Pachter says PS4 will sell at a small profit for Sony, GTTV

[cleaner475]

RolStoppable said:
What we shouldn't forget is that there were also quite a few discussions regarding PSV costs. Back then people were also suggesting that it's sold at a profit or at worst at a tiny loss. Plus apparently costs would come down fast, because the system is using standard cell phone parts or something like that. Yet here we are 1.5 years later and Sony still refuses to announce a long overdue price cut in America and Europe to spur hardware sales.

People repeatedly underestimate the costs of video game systems, so why should the PS4 be any different? The system is sold at a loss, no ifs and buts. Just like the PSV had proprietary memory cards as a sign that Sony is trying to offset losses on the hardware itself, so does the PS4 have paid online multiplayer. Instead of guessing the bills of materials, people should look at what a company does. If the PS4 was selling at a profit, then why would Sony give up a major selling like free online multiplayer?

Even if it sold at a profit, the money Sony will need to spend this gen on servers is immense. Cloud computing isn't free ya know and Sony needs a way to support these costs long-term, hence the mandatory PS Plus sign-up, there's no way a tiny profit on console sales could pay for the server costs.