| HappySqurriel said: I believe it was SCE's president who recently claimed that they were still losing money on the PS3 but he wouldn't elaborate on how much ... Being that Sony recently announced that their year end losses may be (much) worse than initially forcast I would suspect that they're losing a lot of money per console; being that they've lost nearly $1 Billion on the first half of fiscal 2008 and claim their losses may double by the end of the year I suspect that they're still losing quite a lot per console. http://www.vgchartz.com/news/news.php?id=602 Now, do you have any information that implies Sony is turing a profit on the sales of PS3 systems? |
I'm not a Sony employee and have no special access to their data, I'm just relying on industry averages (30% is the ballpark figure for annual cost-reductions in electronics), news reports about BluRay in the reputable branches of the silicon press, and I'm assuming iSupply's original estimate was accurate. The PS3 will continue to lose money for awhile, sure, because manufacturing costs are only part of total costs - there's servicing, transport, advertising, etc.
But $2 billion in total losses wouldn't surprise me, and it doesn't mean Sony is doomed. Microsoft lost $1.5 billion launching the 360, which had fewer features than the PS3 and thus cost less to manufacture, so minus $2 billion is pretty much where Sony ought to be. It's not a problem for Sony. Their game division's loss is BluRay/Bravia's gain. They make their money elsewhere; they were pursuing an integrated media strategy from the beginning.
