The Wii "isn't hurting us", says Sony boss

By Ellie Gibson Published 29 August, 2008

But Nintendo's biz model "may be superior".

Sony CEO Howard Stringer has said PS3 sales aren't suffering as a result of the Wii's popularity - even though Nintendo may have adopted "a superior business model".

"The Wii is a well-made device that has found a new target group. For a while, we held the same target group with the SingStar karaoke game. But perhaps we neglected to pursue that avenue," Stringer told Die Welt.

"PlayStation games are rather designed for those who play a lot. Although it's a different strategy, it pays off. We currently have a production bottleneck with the PlayStation 3."

In other words, people are snapping up PS3 consoles faster than Sony can make them, according to Stringer. "You also know, however, that our business model is not perfect, and that we make a loss on every console we sell," he conceded.

"Nintendo makes money with the hardware alone, which may be a superior business model. But the Wii is not succeeding at our expense - it is not hurting us."

And besides, Stringer went on, "We are already making more money with the games than we are losing with the hardware."

But Sony spent USD 3 billion on bringing PS3 to market, let's not forget. Will it ever get that money back?

"Not for as long as I live," said Springer, laughing the laugh of a man who wouldn't get out of a next-gen DVD format war for less than USD 3 billion.

"It will certainly take some time... We are currently at the stage in which we need to get a grip on the production costs. That takes time."

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (45) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bad09 #1 4 years ago

    The Wii fans HATE that MS and Sony don't really care about what ninty are doing this gen :)

    But Stringer is right, it's not aimed at the same markets as PS/360 so no competition....

  • Xerx3s #2 4 years ago

    Good to see that he isn't so childish that they can't admit that ninty has a better business model.

  • DFawkes #3 4 years ago

    Most people that I know have and Wii in addition to another console, so I can see his point.

    I do like his admission that he prefers Nintys model of making money on the cconsoles themselves - we all know it's what he's thinking anyway, but some dolts would prefer to say losing money is a good thing.

  • spazmo #4 4 years ago

    He didn't admit anything. He said 'MAY' be better. SONY FTW!

  • Xerx3s #5 4 years ago

    Well that's better than MS pov.

  • DanWhitehead #6 4 years ago

    I do think that the Wii has perhaps become the next console of choice for the late-adopting PS2 family market. It may not be directly eating into the PS3 sales right now, but the Wii is arguably undercutting the PS3's long term prospects. That ten year plan won't be so easily achieved when those millions of accumulated PlayStation owners have been drawn back into Nintendo's bosom.

  • Widge #7 4 years ago

    It depends if we're talking about a Dead Or Alive scale bosom here

  • Aretak #8 4 years ago

    A Sony exec. being humble and talking sense? Inconceivable!

  • IronCladChicken #9 4 years ago

    lol@bad09 Why would they give a crap?

  • Charlie_Miso #10 4 years ago

    "For a while, we held the same target group with the SingStar karaoke game. But perhaps we neglected to pursue that avenue"
    "But the Wii is not succeeding at our expense - it is not hurting us"

    OK Howard, what ever you say. You had a huge market, which you lost, and that is not hurting. Awesome.

  • spammage #11 4 years ago

    I hate the use of the word "Ninty" as an abbreviation. Yuck.

  • spammage #12 4 years ago

    Succinctly what he was saying was "Sony still have market leading products in the karaoke and quiz genre, just not the mindlessly arm waving / making a profit one" That is what it said to me anyways..... :p

    *EDIT typo
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/08 @ 09:39

  • Zebula77 #13 4 years ago

    I still don't see what the deal with Wii is.
    Played it at a friend's house and just thought 'meh, gimmicky'

    I hate to say what so many others do, but it feels 'kiddy' to me.
    Anone got good reasons why I should change my opinion?

  • thesombrerokid #14 4 years ago

    nintendo are doing wellamong the hardcore cause they are the only one with exclusives left, you get 90% off your hardcore fix from sony OR microsoft and 10% from nintendo since hardcore play all hardcore games 10% of exclusive market produce equals 50% of market return and the other 2 get 50% between them then nintendo have got the casual market sown up on top of this.

    i don't own an xbox or a ps3 because i have a pc, but i can't play mario on the pc!

