Sony scales back expectations for Vita after weak sales performanc

[Chark]

RolStoppable said:

Chark said:

I've argued with you a few times about Vita's profitability. All the evidence I find, in the worst case scenario, Vita is selling wifi at a loss and 3G at a profit. But it could very well be that wifi is break even or both are selling at a small profit. We've gone through the manufacturing and retail numbers and it supports this. You can't use this information and pin it on Vita, to be honest Vita isn't selling enough to incorporate these level of losses. In addition, Sony said in their quarterly release that part of the reason they did not post higher reveneus was because of lower than expected sales of the Vita, indicating that they are indeed making some profit on the system and overspent this quarter because of their higher expectation of sales.

Do you mean the manufacturing numbers similar to those of the 3DS that would "prove" that the 3DS isn't sold at a loss even though it clearly is?

What hurts Japanese companies the most right now is the strong yen, but even without this factor, Sony's gaming unit would still not profit. And since the PS2, PS3 and PSP are said to be all profitable right now (and that's believable, because the gaming unit posted profits before the PSV launched worldwide), that leaves the PSV as the device that is dragging down Sony's gaming operations.

Bolded: This doesn't indicate that the PSV is sold at a profit. Whether a system is sold at a profit or a loss has no influence on revenue. If it's sold, you get revenue. If it isn't sold, you get no revenue. All that Sony answered with that statement was the question why revenue of their gaming unit was down year over year.

Ah yes, I was mistaken about the revenue. I agree on the Yen and I wonder when the rest of the world will get itself in order and stop bolstering its strength. I still haven't seen strong enough evidence to determine the PSV is sellilng at a loss. There are far too many factors in their expenses in combination with weaker than expected sales on their profitable devices, which may or may not include the Vita. It would be nice if their spreadsheet could be guessed like that but as is you can't conclude that from this information. It's a stretch and a long one.

About those profits before WW PSV launch. Plenty of Vitas sold in the quarter before that and yet there was profit. If I was to use your standard to determine Vita's profitability I would use this as say that it is making a profit. Instead I'm using more reliable data from the cost breakdown to prove my point and there has not been any reasonable data to the contrary.