Sony is at a point where it cannot take major losses anymore. Sony also has far more divisions but it cannot take 500-mill to 1 Billion in losses on its PlayStation brand for long. If Sony took losses on PlayStation Orbis/Vita as they did with PS3 then PlayStation will die. Sony would be unable to sustain such losses at this point in their lives.
Nintendo on the other hand has been consistently profitable ever since it entered the games industry. It has billions in reserve and could take Sony PS3 level hits for two generations. Nintendo could take 2012 fiscal year losses for about three generations. Sony on the other hand is not in that position another PS3 level loss would kill PlayStation as a console brand. Sony will need to likely drop the PlayStation hardware instead making PlayStation tablets, phones and smart TV's, computers. If Sony wanted to remain in the home industry they could license out the next PlayStation 2017 to a third party hardware manufacturer!
But if Sony takes PS3 level losses again, the PlayStation brand will have to change drastically or die!
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
