Hahaha... Did you look at some of the numbers posted? Sony lost less than half a billion dollars launching the PS2... By the second year, they were in the black...

Now we're talking about... What was it? 1.7 billion? 450 million a quarter? Something like that... And it doesn't look like they'll get in the black in the second year...

And no, their pockets aren't as deep as Microsoft's. There may literally not be another company in the world that can shrug off a billion dollars a year as absent-mindedly as MS did on XBox. The entire XBox project over 6 years, could literally be funded by 6 months of Windows and Office profits. Sony is not in that type of position. They ARE in over their heads, and the only people not seeing that are:

1. Fanboys.

2. Those who put their faith in "strong companies" or "strong brands" instead of "strong business plans."

3. People who proclaim that everything is going well for everyone in order to appear unbiased.

PS1 and PS2 were not flukes by any measure... But neither is the PS3's failure.

Estimates are just that. Sony consoles have always lost money at launch. It hasn't bothered them before. It won't bother them now. If they were making a profit at launch, I'd suggest they were doing something wrong because it indicates a) too high a price and/or b) too low a technological level. PS1 launched in 1994. Its final units were shipped in 2005. That's an 11 year time frame in which they have to make a profit. It doesn't need to all come up front. This is consistent with every system in history with the possible exception of Wii.

OH. COME. ON.

Sony has never lost REMOTELY this much money at a console launch. NO company has. And Sony started the trend of losing money at a console launch, at least among successful consoles.

Don't put faith in the brand. There's no such thing as a strong hardware brand in videogames. A console doesn't last 11 years because of the name on the plastic casing.

I don't know how this turned into a revenue vs profit thread...

Whoever mentioned that Microsoft is a public company... so is Sony. So is Nintendo for that matter.

Sony is under much more pressure to improve its bottom line, and it's fighting fierce battles on all fronts--entertainment, electronics, semiconductors, gaming.

One poor quarter and Sony will be under tremendous pressure from shareholders--Sony has yet to turn around its saggin fortunes. $1ln in profit isn't gonna cut it for Sony.

Hus: The entertainment division as you all know is a hit and miss affair. One hit (Spiderman) boosts short term income (a year or so) but that's about it. With a reported $250 mln budget let's just say it's a hit or any further discussion is pointless.

The only company (aside from those big oils) that can lose billions in one division without it even being brought to the forefront is probably Microsoft. In fact, in Microsoft's case, they HAD to move into new arenas to diversify, since everybody knows they can't count on their position forever (maybe for another 10 years).

Sony on the other hand, can afford to exit the console market if the losses pile up. Won't be Stringer (CEO) 's vision, but they are plenty diversified as is.  In fact some shareholders already want to split up the company to "unlock" value.

I think people know this--and some are secretly worried. It's an unnecessary worry because they're not gonna let the brand Playstation die, but it could mean budget cuts for PS3 game development if Sony's other divisions aren't propping up the profits--although at the time being, Sony's bottom line looks like it's improving thanks to electronics so Sony still has time to turn it around.

No company has ever used a console to fight its format war before either, and then we get into how Cell is being used in other devices. This isn't about PlayStation. It's about Sony. SNES production costs were just shy of the sticker price. There are two strong hardware brands: PlayStation and Nintendo (portable). Both carry plenty of weight.

I get the impression that Sony is out to *destroy* the competition in the games industry, rather than actually turn a profit out of it. Care less about profit, and more about forming a monopoly position. Being a consumer electronics firm, Sony also benefits in other ways from the PS3 (TV sales, stereo sales, etc..). They would be happy to lose money in SCEE, if this leads to extra profit in their other divisions. All this said - the PS3 is *not* the PS2. The PS2 launched and positioned itself as the winning console for its generation. The PS3 is positioning itself as the LOSING console of this generation. Said it 100x before, and I'll say it again - the only thing that will save the PS3 is some ORIGINAL and MINDBLOWING software. Something that THEY own and THEY publish.

have you been actually following anything??????

initially analysts predicted that SONY would not any profit at all .

They went on to beat that prediction and made 1.7 billion dollars as profit.

1.1 actually which is the net income.

MS doesnot have a bigger shareholder's equity than Sony.

SONY's stocks are at an all time high at 52.17

http://www.investorguide.com/stock-charts.cgi?ticker=SNE

Casino Royale alone earned Sony 400 + million dollars.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=jamesbond21.htm

Sony's film division has yet to produce a flop since late 2005.

Ghostrider and Pursuit of Happiness have also  earned  around 300million for Sony.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=pursuitofhappyness.htm

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ghostrider.htm

Bravia is the no1 selling HD tv in the World

http://www.sony.co.id/news.htm,152

Spiderman 3 alone would earn Sony atleast 500 million dollars.

ps3 beats x360 6:1 in Japan.

In Europe it beats even the Wii.

The only console which is a failure is xbox 360. It has yet to reach the 10 million mark.

It sells 4k in England and 3k in Japan per week ..lol.

ps3 did quite well in March in NA because of Motorstorm , and God of war 2 might have already surpassed the 2m mark.

With games like Lair, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet and clank, MGS 4, devil may cry 4 ps3 would take total control by the end of 2007.

Sony is at a 52 week high. Sounds great until you realize that it's nearly the same price it was a year ago.

You are seriously dillusional.

PS3 does not beat Wii anywhere. It definately outsold Wii in Europe for March as that is when it launched, but there is no way you can assume that will be the case from here on out.

At this point none of the systems are 'failures', ok maybe 360 in regards to Japan.

PS3 didn't do quite well in NA. It will again, be lower in sales than all other consoles. Probablly even the ps2 again, just like February.

As for the upcoming games. We shall see, so far every person who has said this has been wrong. No game has done 'well' on PS3 yet. No million sellers. No system pushers.

 As for the article in general, is this really big news. It should have been obvious that Sony's game division was headed for a huge loss this year with the release of the PS3. Probably a smaller but still a lose next year as well as that will probably be when they might start to turn profits on the hardware. Of course that will be dependant on pricing. If they are forced to drop price due to MS or other internal factors it might not turn a profit until 2009.

Sony made 1.1 billion in net profits last quarter (beaten the analyst projection of a net loss due to the R&D of the Cell and Blue-ray). Bravia contributed massively to this profit margin.

With OLED having a contrast ratio of 1000 000 :1 due this fall Sony could expect itself to make billions on TVs and accessories.

Their gaming division incurred 473 million in losses which was actually better than what was predicted (873 million by merill lynch and Web Morgan).

The psp software and hardware sales have improved significantly in Japan and Europe.

Sony lost 2 billion on ps2 in the initial stages so ps3 is ofcourse a safe bet with 200+ m in losses.

We all know that ps3 would win this gen too perhaps by bigger margin