Will PS3 have a successful year in 2009?

[freedquaker]

There are a couple points that need to be pointed out...

- No year is going to be the year of PS3 or Xbox 360 under the shadow of the mighty WII.

- There is a big chance that PS3 won't be profitable all its life overall (not yearly basis).

- PS3 will not get a price cut for quite a long while. at least 6 months, possibly 1 year, but will finally drop to $300 in a foreseeable future. This is the best balance between staying competitive and making huge losses.

- PS3 is far from dead, and it's not going to die or not likely be killed by Sony any soon. But It's a BIG disappointment for Sony, that's for sure.

- 2008 is not a failure for Sony, but not a success either. Sony hasnt been doing great but still acceptably good, along with an increase in sales compared to last year. Still disappointing though as it's faced a very tough competition from MS.

- PS3 sales will not decrease in 2009, but it may not increase as well due to relatively high price and increasing competition from MS.

- Sony is not a small company, it's actually bigger than MS in some terms (like asset value, employees etc.) Sony's current problem is about small profit margins, liquidity and exchange rate fluctuations.

- PS3 may finally pass Xbox 360 sales in 2010 as earliest but, it's a very small chance that it will be as profitable as 360 at all.

- Please drop the "more sales with a higher price tag" argument! Yes PS3 is more expensive but it does not charge for PSN while 360 charges for it, has no bluray player within and the arcade model does not even come up with a HDD. This is not called "higher pricing", but "price discrimination", which is a perfectly legal economic concept and best implemented by MS this year. MS charges less for the 360 but it also costs much less to them than PS3; also the software companies do not care how much a console costs as long as it sells hardware and ultimately software!

- Please do not liken PS3 to Gamecube last gen. GC was way more successfull than PS3. They made money on every console sold, the piracy was minimal and the first party titles were huge. So the Big N made big profits (unlike MS with Xbox), almost on par with PS2. Market share is not everything!