult).
Wait on other PS3's to use it to make better graphics.
wait on the Emotion synthesis.
wait on $ony to get softer. (then UN-bend over)
wait on Ken K. to fall asleep. and RUN! be free! run!

I'll have the wii60 before these fools finally realizing that its not even the most powerful system 'again'.

reguy @ Sep 7th 2006 4:58PM

you guys are all pickig on boots, and you should because he is a moron sony bot but lets not forget SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity who is just as bad.
well boots and the other ass, have fun with your ps3 and its awesome games that cant be done on a 360 right?

Chris @ Sep 7th 2006 5:03PM

Interesting how the bbc refuses to acknowledge the wii even after all the dust it's kicked up after e3.

Am i right in saying they mentioned it once after e3 2005, i missed the e3 2006 bbc coverage though, not like they would've shown much though.

Plus the wii is unlikely to be able to pull off better AI or physics than the other 2 (@ 28 btw) sure it's got the in-built physics engine (or so it seems) but the processors in the others will overpower it easily, having said that, it's still not too shabby and that controller is the first step to VR...

Blackmoon @ Sep 7th 2006 5:07PM

"Anyway, it (PS3) won't have better graphics. It won't because that's future tense, as if we had no tangible proof of that, only theory. It *has* would be correct to say, as was already seen that the same Tennis game, running on a dev kit for PS3, and running on Xbox 360, looks a lot better for PS3 (both real-time). So, it's not that "it will" as if we haven't seen already, it has, because we've seen it in action."

We know PS3 will have better graphics because PS3 does have better hardware. And guess what generates graphics, smartone? Hardware.

Marty @ Sep 7th 2006 5:12PM

"Let's start the competition when all the players have shown up at the field."

What if one of the players keeps making excuses and never shows up to the field, or does, but awfully late? You can't just sit back and pretend like that doesn't matter, just because you don't want it to.

SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity @ Sep 7th 2006 5:25PM

reguy, even a fanboy like you has to admit that the Xbox1.5 could NEVER hope to do a game like MGS4 in trueHD even in its wildest dreams, the puny single processor would probably go up in smoke LOL!! When all the new games are maxing out teh bluray and the Cell core like MGS4 is, xbox1.5 will be left in the dust, exposed for the bucket of surplus pc parts that it is.

reguy @ Sep 7th 2006 5:25PM

man i cant believe you goated me into arguing with a troll like yourself.
ok here goes:
shut up SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity(marge simpson reference)
you know its morons like you that said assassins creed would NEVER come to the 360, how did that work out? and now your saying its going to be the shit on the ps3 and oh so terrible on the 360.
and about msg4 not being able to run on the xbox, hmmm i bet you if we ask kojima not only could he do it, i bet it would look just as good.
and fnally, i must really like my xbox 1.5 because i can play games like oblivion, dead rising, prey, gears of war while you play fall of man. i like games where enemies dont get stuck in the stairs, but im just weird like that

botdeluxe @ Sep 7th 2006 5:26PM

You Sony fanboys are ridiculous. You'd think ya'll would have adopted a "wait and see" attitude after all the lies they have spouted... but you still harp on Sony Corp's talking points. xbox 1.5, 1080p, superduper Cell... you're pathetic!

Maybe it'll be better, maybe it'll be awesome... But i don't know how you can so blindly believe it will.

Supino @ Sep 7th 2006 5:30PM

Sony: Good luck :)

From Europ: Wii wish you a marry (X)-mas!

saboola @ Sep 7th 2006 5:36PM

How can people still say that Nintendo has no chance to win the war with the wii? Are you guys high? The PSP came out and it was the death nell for the DS. Nintendo is going to have to close up shop as most people on here said. The PSP is just so much better who would want a DS most of you said. Now go, call your grandmother... i'll wait....... she didn'nt pick up the phone right? Because she is playing a DS. These same people are now once again stating how the "underpowered" Wii has no chance in the next generation. I think you fangirls are in for a rude awakening. Now don't get me wrong, I already have my 360 and absolutely love it. I will also get a PS3 when the price comes down a bit. I am not saying these two other consoles are not fantastic, because the 360 is and I believe the PS3 will be too. But I am almost not a blind zealot for a gaming company. Nintendo has a really good chance this round to win, and amid all the bad press for Sony all you hear is good press for Nintendo. The mainstream likes the Wii, and that's going to move units, you can bet on that.