Orange Lounge Radio

Bloomberg is reporting that Sony Corp. recently stated that it has taken out an 80 billion yen ($698 million) syndicated loan last week, its first bank borrowing in 10 years, in order to diversify funding sources.

If you're a gamer the first things that probably come to your mind are the high costs of producing the PS3, in particular the more expensive components such as the RSX graphics processing unit, the CELL processor and the next generation optical disc drive, Blu-Ray. You might also think of Friday's order by Japanese tax authorities that Sony must pay $234 million dollars in additional taxes due to incorrectly filed past papers. Or maybe you're thinking far enough back to Sony's lost law suit to Immersion Technologies, which dictated that they owed the company upwards of $90 million dollars in past royalties. Whatever the case, it's likely that you're a little nervous if you're a Sony fan, and possibly arm you with some pretty hefty mudslinging ammo if you like your gaming any other way.

Truth of the matter is that Sony is currently a company undergoing enormous changes, they've got a lot more than just the PS3 riding on the success of both Blu-Ray and CELL, and they're not in the most financially healthy position they've ever been. Sony's gaming division has historically been what's clawed it out of the hole, and for the first time in a long while, (due in no small part to the high cost of PS3 production) the division isn't doing particularly well... for the moment.

As has been mentioned and as just about everyone knows, the PS3 is a huge gamble for Sony, but if Sony's corporate restructuring and repositioning plays out the way it should, things will be just fine for the electronics giant. Whatever the case, it's unlikely that this loan will have much impact on the immediate gaming landscape.