Sony Stock Drops After PS4 Event

A pledge to re-invest in the Vita, not showing the console itself, or a "scary number" could all be the cause of Sony's 24 point stock drop.

Sony's Japanese stock dropped 24 points, or around 1.7% (at time of writing), following the company's "PlayStation 4 announcement" event. It looks like Japanese investors were not as impressed with Sony's new console as many others were. While it initially seems a little strange to have the stock drop after a big announcement, it makes a lot more sense when we look at the big picture.

First let's look at what happened at the actual event. The company pledged to re-invest in the struggling Vita, the PS4 was shown to have a "supercharged PC architecture" but gave no indication of what the thing will cost, and the physical console itself wasn't actually shown. These are all things that could be worrying.

These problems are then exacerbated when we remember that Japan is actually in a pretty big recession right now. Sony is struggling to stay afloat in almost all of its industries. Its TV division posted a loss for its seventh straight year and the Fitch Group recently downgraded Sony's debt to junk status. You could see how an extremely ambitious new console with dozens of new (and expensive) features could cause investors who were expecting a more modest system to reconsider their investment.

Lastly, there is one more possible reason that may seem a bit... strange. Many Japanese people are incredibly superstitious, and 4 is a bad number. The Japanese/Chinese character for 4 is the same as the character for [rip], so they try to avoid it in all circumstances. It's not uncommon to have level 4 on apartment buildings renamed to level 3A, or skipped entirely. Perhaps Sony could have eased some stockholders' minds by naming their new console the PlayStation 3A?

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It's dropped even more since the article was written.

LMAO @ 4 being the character of [rip] in Japan. [pic]

the game developers and game companies seem to think otherwise... ive never seen game devs side with sony like this in ten years since PS2

It's dropped even more since the article was written.

LMAO @ 4 being the character of [rip] in Japan. [pic]

Cause the PS4 looks like[..]. Gonna be another slow console cycle for Sony. I suspect Microsoft wont do much better but I think they'll appeal more to the hardcore gamer crowd.

I'm all on board with it too, I was just expecting at least some sort of rise afterwards. Investors thought quite differently, apparently.

As long as it gets a reasonable price and when people actually see it, hopefully investors change their minds lol. If it's $600 and there are a lot of superstitious people in Japan [pic]

Not a huge drop but still...RIP to Sony.

Def wont be RIP sony. The fact that all the devs worked to help sony create this and the support and games they are bringing Sony might just take over again. Sony def has xbox to thank though cause xbox showed them what they shoulda done and now they dont wanna make anymore mistakes. Japanese investors dont hold weight when the sales come later. American investors are spectacle cause right now Xbox360 is still king just like in 2005 ps2 sold more then 360 but eventually getting deeper into the current gen xbox became number one with investors AND since 2005 devs followed 360s hardware for developing games now thats happening with Sony

damn sony can't win.....sony might be the j cole of the tech world

Spoken like a true Sony employee. [pic]