Top 10 of 2009: News
What were the key stories running through the past year? Find out here
Number 6: A Year in Sony
There are a host of reasons why 2009 could have been significant for any number of companies in the industry - not in the least those that sadly didn't make it through to the end, for example.
But for Sony, the past twelve months has been an interesting journey that I suspect people will look back on as the turning point in this console generation, with an intriguing game of two halves being played out.
The beginning of the year was as shocking as the corporation could have expected, with the announcements of job cuts, the closure of manufacturing plants and the intention to cut costs by USD 2.8 billion by 2010.
Financial results weren't pleasant reading, but between the lines the signs were a little more positive for the PlayStation business as it was generally excluded from the blood-letting, despite seeing increased losses of USD 337 million by the end of the financial year.
Meanwhile, as the corporate giant reshuffled its pack, the company slashed dividend payments and froze staff wages, and a couple of months later SCEE president David Reeves announced his retirement, to be replaced by former chief marketing officer Andrew House.
The first portion of Sony's year thus ended, with the second - more positive - section beginning with E3 at the start of June. The announcement of the PSPgo and motion controller, although leaked by an internal video show the weekend beforehand, marked a series of key announcements that felt a lot more confident from the platform holder.
It followed that up with the news that its cost-savings plan was indeed set to total USD 3 billion by the end of the year, while gamescom's PS3 Slim and new price points helped create a good deal more positivity about the brand - not the least of which came from third party publishers.
Sales of the flagship console spiked predictably, and while a selection of retailers caused some fuss by refusing to stock the digital-only PSPgo, it's something that's unlikely to have surprised or disappointed Sony significantly.
Clearly, there's still a huge amount of work for Sony to do in 2010 if it is to approach anything like the success of the PS2 sales, and with the information that's currently available it's going to struggle to challenge effectively with Project Natal on the motion control front.
But ultimately, it's impossible to say that the corporation isn't now in much better shape at the end of this year than it was at the end of last year - and for the health of the industry overall, with the impact of brand PlayStation - that must be a good thing.