Sony as a Business are having a lot of issues right now, after the Vita's sales dropped in Japan there hasn't been much good news for them but in theory that could all change now that Kaz Hirai has taken the helm. Now i'm not gonna talk about the whole SCE business because... well I don't know enough about the other departments beyond their Playstation business, so i'm gonna go over what I feel are their major issues there right now.
The Vita is in major trouble in Japan right now, not even outselling it's predecessor, so the logical solution would be a price cut right? Well, not entirely for two outstanding reasons.
Currently the Vita doesn't sell well in Japan because among other things, it doesn't have the games that they want to see, even the old favourite Monster Hunter is no longer exclusive to Sony's consoles, which is one of the greatest battles Nintendo ever won out there frankly. There's no short term solution to that really, and even a price drop won't solve the issue in the long term.
Sony could do a price drop regardless, I mean they haven't got many options besides cramming money into marketing but the current issue is that a price drop would completely undermine their position all over the world, showing a complete lack of confidence in their sales, which they still maintain are to their projections (presumably buoyed by day 1 sales). Any cut they make would most likely have to be implemented worldwide, and until they see how sales are gonna pan out elsewhere, cutting the price would in their eyes just be losing them money.
But Sony have one other problem, and this one is to do with their public awareness. Did you know that Sony have an entire suite of devices running on the Playstation OS? All of which designed to be able to communicate with each other to create a dynamic and connected media experience. Sounds ideal doesn't it?
Except neither the Xperia or their Tablet sold anywhere near what they were hoping and as far as I'm aware here in the UK, that seems to come down to a complete lack of marketing, I mean I only know about the Xperia because they got that Minecraft deal and I can't even remember the name of their Tablet (I could look it up but it would probably undermine my point.).
My point being, Sony were poised at least to some degree, to pose some sort of decent threat to Apple and Google's domination of those markets, and this simply hasn't happened, which is remarkable when you consider just how prevalent the Playstation brand is in the minds of the consumer. The question then, is what are Apple and Google doing that Sony aren't? Well, Apple and Google have a good dynamic going on, they both appear to be the alternative to the other and what Google don't have in Apple's User-Friendly Software, they make up for in cheaper more robust Hardware, coupled by aggressive marketing campaigns that keep both them in the public eye, leaving room for Sony as the "Gamer's choice" alternative to them both, but they just don't seem to have managed to make that clear.
For once Sony's Hardware and Pricing aren't their biggest problem, right now they're fighting an issue of sales, and it makes you wonder exactly how hard they've pushed to get them. The Playstation Brand is huge, but it alone can't carry hardware if no one knows about it.
These problems may be linked in retrospect, I saw an ad for the Vita yesterday and it told me absolutely nothing about the Console, it just seemed to be a rehash of that Call of Duty ad, the one with the random civilians going to war (that kind of "there's a hero in all of us" schtick) and honestly that's fine for selling a game concept, but not an entire Console, especially not when your price point is higher than your competitors.
Kaz Hirai was the man in charge of the Playstation Business before his latest appointment, so it'll be interesting to see if he has what it takes to steer Sony out of the troubled waters.
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Disclaimer: I am not a business analyst, this is all conjecture based on what I've seen and what I know, if you have any issue with it or any corrections, feel free to comment below and we can discuss it.
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