@all

Some bad news for Sony Corp.:

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June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Financial Holdings Inc. tumbled the most since it listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after the Sony Corp. subsidiary announced that the value of its life insurance business fell by more than half last financial year. Analysts cut their ratings.

Quote:

Sony Financial said yesterday after markets closed that its embedded value, an estimate of the insurance business’ worth, fell to 400.9 billion yen ($4.2 billion) for the year ended March 31 from 816.5 billion yen a year earlier, because of a decline in the value of its stock and convertible bond holdings and drops in swap rates.

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Amikit user, tinkering with Icaros VM (AROS)
EFIKA owner
Amiga 1200

Sony's conference was quite a let down and one use's comment on the Edge-online site analysis nailed it for me:
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I thought it was a pretty weak E3 for Sony and they needed to do a lot more to change the dynamics to invigorate the struggling PS3. No price drop (as I speculated previously - probably a TGS announcement), no PS3 slim. The glowy motion wands were downright embarrassing, too much time was spent on PSP (giving the impression of desperation by practially giving away the SDK's) and the fact that the new PSP is $250 shows that Sony still hasn't learned from the mistakes of PS3 regarding price points. I got the distinct impression that Tretton felt obligated to talk about HOME even though he knew it was an abject failure and waste of millions of dollars and several years of effort. Sony continues to plug an outdated Second Life clone while MS keeps several generations ahead in the online space with the apps people are actually using, and want, today (netflix, facebook, twitter). Uncharted 2, Last Guardian and God of War 3 all looked great, but only one is coming out this year. Curious ommisions were Heavy Rain, The Agency and the DC MMO they spent so much time on last E3. Gran Turismo wins the vapour ware award this generation with (if I'm not mistaken) it's third consecutive E3 appearance - still without a release date. Forza will probably have it's fourth game out in the time it takes Polyphony to make one outdated game. Unfortunately for Sony, one of the high points of their presentation was the Assassin's Creed demo and that's multiplatform. The Final Fantasy online-only announcement sounded like a charity concession from Square Enix for going multiplatform with the release people actually want.

Where was the price drop?
Is this "wand" more sensetive than Wii Motion Plus? (probably not or not significant enough)
Where are all the "new" exclusives?
Final Fantasy XIV is not exclusive but debuts on PS3...so what...

I don't think we'll even see Natal this generation. So I think it's a token win in motion control evolution. It also looks pricey.

Nintendo finally gave the hardcore what they wanted:
-Super Mario Galaxy 2
-Golden Sun DS
-Metroid: Other M (from Team NINJA)
-Metroid Prime Trilogy with enhancements to the first 2
-Super Mario Bros Wii with multiplayer
-Wii Motion Plus and WiiSports Resort
-The Coduit
-Red Steel 2
-Final Fantasty Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
-Zelda DS sequel
-user-generated content-based games for the DS/DSi
-Mario & Luigi sequel on DS

All that THIS year...
With promises of a new Zelda for Wii next year and possibly Pikmin 3 as well.

Infact the "2010" term was used quite lightly in Nintendo's conference...

@ErikBauer
I too think Nintendo has locked up this Gen. #2 last gen is now #1. The only 'fight' is for #2. Well and #3 looks to be #2 while #1 looks to take #3. There is still a couple years left and Sony might pull to #2 before the next gen ships. (If I predict it enough it's eventually bound to be right. Right?)


@fairlanefastback
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Anyone here know how long Microsoft expects before Natal goes to market BTW?

I don't recall any offical release date. IMO, sometime in 2010. If released games won't work they'll want to wait until enough working games are on tap. No sense to have camera and no real use for it, they already have that.