So how bad exactly is sony doing????

[Squilliam]

Procrastinato said:

Comparisons with MS and Nintendo aside, Sony is doing just fine. The gaming division is turning a profit, and (esp. without the price cut), they're probably making plenty of money these days.

* The PSP seems to be on a major upswing this year, and the PSP Go probably will further that.
* The PS2 probably hasn't sold at a loss in eons, and it still sells plenty of software.
* The PS3 is due for another chip redux this year (from 65/65nm to 45/45nm), and will likely begin to turn some decent profits, if it hasn't begun to already from the dropping costs of blue laser diodes, and other, previously much more expensive, components.
* The PS3 is due for a truckload of exclusives this FY.
* Blu-Ray is continuing to push ahead, and Sony has a significant share of the Blu-Ray Association cut of BD drives and discs.

Looks pretty good for Sony Computer Entertainment, going forward (although I think the Blu-Ray money is actually posted in a diff division).  Some of the profits that SCE turns may be "hidden" as well, in that SCE might do something like buying BD drives for the PS3 from some manufacturer, and that goes down as a SCE loss... then the BDA gets $30 per drive... and Sony gets some cut of that back (for some reason I think its $9 of the $30), which is reported as profit in a different division.

It sounds strange, but of the 3 current hardware manufacturers, if you were to consider the gaming/entertainment divisions only, I would actually say Microsoft is in the most worrisome position, going forward. I don't find that daunting, however. MS has deep pockets, and the benefits of staying in the console race, and keeping the MS name in the livingroom, outweigh any losses they may face from their entertainment division R&D costs, losses from holiday pricecuts and 3rd party software bundles, etc.

* How is the PSP on a major upswing when the sales are down considerably YOY?

* How does that indicate good fortunes for the division as it has been propping up the PS3 somewhat and the hardware/software sales for this platform are disappearing off the map?

*Are they even likely to hit 45nm on both the RSX and Cell when they have never done both chips at the same time? Furthermore its likely the royalty payments rather than the chip manufacturing costs which are hurting them at this time. Chip shrinks are over-rated anyway, for example you can buy a 250mm^2 8800GT with 512mb of ram for close to $100 after newegg margins, shipping, packaging, board partner costs/margins, TSMCs margins and Nvidias ~30% margins on the chip itself. The chips are cheap, its the I.P. which is expensive.

*So is the Xbox 360 and Wii.

* That significant number quantified into actual dollar terms is worth what exactly?

How exactly are Microsoft in worse shape than Sony? Their total Xbox Live paid downloads are up 73% YOY, their gold membership are pulling in over half a billion annually and their royalties from software shipments are increasing substantially too.

How exactly is SCE in a 'peachy' condition when their primary home console still loses money to this day and is being propped up by the good work they did last generation? Thats 'loses money to this day in spite of software revenue from consoles sold'