PS3 sales need to increase by 45% in the rest of the year...

[dolemit3]

NJ5 said:

Sullla said:

Well, Sony can sell 13m PS3s this fiscal year, or they can work towards profitability for their gaming division. They certainly can't do both. Everything I've seen so far this year suggests that they are more interested in achieving profitability, which makes sense given the utter disaster SCE has suffered over the past three years.

Maybe Sony is playing coy; maybe they have price cuts, slim models, and "megaton" software surprises planned for holiday 2009. But they sure didn't show any of that at E3, and at this point those things are more wishful thinking than likely possibilities. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I think Sony is in trouble right now.

I don't think Sony's gaming division can ever be significantly profitable during this generation:

- PS2 business is constantly declining.

- The PSP doesn't sell that much software.

- PS3 hardware always needs a price cut as soon as it gets near profitability (or earlier). In other words they're always behind the curve in terms of hardware profitability.

- Their business is probably sized to PS2-era requirements. With a much smaller userbase as the PS3's, their expenses are too high.

Now there are some things that would definitely help, such as the yen getting weaker and the PSP GO taking off at the $250 price point. That would make a PS3 price cut much easier.

 

And what are the chances that the PSP Go will take off at $250? zero?