| gamelover2000 said: I think I heard a Sony spokesman say they lose like 40-60 mil a year due to PSN being free.. |
That kind of statement really doesn't say anything though. There are a number of ways to generate it. For example, this could be pure cost of running servers, demo costs (which are likely not fully pushed on the publisher due to how many demos continue to pop up), creating new servers, expanding the service to work reliably with the ever increasing number of users, etc. Notice how none of that is remotely designed to generate revenue though. Factor those in and it could be profitable, but labeling it as a losing endeavor makes for a good positive PR sound bite. Sony is announcing how much they are willing to sacrifice for their consumers (no emoticon can roll its eyes hard enough to express my contempt for that sentiment).
It could also just represent an opportunity cost. Sony could have projections for implementing a small fee for the PSN and use it to figure out how much money they could reasonably get without significantly hurting their business. That is, there is a model in existence that a certain price point for the PSN would bring in more money than they potentially lose due to consumers gravitating to the free option. This essneitally represent real money lost if those projections are taken to be true. Not that I am saying Sony is planning to implement a fee, but I find it unlikely they have not considered it at some point.
Never trust a company spokesmon when they claim to be losing money. Corporations exist to suck you dry of all money. There is no warm fuzziness about them. They do not care about you the consumer. They care about your wallet. If they were losing anything resembling a significant amount of money then the PSN would have had a massive over-haul long ago. Especially when it is crystal clear that people will pay thanks to XBL.
