Xbox 360 Vs. Playstation 3 2012 - *February* Update

[Alby_da_Wolf]

slowmo said:

Alby_da_Wolf said:

slowmo said:

[...]

Other than financials showing one company in healthy profit and the other not then no.  The fact they have cut the price recently on the PS3 is suggestive though as Sony traditionally have sold the PS3 at a loss or tight margin this gen in an effort to keep pace with Nintendo and Microsoft.

Don't get me wrong, I was disagreeing only about Sony losing, I'm sure MS is profiting on XB360 more than Sony on PS3, except maybe on the craziest time limited offers, it's just that I think both are actually profiting. If Sony were willing to lose money again, it would have made a more aggressive price cut than just $50. Or PS3 could be in a limit situation, losing a little in USA, particularly with the current offers, and profiting a little in Europe, BTW this could nicely explain why Sony is happy with not closing the gap with XB360 in USA.

About true losses and profits, in case a division has a quite large profit, we can easily assume the division's most successful products profit too, and this is the case of XB360, but we know both Sony and MS include a lot of different products in many of their divisions, particularly the electronic entertainment ones, this means that when a division is losing, it's quite difficult to tell whether its most successful products are losing too or if the losses are generated by other products in the division, and this is the case of PS3.

I actually think Sony are probably marginally in profit (per console sale) and that was their goal or they would have cut $100 this year if they didn't mind loss leading on hardware sales.  I think it's fair to say that everything in terms of profit is in Microsoft's favour when you look at the currency issues sony/Nintendo face. though.  I think it's fair to say the 360 even with all the deals is probably still raking in cash given the length since the last price cut and the fact it's had the slim revision which will have shaved a lot off the manufacturing cost. 

In summary I guess I'm saying I have no idea for definite if Sony are losing or profitting but I'm confident Microsoft is in profit and making more profit from the 360 than Sony is on the PS3 at present.

Yeah there is no way to be definitive in statements, you have to analyze a lot of data and make your guesstimates from the data available.  Even more confusing now is both divisions spend will start to ramp on next generation hardware.

It looks like we actually quite agree. Even about the bolded, I was meaning the profit can be reduced or even nullified just on the single craziest offers, but overall the profit should be huge, even before taking into account 1st party SW, royalties on 3rd party SW, and XBL fees.