  • Dizzy #15 4 years ago

    Reminds me of the Black Knight in The Holy Grail.

  • Deucalion #16 4 years ago

    nintendo are doing wellamong the hardcore cause they are the only one with exclusives left, you get 90% off your hardcore fix from sony OR microsoft and 10% from nintendo since hardcore play all hardcore games 10% of exclusive market produce equals 50% of market return and the other 2 get 50% between them then nintendo have got the casual market sown up on top of this.

    Do you talk like that or du you stop to breathe once in a while? ;o)

    *EDIT* lol I meant to quote the text, not make it a link ... oh dear.
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/08 @ 10:24

  • Sandbox #17 4 years ago

    The PS3 has been a monumental cock up from day one, don't think this is in doubt. Nothing much wrong with the machine, just very bad management by Sony.

    Nintendo took a huge gamble with the Wii, and love it or hate it, it's paid of, and big mass market sales are not driven by the likes of us on this website.

    For me I am glad Nintendo have done well, they still make some great games and it would have been a shame to see them go. Being an old fart most of my gaming is spent on local multiplayer either on the Wii or DS with friends after a dinner party.

    I had a 360, but after my 6th packed up I got a PS3, which I do like, I will get another 360 as soon as I am sure they have finally fixed the thing.

    Whilst I am sure that to an extent the Wii has put a dent in the success of the PS3, I think it has brought may new people to gaming that would never have bought a PS3 anyway.
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/08 @ 10:20

  • thesombrerokid #18 4 years ago

    @Deucalion lol, i'm in work & have to post quick :D

  • Kami #19 4 years ago

    "Anone got good reasons why I should change my opinion?"

    No, just be careful of making sweeping judgements on brief experiences. My advice is to have a little time with a few more games. Admittedly, some Wii titles are very tacky and gimmicky, but there's plenty of good stuff out there. And there's quite a lot of really nice stuff coming.

    And just to get this out of the way, having lots of FPS with big beefy blokes with guns compensating for a massively tiny penis shooting ugly aliens and mutants into tiny pieces is not mature. Accepting all things and knowing just because you like a bit of cuteness doesn't make you Graham Norton - that's a mature attitude, sure you can like violent games but the overreaction to anything even remotely cutesy only makes you look like you've barely got out of puberty and trying to look "well 'ard" and failing miserably...

    Just because I am fed up with people thinking other machines are somehow more grown up than the Wii. Everyone is bloody guilty, if not more so...

  • Olemak #20 4 years ago

    3 billion USD to develop the PS3?

    Please tell me that figure includes the development of the bluray format and the cell processor. If that's the case, it is somewhat unfair to lay the combined costs on PS3's doorstep, as those technologies are applied in a lot of other areas too.

    You'd have to be a moron to not agree that Nintendo has a good business strategy: so sell insane amoiunst of hardware thay actually make money off straight out of the box, and then sell even more software for it which they make even more money on. Hard to argue with that. If the PS3 had sold as well as many units as the Wii, Sony probably would have been bankrupt now, seeing as they loose money on every console and only make up for that loss much later on, when the owner has bought several games. Don't know what the attach rate has to be for Sony to start make money off a console, but I am guesing four or five.

    But you have to reember that production costs keep coming down, and that the PS3 is also a platform for launching potentially very profitable add-ons like bluray (obviously), DLC (cutting out the middle man for software sales), online music store and online movies. The Wii can't really handle any of that; it can't even play DVD's.

    I predict that the PS3 strategy will prove very successful in a few years, but the Wii will keep outselling it until Nintendo comes out with something new and different. This would be a good time to buy Sony stock, I think. Wish I had some spare cash...

  • DrDamn #21 4 years ago

    @Dan Whitehead
    +1 - it's not hurting them now because of the current positioning, but it could do eventually. I don't think they wanted the type of machine Nintendo have put out there - though they obviously would have loved the success its had.

