Sony posts record high $5.7 billion annual loss, worst in company history

I'll also throw my hat in for Sony's products also. I've always had confidence in their quality and longevity.

Sure, their customer treatment and "connectors" thing do leave something to be desired, but even still, I hope they bounce back soon.

Looks good on you Sony. You stopped making quality products years ago.

Samsung is the new Sony. I've had too many issues with Sony products lately, and their decisions on the gaming front has just lowered my expectations. I used to be a Sony fanboy, but I find myself purchasing Samsung these days...

Hardly Sony specific! Apple do this on ALL of their products, I have an Olympus camera that has a proprietary power cable, and so on. I don't agree with this approach either, I would much rather everyone conformed to a standard, but you certainly can't single Sony out over it!

I place the blame for this squarely on Howard Stringer. I think he bet on people swooning to the Sony name while seriously damaging both the Sony ES line and their TV line. What Stringer did not count on was competition developing products that match or exceed Sony's in quality AND people realizing that the competition was producing those products at price points below Sony's.

IMHO, Stringer is an arrogant fool who should no longer have anything to do with Sony and should resign in disgrace, thus leaving Sony to the new guy.

The new guy has a lot of rebuilding to do, and with Stringer around, I am willing to bet his job will be much more difficult. I wish him the best of luck as to me, his task will be arduous.

Lets review 2011:
Sony Sue's everyone that loads linux on playstation, even though it was a feature when buying them.
Sony gets hacked and 1000's of credit card info is lost (way to go plaintext database).
PS network is more down than its up.
Sony sue's even more rom creators.

Sony.. please get punched in the face until you learn from your mistakes.

But don't you secretly wish that Apple would pay the ultimate price for this nonsense as well? I know I do.

Somehow I feel as if you don't know what you are asking for. I can picture worse companies developing after Sony has perished.

I believe the idea would be to have the existing companies do better, not have them perish.

Can you picture the draconian juggernaut Apple would be, if it inherited Sony's market share?

Another company who insists on using old buisness models in a modern world.

Suing your customers is never good PR.

Bye bye sony, I for one will not miss you at all.

I must admit to my prejudices against Sony. I used to purchase their products with faith in the brand name, only to be let down time and again. Those product failures have left me with the impression that Sony's products are not reliable. While the company has made several choices that discredit a company that I'd put good faith in. While these are facts, I don't with Sony any ill-will, only that they shape up and return to their former glory, and sell honest and good products to the consumer again.

I agree with almost every bad thing said against Sony here. But one has to say, woe for the consumer if their playstation division. Poor decisions could be easily corrected by firing some people and hiring the ones with the right ideas.
But if they were to sink (PS), what then. One console (I don't consider Wii or Wii U a console). One platform? That sounds really bad for couch potatoes like me.
Or maybe Steam will take their place ?

The sooner sony dies the better. They haven't been profitable in years and Samsung surpassed them some 7 years ago. All sony knows how to do is sue everyone, make everything proprietary and slap a healthy dose of DRM with anything and everything.

One of the worst companies out there.

The same advice over and over again: Sony, hire engineers, not lawyers!

Ive been a fan of Sony since they came out with the original PS1. When PS2 came out I was right on the bandwagon. Then they came out with the PS3 and they lost me. It was way too much money for what they were offering. Then they had those natural disasters in Japan and lost a ton of production partners. Add on the hacking of the PSN and the recipe was complete.

Sony has fallen away from what made them good. Solid products that performed very well and a customer support system that was far and above anyone elses. The only thing that revived Sony from the electronics graveyard was the PS1. If Nintendo hadnt dropped the ball on a CD drive on the SNES, we wouldnt even remember SOny today. They need to remember that ppl have a very long memory about getting shafted by a company. The more they fight what the consumer wants the faster they will continue this downhill trend. If a consumer cant get what they want from one company, they WILL go to another company to get it. Even if they really dont want to do business with company #2, they will do so to get what they want.
Everyone is so quick to jump on America and scream "Evil greedy Bastiches!" when the Japanese are five times worse then Americans. Given Sonys financial problems, you can most certainly expect that they will continue to sue ppl and screw their own customer base.

"Everyone is so quick to jump on America and scream "Evil greedy Bastiches!" when the Japanese are five times worse then Americans. Given Sonys financial problems, you can most certainly expect that they will continue to sue ppl and screw their own customer base."

Name five Japanese companies that screw Americans over. Now name 5 American companies that screw Americans over. Easier isn't it?

Clearly not a successful formula... unless you're Apple!!