Sony Faces Analyst Attacks On Multiple Fronts

Sony has continued to be the victim of adverse publicity, with many mainstream media services reporting that the company’s stock prices have fallen by 2.75 percent, allegedly as a result of concerns over the launch of the PlayStation 3 and disappointing sales of the PSP. Analysts including Macquarie Equities' David Gibson have also claimed that many of the two hundred PlayStation 3 consoles at the Tokyo Game Show "operated erratically and had to be repeatedly reset," according to an Associated Press report and despite a lack of corroborating reports from other journalists at the time. Goldman Sachs analyst Yuji Fujimori has also become the latest to downgrade Sony’s stock rating from “buy” to “neutral”, stating to the Bloomberg news agency, “We have adopted a cautious view of the impact of the game business on the electronics business this term.” Meanwhile, UBS Investment Research analyst Michael Wallace has warned that the delay of the European release of the PlayStation 3 could have a serious negative effect on the profits of publishers, despite earlier reports suggesting the impact would be minimal. Wallace contends that many publishers may push back their intended launch titles until after the European launch in order to ensure they can sell in significant numbers. The onslaught of criticism towards Sony and the PlayStation 3 has been in evidence since the company’s E3 media briefing which combined a poorly received presentation with an unexpectedly high price for the console. However, it is problems with laptop batteries which have been the major cause of drop in business confidence in the company, with Sony Corp.’s market value falling by more than 10 percent since August, as a result of numerous recalls. By comparison there has been little suggestion from any analyst that the PlayStation 3 will fail to sell out at launch or avoid stock problems for some considerable period thereafter - the latter likely to provide another obvious target of criticism against the company in the New Year.