  • thesombrerokid #22 4 years ago

    theres never a good time to buy sony stock unless you're a multi billionaire
    edit: billionaire
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/08 @ 10:48

  • orakio #23 4 years ago

    Not directly hurting them, as Microsoft is experiencing the same problem. But I do think the potential market has been snitched by Nintendo. Luckily for Sony and Microsoft 'what could have been' is not taken into account when setting up a business model.

  • HolyJebus #24 4 years ago

    I couldn't be bothered researching but how do the sales of games like guitar hero compare on Wii to PS3 cause if they're better on Wii then of course Nintendo are taking sales from Sony.

  • lssl17 #25 4 years ago

    @ Sandbox

    Your 6th 360? Do you lock them up in your tv cabinet and throw a blanket over them to keep them warm? I'm on the same 360 I bought off ebay since release month and it has never... *smells barbecue*

    Oh shit

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #26 4 years ago

    I couldn't be bothered researching but how do the sales of games like guitar hero compare on Wii to PS3 cause if they're better on Wii then of course Nintendo are taking sales from Sony.

    PS2 > 360 > Wii > PS3

    http://vg chartz.com/games/index.php?name...

  • Dizzy #27 4 years ago

    >Your 6th 360?

    Yea he also won the lottery.

  • Oh-Bollox #28 4 years ago

    I'd like to quote Sir Richard Mottram at this point. Although he was talking about a totally different matter, what he said is quite applicable here.

    We're all fucked. I'm fucked. You're fucked...It's the biggest cock-up ever. We're all completely fucked.

    It's not in the same market? The Wii isn't competing with the PS3? Pull the other one, Howard, it has got bells on.
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/08 @ 13:24

  • bad09 #29 4 years ago

    "More pointless posturing by this generations's losers"

    I would have thought the losers this generation are the poor sods who got fooled into thinking the Wii was actually any good.... ;)

  • secombe #30 4 years ago

    Add me to the list of people who have 'hurt' Sony (or Microsoft), I bought a Wii first assuming I may get a PS3/360 a bit later, but for the time I have available I'm more than satisified with just owning a Wii.

    If the Wii didn't exist, I would own a PS3/360...FACT.

  • jetsetdemo #31 4 years ago

    I have a wii, 360 and a PS3, all from release, a kick ass pc and a lap top that I mostly spend my time playing EVE on! The Wii as a traditional gaming platform is poor, but if you are looking for a revolution in the style of the Super NES I think you may be missing the point. Nintendo do make the most fantastic games so if you want to play them you have to have one. However I am 36 and my 3 children and wife love it to bit's.

    The PS3, what a joke I bought it on a whim on release day and there has been very little in the way of good AAA games for it since, reminds me a little of the gaming situation surrounding the original Playstation One the first year after its release.

    The 360 ARRRRAAGGGHHH!!! This thing is the very definition of a love hate relationship, I am on my 4th and I look after them with kid gloves and the blasted things keep going wrong. If you have never had one go wrong then you are extremely lucky, I work for the company that delivers and collects 360’s for repair, and the UK repair totals run in to the thousands every month! IMHO if you can’t see that this is undoubtedly the best way to mainstream game at the moment you are deluding your self. Now back to EVE and some proper gaming.

  • David_Snakes #32 4 years ago

    Bad09

    +10

  • VMerken #33 4 years ago

    *Hiss* meowwwrow *scratch*

  • smelly #34 4 years ago

    After SIX fucking 360 repairs.. msoft can kiss my ass if i'm ever buying a microsoft console again.

    PS3 FTW!

  • Davemanz #35 4 years ago

    Aretak:
    " A Sony exec. being humble and talking sense? Inconceivable!"
    +1

    I love my PS3 to death, but I would've picked one up far sooner if it hadn't been for Sony's despicably arrogant marketing from day one. I abhor the way they've talked about it until very recently.

  • electrolite #36 4 years ago

    This "the Wii's not hurting us" seems to be in the "if we say it often enough hopefully someone will believe us" category. Bless.

  • Tonka #37 4 years ago

    It may be superior?
    No shit Sherlock.

  • StixxUK #38 4 years ago

    I still can't work out who's buying all these PS3s.

