…take a look at what Microsoft big boss Bill Gates had to say about HD-DVD in an interview with engadget.com:
Way of the dodo…
“In terms of movies, I often say that this is the last format battle there will ever be [hd-dvd and blu-ray], because everything is going to go online — you’re going to download it. In fact, one of my favorite features on Xbox Live is where you can go and get the HD demos of the games or get HD videos like the making of the Xbox, the making of Titanic, they’ve got this Mission Impossible 3 thing.”
“…26 percent of online posters express a general dislike for the format, citing Sony’s history of proprietary formats which fail to capture a marketplace (like BetaMax and MiniDisc, and, it’s looking like, Sony’s UMD movie discs). Many posters also felt Sony was an “arrogant” company.”
“In 2004, Sony launched an e-book reader in Japan that also failed to take off. Called the Librie, it won plaudits for design, but its high price and draconian antipiracy technology — users could only “rent” books from Sony for 60 days before the tomes deleted themselves — scared off consumers.” - BusinessWeek
Really? I’m shocked! Sony created a decent product and then hamstrung it with unbelieveably shortsighted and stupid DRM? That never happens!
Apparently there is no grassroots outpouring of love for Sony’s PSP. People don’t like it and don’t make fan websites so Sony took matters into its own hands and went back to their old standby - fake-ass reviews, remember David Manning, well now we have a fake PSP fan site.
Sony was the number #1 technology disappointment of the year according to Tom’s Hardware Guide:
Sony had a real bad year, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the company appears in this ranking in one way or another. In fact, there was so much wrong with Sony products this year that we chose to list the company instead of a single product.
200,000 consoles for the entire US market? Wow, this launch just couldn’t have gone any better … for MICROSOFT and NINTENDO! The console is late, not shipping in volume and not ready for market.
If you saw one of these lame Sony movies Hollow Man, The Animal, The Patriot, A Knight’s Tale or Vertical Limit in American theatres between 3 August 2000 and 31 October 2001 then you’re a winner! Sony agreed to refund US$5 to anyone who sat through one of these dogs.
Why would they do such a thing? Because they felt guilty about unleashing garbage on the American public and decided these movies sucked so hard the consumers deserved a refund? No, it was that Sony Pictures were turning out such horrifically lousy movies that their poor marketing team was desperate - and they crossed the line of normal promotions. David Manning was their imaginary friend who wrote glowing reviews for sucky Sony films released by Columbia pictures which were panned by the real critics. Yes, that’s right, Sony executives fabricated a critic and wrote positive reviews about their own crappy movies which everyone else hated!
When they were busted by NewsWeek’s John Horn what did Sony do? Admit their guilt, accept responsibility for the errant actions of a misguided employee and take their licks, oh no, not Sony, they fought it on “Free Speech”! Yes, they tried to defend their fraudulent, criminal behaviour by claiming it was free speech. Unsurprising Los Angeles Justice Reuben Ortega didn’t see things the Sony way - due to having a basic understanding of right and wrong which is apparently lacking in Sony execs - and eventually Sony was cornered into the out of court settlement whereby YOU could be entitled to 5 Sony bucks!
So just how bad were these movies? Here are the MetaCritic and RottenTomato ratings:
“The Animal” was reportedly so bad that Sony paid cinemas to show the film’s trailers.
So how exactly do you go about collecting your 5 Sony bucks? The official court notice says this:
“The Court has preliminarily approved the proposed settlement of this class action. To be paid, you must submit the authorized Claim Form downloaded from Gilardi & Co., LLC’s website located at http://www.gilardi.com/rezec signed under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California and of the United States stating that, between August 3, 2000 and October 31, 2001, you purchased one or more tickets to a United States theatrical exhibition for yourself, an adult companion, and up to two minor children to attend the same exhibition.”
Sony Pictures’ performance is less than amazing. In the top 8 grossing distributors, although Sony is ranked third, it makes the LOWEST average gross per film with a sad $35.8M per film on average whereas the best performer, DreamWorks SKG manages to pull in a whopping $62.9M or 75% more!
Sony puts out a lot of second rate films and isn’t terribly good at making highly profitable movies, merely good at making lots of movies.
Looking at the “Most Profitable Movies” and “Biggest Money Losers” of all time we see that Sony ranks 2nd and 4th in one the lists, but doesn’t appear in the other. Can you guess which Sony figured more prominently in? The winner’s list or the loser’s list?
I guess Sony doesn’t know that the movie business is about blockbusters. No wonder they are desperate to promote DRM in their electronics business - they need to squeeze every cent out of these underperforming movies and need all the DRM help they can get.
Perhaps Sony marketing execs should write fake reviews to help promote their lousy pictures … oh wait, they did!
