I remember the bashing of Microsoft over their Xbox losses at the first of this generation by some Playstation fans.  In fact there was a chart they used to pull out all the time.  Of course you rarely ever see that chart now since the hypocrites are too busy defending Sony and bashing Xbox fans for not pretending things aren't so bad at Sony.

The Sony hate is just partly because they were such a dominant force for 2 generations and disrupted the industry so much (I should know, as a GC/N64 owner). That, and I know there are quite a few million Sega fans that held Sony and the PS2 directly responsible for Sega exiting the hardware market, and many went on to buy an xbox because some Sega titles released there after their demise. 

What was that chart about?

They won't be making profits again for awhile.

They've made profits for the last 2 years. They could go in the red, they've just released a new handheld and they'll be making losses on the PS4, how much  no one can say.

Turkish, you seem to ignore something. When you have to write off tax discounts, you have to assign them proportionally to the different branches that Sony has. The parts of the company that lost more money in that period are the parts that have to take more burden, and in the FY2006 to 2008 they were Playstation and Bravia. Both numbers can be true at the same time, you can have an operating income of ~375 million US$ and at the same time, a net loss of 1.2 Billion US$.

.. isnt Q1 FY 2012 out already?

Barely but accureate. PS2 was not launched in Europe until November of 2000 (It was March of 2000 in Japan and October of 2000 in North America).

Dreamcast was a late 1999 in Europe (and North America. It was late 1998 in Japan). It replaced the Saturn which like the original Playstation, launched in the 1995 in Europe (and North America -- and both lauched in 1994 in Japan).  The difference was that Sega was essentially two years out of the console market in Europe (and North America) since it abandoned the Saturn in 1998 there (and 2000 in Japan).

You are correct that Nintendo's consoles did have a different path. The N64 was 1997 in Europe (but 1996 in Japan and North America). The GameCube was five years later -- 2002 in Europe (but 2001 in Japan and North America).

The Xbox released at approximately the same time as the Gamecube -- 2002 in Europe (and Japan but 2001 in North America).

What does this all mean: That Sony had little competition for a several years period from 1998 to 2001/2. That allowed it to make big profits, big sales, and big reputation.  That is why some people think Sony "kicked their dog" to use the term of another poster.

That all being said, Sony's halycyon days were a decade ago. It lost a lot of money on the PS3 - though the unit is no longer directly losing money. But the gaming division has struggled the last six months because of lower-than-expected Vita demand and the aging of the flagship PS3 console.

This is bad in the context of Sony being a giant corporation with other divisions losing money -- and gaming is expected to be a profit center. Thus any money gaming is making is being used to plug the losses in TVs and other units. It is not necessarily available to reinvest in R&D or third-party payments -- at least not in the way that funds once were. 

With gaming having lost money in 4Q Sony FY 2011 (January-March 2012) and 1Q Sony FY 2012 (April-June 2012) -- that is very bad news for the division and the entire corporation.

In other words, the big picture of Sony can overwhelm the small picture success.

Mike from Morgantown

Yes, and it's a loss.

Losses will get bigger and bigger because of the PS4.

Turkish said
"Not many people cared about Nintendo. Around the year 2000 it was Sony vs Sega ps2 vs dreamcast lol."

actually, Ps2 had a rough start with barely no quality games, DC bombed hard in the west.....so lol no
maybe you dreamed about it