PS3 a faster money sink than the Xbox? I can see why no price cuts soon.

[starcraft]

Username2324 said:

starcraft said:

On public forums, I find it is sensible to adopt a common sense approach to sourcing.  On the first page of this thread, Username speculated that the Xbox 360 alone cost Microsoft $7 billion.  He did so without a source and was, of course, blatantly incorrect.  But because I applied common sense, it was clear he was wrong and therefore I did not ask him for a source.

In my case we are talking about the creation of a media standard.  If it cost less than billions to develop, market and help to victory a media standard, we would see them come about FAR more often.  OF course I cannot find specifics on the cost of developing Blu-Ray, as these are closely guarded Blu-Ray consortium secrets.  But common sense tells us there is a reason manufacturors are not constantly putting out new media standards, and the reason is thta developing an advanced, managable, marketable, supported media format takes an AWFUL lot of money.

 

You've made several statements in this thread that I would like to see sources for:
I would like to see your source stating the losses of the PS3
I would like to see your source stating the R&D cost of Blu-ray (If you can't you probably shouldn't be throwing numbers around)
I would like to see your source stating the losses of the 360 (I believe you said it was 2.5 billion)

The reason new standards are not constantly released is not solely cost, its the market you'd be putting your product in, would anyone want to buy the latest and greatest if they knew something else would be coming out next week? Would studios want to support the latest and greatest? Would the public want 12 different players in their living room?

 

The source in the OP covers the losses of the PS3.  Here is an additional one showing losses of almost $2.5 billion just over a year ago:

http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/72377,sony-ps3-loss-to-reach-257bn-by-march.aspx

As I stated in the post you quoted, actual development/marketing costs of Blu-Ray are Blu-Ray consortium secrets, and arn't as easy to assertain from company reports as the PS3's losses, as Blu-Ray doesn't fall under an outlying division like the game division.  But I will show how you're own post proves my point:

Noone wants to be forced into buying an entirely new medium.  Studios are wary of supporting a new medium.  The public only want ONE medium.  With that in mind, ignoring the massive costs of actually developing a new technology like this, do you have any idea how massive an investment was required of Sony and it's partners to market, distribute and subsidize Blu-Ray against HD DVD, not to mention paying studios for loyalty.

To put beyond doubt the likelihood that Sony has spent FAR more than a billion dollars on Blu-Ray, see the link below.  Sony spend over HALF A BILLION DOLLARS just to bring ONE studio permanantly into Blu-Ray's exclusivity portfolio.

As for Microsofts losses on the 360, theres a very convenient table floating around VGC with a quarter by quarter, year by year breakdown.  Failing that, you can simply visit Microsoft's website and get their financial results.

In future, if you're going to make ridiculous, unsubstantiated claims such as your $7 billion on the 360 alone post, it would be inadvisable to then accuse OTHERS of insufficient referencing later on in the SAME thread.