Labor, marketing and other costs are in no way fixed. Especially with the problems going on at Foxconn, big changes could lie ahead.

like that nothing is fixed.these problem are thre wwith all the company and was there with SONY last year too

but they have one less problem and the BIGGEST ONE,PS3 losing money

Currency fluctuations can be huge, the Euro has fallen over 10% vs the yen in a couple months.

yes they will make an impact but this happens many time,atleast SONY does have to bother about PS3 losses now

Ok, reading the original article again, nowhere does the Sony executive say they are making a substantial profit, that is the words of the person writing the article.

He didn't say the PS3 was currently making a profit, only that they will cover the costs "this year" which could mean the calendar year (dec 2010) or fiscal year (mar 2011).

they were already making under-$10 profit in JAN-MAR 2010 period,by SONY CFO earlier commnet.this guy just commented now as they added the new RSX 40NM now which is making even more profit for them from their previous JAN-MAR period thing

He also says, "We aren't making huge money" which means they are probably close to break even which could be a slight profit or loss.

"not huge money"  doesn't always mean break even or just profting,it sometimes mean it is not as much as their competitors like Nintendo and like PS2 gen profits

Now I'm not saying that the PS3 won't be profitable. I'm just saying you shouldn't overread into what what actually stated by the Sony executive.

i didn't overead anything.i have been following there financial situation and reports and comments for a while nowso seem confused as you forget the past thing and just blow on the current comment

Labor prices are likely to increase. The Chinese government is raising wages for factory workers. This wasn't happening last year.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-30/chinese-provinces-raise-minimum-wages-to-curb-labor-disputes.html

The currency fluctations impact everything, PS3 is not immune. You don't actually make a profit or loss until the goods are sold. If the currency deteriorates, that means that the PS3 and everything else will bring in less money which will change profit or loss, PS3 included.

i didn't say its immune but things like this are faced by all the company Worldwide.What you aren't understanding is the SONY is not losing on the PS3 HW parts cost which previously cost alot more.

the labour costs are given to a company as a contract so it will be good for SONY as long as PS3 HW costs remain low

To be honest, I didn't even think of marketing costs because I'm rather sure they didn't consider this in their statement, which, to me, reads like: The hardware is profitable now. This doesn't include marketing costs. We also have to take into account slowing PSP and PS2 sales (hardware and software), research costs for a possible PSP2, strong Yen and weak Euro (which will have a huge impact on Japanese companies, as well).

yes R&D for both PS4 and PSP2 is going on but we weren't discussing that and that r&d WAS GOIN ON LAST YEAR TOO AND WITH EVERY COMPANY IT GOES ON.

Sony was losing on every console sold last year but now isn't which is the main point,even if they don't make profit and just be even then too they will be alot alot better than last few years.and we don't know the the currencies perform,they could change tomorrow at the basic level the PS3 manufacturing parts in CHINA aren't taking any loss

I was merely asking because I remember that last year a website was claiming the PS3 was profitable without taking shipment, stocking, etc. into account. Of course most people aren't really interested in these things, they merely use them to play console war and later everyone was shocked when Sony revealed a loss in their fiscal year report.

nobody sensible was shocked as SONY lost alot in the first 2 quarters of last year

Honestly, I'd love this "war" to just stop sometimes and people to think independently. The Playstation 3 is the prime example of what can happen when engineers and tech enthusiasts go crazy and a company stops thinking about its consumers. I've hardly ever whitnessed a company screwing up so badly. When they had developed the final PS3 model they knew they'd have to sell it at a huge loss and it would take years to recover the cost, even in case of success.

their main problem was to include bluray which they had been working for alot of year,if they didn't then bluray wouldn't have won and their r&d WOULD HAVE ALSO GONE TO WASTE.

The incompetence of Kutaragi and friends let to the lay off of hundreds of people and still endangers the people who are working for Sony. Not only that, the spirit of "let's take a loss, what counts is the vision" and the taking of risks in each and every situation without thinking about the consequences is basically what let to the current financial crisis. What today's enterpreneurs often miss is a sense of responsibility. They provide work but they are also responsible if people lose their jobs. For one person it's just numbers on a piece of paper but for other people its their whole life that depends on the decisions of their CEO's and managments.

stop mocking KUTARAGI,it was not his decision to put blu-ray but SONY's for their future royalties

Oh and the whole point here is that Sony CAN lose money if the Euro drops further (or maybe even if it stays at the same level) because production costs for Sony stay the same but the value of the money they get back after selling it decreases, unless they adjust prices (like Apple does, for instance).