    I'm sure I know a few people with them, but I've still never played on one.

  • electrolite #39 4 years ago

    Sorry son but it is hurting you. You may try and convince yourself it isn't, and your fanboys, your bad09s and so on will buy it, but you, Sony, decided to take the 'loss on hardware, profit on software' model to its zenith. Because of the Wii, it isn't working. If you were just up against the 360 it'd probably work, but a phenomenal number of people have gone from PS2 straight to Wii. As you know, the wider market isn't the arbiters of taste on this forum who've decided the Wii is shit (hahaha) but people who are eating Wii up in their thousands. Even worse, what won you the last two generations, i.e. the name Playstation being synonymous with games, has been usurped.

    Still, good luck though.


    Np seriously, a 33% each split is the best case scenario to me
    Edited by 1 at 31/08/08 @ 04:54

  • Wyrm #40 4 years ago

    Sony have hurt themselves badly enough, worrying about who is buying a Wii instead of a PS3 isn't what they should be concerned about.

  • bad09 #41 4 years ago

    electrolite called me a Sony fanboy \o/ - how many times do you have to be called fanboy before you can join the SDF? (I'm bored of Xbot!)

    Seriously electrolite, people may be eating Wii up in their thousands but they are also spitting it out in their thousands. I dunno about the rest of the world but here in the UK many Wiis' are heading back through the 2nd hand market - not the mark of a great console TBH......

  • electrolite #42 4 years ago

    ???? All consoles are very freely available on the 2nd hand market, that's neither here nor there. The Wii is selling lots of hardware and lots of software. I know there's bad feeling towards it for whatever reasons on here (note : subjective opinion) but them's the facts. Sony (and Microsoft when they do it) just make themselves desperate with statements like this. It is hurting them, they know it, and they know they've been comprehensively and surprisingly outflanked this generation. It may change again next generation but for now they've been left floundering

  • bad09 #43 4 years ago

    @ electrolite

    Yes all consoles are on the 2nd hand market of course but as many as the Wii at such an early stage? Come on, I don't know about you but I have never seen so many 2nd hand machines this early in a machines life (except maybe GC). People are wising us to the serious lack of quality software and chucking it in (please ninty fans don't post a barrel scrapping list of "exciting" titles coming).

    TBH I don't think there is a bad feeling for the Wii on EG, this is a gamers site for gamers not the casual masses (who wouldn't use a gamesite anyway) and apart from the usual handful of IP's dragged out for every ninty console there really nothing on the bloody thing for serious gamers. (although I'm sure someone will post to me I'm wrong!)

    As for floundering this gen, I think Sony have been floundering more from their own whopping mistakes rather than sales of the Wii! Sonys biggest competition is it's own idiotic decisions not the waggle machine! ;)

  • bad09 #44 4 years ago

    @ Aspic

    It's not pretentious, it's an honest opinion on why there are not many on EG singing the revolution line for the Wii

    I'm an idiot killing the industry because the Wii is aimed at making mum and dad plays games more than providing gaming for serious gamers? Er OK.....

    Honestly exactly how has the Wii shaken up the games industry? Sure it's selling well but please give examples of this revolution other than the waggle gimmick. Go on, please "enlighten" me 'cos, like yourself, as a gamer of over 20 years I see nothing but a huge amount of shovelware and the same tired old IPs.....

  • bad09 #45 4 years ago

    "Again you're being pretentious. Not to mention embarrassingly ignorant. Please, for the sake of your self-respect, stop."

    Why? Because I am genuinely asking you how you believe the Wii has shaken up the industry? I guess the insults rather than an answer to the question tells me you don't really know either. ;)

    TBH I don't really care if an ninty fan gets upset and calls me pretentious or ignorant, I'm a long time ninendo fan and I had a Wii (well technically my girlfriend owned it) but still think it is one of the worst consoles I've ever experienced in terms of software on offer, as did my girlfriend (another long time fan of the big N). The huge amount of Wii's flooding into 2nd hand market tells me we were not alone in this "ignorance"......



    Edited by 1 at 01/09/08 @ 21:03