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Train wreck on 24 April 2016
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RolStoppable said:
setsunatenshi said:

you mentioned the profits from gaming earlier in your original post. does this graphic show the results from the SCE branch or of Sony as a whole? and why does it stop at 2011? thanks

Yes, the graph shows the results of SCE, not Sony as a whole. The reason why there has been no newer graph is that Sony combined several divisions for the fiscal year that would be labeled as 12 if a newer graph consisted. As far as I remember, PlayStation shared a division with unsuccessful products like TVs and Vaio, so the division posted a huge loss. Sony didn't provide a breakdown for the individual product lines, so it's impossible to create a complete chart. Nowadays PlayStation has its own division again.

As for your doubts that the graph could be incorrect because of the loss during the early PS2 era, that's easily explained. As you should know, the PS2 doubled as a DVD player and it was among the cheapest on the market at that time. That could only be achieved by selling the PS2 at a significant loss which then showed up in the PlayStation division despite the PS1 still going strong at that time. Sony's lossleading strategy is one of the main reasons why their profits don't match Nintendo's. They aggressively buy market share early on and then hope to make it back and some more in the later stages of a system's life. On the graph you can also see a small profit in 05. While that is the time when the PS2 was raking in the cash, it's also the time of the PSP's launch. Then the PS3 begins to show its ugly face.

baloofarsan said:

It should be remembered when using these numbers that Gamboy and DS have saved Nintendo most of these years. The home console branch has not been this profitabe (except for Wii). 

I wouldn't say that handhelds have saved Nintendo. Their home consoles have always had high sales for first party games and controllers, two things that have high profit margins. The N64 and GC were profitable endeavors over their respective lifetimes. That's irrelevant to my comparison though. Nintendo's best year vs. all years of Sony.

Dunban67 said:

your 1st staytment makes no sense and sounds childish

do you have legit sources for the 2nd  statement? -   pretty sure that A) it s not true and B) Sony only recently started breaking out their gaming division P & L s so it would be difficult if not impossible to know how much Sony has made from their gaming division historically unless Sony has stated as much outside their normal  earnings and reporting

My first statement makes sense. It was a response to Ka-pi who said:

Regardless it shows how much money a successful console can bring in with 3rd parties on board.

The implication of Ka-pi's post is that it should be a priority for Nintendo to bring third parties on board. I suppose it needs to be said that Ka-pi has a history of having such a stance. My counterpoint to that was to mention how much money can be brought in even when there is no strong third party support. My post wasn't constructed at random.

The graph I posted shows SCE's profits during the years that PlayStation had its own division. The graph ends right before the point where Sony lumped several product lines together. After a couple of years PS was its own division again.

Im sure that on one has pointed out that the graph you posted is misleading.  The title of the chart and the information listed in it are comparing two different things.