Here is the quote from Kaz:

The first thing to note is that last fiscal year was FY09 which ended March 31, 2009.  So Kaz is talking about the period from April 1st, 2009, until now -- the last few months.

Secondly, it seems that he's talking about the Playstation business, not just the Playstation 3.  This would include the PSP and PS2.

Thirdly, he's talking about gross profit which suggests, but doesn't necessarily mean, that they're not profitable in terms of net.  Perhaps this is difficult to measure at this point, but he would probably have not qualified it with a 'gross profit level' statement if it wasn't close.

Here's my summary:

At $399, the PS3 is still losing money.  And it is losing enough that if you take the software, peripherals and profits, likely as well as those from the PSP and PS2, it is still not clear that it will be profitable on the whole, but it will probably generate a gross profit.  However, at $299, and losing nearly an additional $100 per unit, that may not be a foregone conclusion.

If you look at Sony's fiscal results from the past two or three years, I think you'll see that my above interpretation of his statement is likely correct.

You are assuming that the slim costs as much to make as the regular PS3, which seems like a silly conclusion.

You didn't read my post.  I assumed that the Slim cost some amount less than the PS3.  Although, it clearly wouldn't cost $100 less.  And any estimate on the PS3's cost to Sony isn't a conclusion.  My conclusion was that they've still been losing quite a lot of money with the PS3 at $399, which you could see in their FY results over the last few years, and that dropping the price $100 is only going to make that worse.

I read this: "At $399, the PS3 is still losing money. And it is losing enough that if you take the software, peripherals and profits, likely as well as those from the PSP and PS2, it is still not clear that it will be profitable on the whole, but it will probably generate a gross profit. However, at $299, and losing nearly an additional $100 per unit, that may not be a foregone conclusion."

Which sounds to me like you aren't accounting for the Slim costing less at all. You never mention it, so how could reading your post more thoroughly change anything.

You also do not know if it does cost less than 100$ (for smaller silicon or transitors); see we can both speculate until the cows come home.  Post based on speculation cannot be taken as truth; we are all human and bias can corrupt even the best of men (Aristotle 318 BC).

lol

I dont think sony would do that they already said they will make profit as a whole. I think they are closer to breakin even on the ps3 at the 300 price point then the was with the phat at the 400 price point

It sounds to me like he is strictly talking about the ps3. He says "on hardware" we know psp isn't losing money and the ps2 isnt. Then he says "platform" since when have multiple consoles been a platform?

I have an easier way to determine if the PS3 is losing money.

The equivilent Blu-Ray player (in terms of overall quality, but the edge probably still goes to PS3) is the Sony BDP-560 (used to be the 550, but they discontinued that). The BDP-560 goes for $350. The PS3 is now $50 cheaper and also comes with

* HDD
* Cell processor
* RSX graphics chip
* A lot more memory

All of which add to the price of the PS3 compared to the BDP-560. If we assume they make a nice profit ($50 maybe) on the BDP-560, They throw all of that profit away just on the price point of the PS3.

Then they lose even more on the added features, which I didn't even really list all of them. So just with a rough guess, they must be losing at least $50 or more on each PS3 sold. I would say they are losing even more, but I tried to factor in profit the store makes on the player vs. the PS3.

last time someone tried to use this logic it was when isupply came out. everyone shouted "IMPOSSIBLE!" "They must be losing at least 100 per console still!" then it turned out they were only losing 40.

Let's just say, if they are profiting on the PS3 hardware, than Sony has some very serious problems because they are failing to post any real profits in the gaming division. So take your pick.

1. PS3 loses money on hardware and is enough to counteract almost all the other sources of income
2. Sony has some very serious problems within the gaming devision