Without looking over the financials (and going off memory), it's going to be bloody difficult for Sony to make back that money with the PS3.
A few things:
- The PS2 was never a loss leader for this long. To top it off, Sony lost money again last quarter. It's quite possible this will continue for one or two more quarters.
- The PS2 walked into a situation where Sony had been profitable with the PS1. The PS3 walked into a situation where Sony had been profitable with the PS2. It's nearly a guarantee that this will not be the situation the PS4 walks into whenever it launches.
- Sony had the luxury of being market leader in the previous two generations, meaning they had the highest software sales and excellent third party support. They're not going to have the ability to lean on software as heavily for additional profits with the PS3. That means their hardware needs to be profitable ASAP. Whether that can happen is very much up in the air.
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if we see the entirety of 2008 pass by without one PS3 price cut.
Which puts Microsoft in a very interesting situation for the rest of the year. We'll see if they do something about it or do what we're all used to seeing the Xbox division do whenever presented an opportunity to strike, absolutely nothing.
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