Hiku said:
Ljink96 said:
What you're saying makes complete sense, what we need to know is profit of the entirety of PSN for this to even mean much.
Does anybody know if we ever get net profit or operating profit for PSN specifically in Sony's Financial Reports? The Feb. 13th is when we should get that info if it's included.
Though, my guess is it was still more profitable, but I don't mind being proven wrong.
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Well, that aside I want to point out that comparing a fairly straight forward online service platform to a company like Amazon is not a good comparison to make. @Biggerboat1
Amazon often invest their own money into the products they sell. New games and consoles for example, they buy them in bulk for a certain price, and then sell them to consumers at a higher price.
They're reliant on how much they sell, after they've invested money into the product. And if it doesn't meet sales expectations, they may lower the price, etc.
Very different from how Sony sell games on PSN. Sony don't buy in any quantities of the games they sell through PSN. They just host the digital data. Whenever someone downloads a game from their store, they simply take a cut of the sale. Whether it's millions or thousands of copies, they didn't invest an amount of money corresponding to that number.
The costs are instead things like servers, maintenance, bandwidth, R&D, etc. And paying for the games that are offered Free through PS Plus.
So it stands to reason that their profit margins are generally a lot closer to their net profit when it comes to sales, due to the nature of PSN. Unlike Amazon where that can vary a lot depending on what is sold, and who is selling it.
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As subsequently established after your post, it will likely be the case that Sony has to pay the developers out of their revenue which in all likelihood is a big old chunk.
I wasn't comparing Sony to Amazon, I was simply using a well known company as an example of revenue not being an indicator of profit.
What is not a good comparison is the revenue of a digital store front to a console/software company.
