This is what Sony does. These investors know how the business works and they know how competitive these markets are. They should be able to do it. It will be a lot easier to tell someone that a $500 PlayStation being sold at $400(losing $100 from jump) will be a success and will profit in a short time rather than telling them that an $800 PlayStation being priced at $600(losing $200 from jump) will be a success and will profit in a short time.

When you say 450 is only for the mentioned components (CPU, GPU, RAM)? is for all the parts (adding BR Drive, HDD, Control, Wifi card, box, etc)? or for all the final cost (manufacturing, boxing, shipping, seller cut, etc)?

Cause depending on your response and selling price there can be a lot of loses for Microsoft and Sony. For example, it is estimated that the components (all parts) to produce a Wii U cost around 250-280 dollars (70-80 of those for the gamepad), but adding all the other costs, Nintendo is actually losing money on each console.

Edit: Never mind, saw your response down the line, will comment on those prices.

The thing is I dont even know what "short time" is. Plus did you even take in to account the price cuts Sony has to make for the Ps4. I mean what if MS cuts 720's price to undermine Ps4's profitability by forcing Sony to cut its price? Did you think about that?

These "investors" are sick of years and years of Sony being on the red and now, this quarter, they will see the light of profitability since 2008. And thats not even because of Sony's products but because it had to sell one of its major HQs. Do you think these investors want to see another playstation console starting at such a big loss after the Ps3?  

Knowing that each Ps3 console sold at a loss till mid 2010. Thats 4.5 years of per unit loss starting with a 200$ per loss console. Assuming that Sony did sell Ps4 at 100$ loss. Then a rough estimation of 2.25 years will take before Sony again regains profitability per unit sold for Ps4. And this is not even taking in to consideration that the Playstation brand since Ps3 has not seen a single cent of net profit. (Although it is highly likely that the Ps3 ate up all the net profit PsX and Ps2 made).    

yes i've thought about it

the price between PS4 and 720 wont matter if PS4 launches at $399. They are launching in the same year so if anything, both PS4 AND MS will recieve price drops at the same time(probably after 2 years). 720 is rumored to be more powerful than PS4 so the 720 will be taking a bigger loss than whatever PS4 will be taking off rip!

let me just get this part out of the way right now. IF PS4 launches at $399 this year then the 720 is going to get outsold HARD.

I can explain my reasoning if you want ;)

but here is 1 of my PS4 threads to show that i've thought this through though

What I Think Needs To Be Seen In PlayStation 4 Next Generation! Message To Sony!

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=140211&page=1

Seems like a few Nintendo fans won't get their wish of the PS4/NeXbox being only slightly more powerful than the Wii U. I'm going to guess this may cause support issues once 3rd parties abandon the PS3 and 360.

As far as RAM goes, I think 8GB is overkill for games, which is pretty evident in the rumor that MS is going to use ~3GB for the OS and other varying functions (most likely Kinect related). I doubt many developers will require the remaining ~5GB, let alone Sony's 4GB. I also think a PS4 that is the same price, or at the most ~$50 more than the NeXbox, and is going to launch ~6 months within the NeXbox's launch will fare very nicely next gen. Especially since it seems MS wants to just make their next console a Kinect enabled PC, while Sony seems to mainly be focusing more on the gaming aspect, with a few bells and whistles thrown in.

A few replies from Polygon's aegies

I think Microsoft and Sony are both playing guessing games about each other for 9 months out of the year, and there's only an illicit trading of secrets at GDC, E3, DICE, and gamescom. Orbis specs changed comparatively recently.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=46612863&postcount=1613

I don't know anything about Orbis' secret sauce, other than I'd heard it was pretty straight forward overall. As for Durango, I have never wished I was software engineer as much as I have this week.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=46612894&postcount=1618

Neither console is a PC. They're not using dedicated CPUs or GPUs. Ignoring that they're both using APUs, their processing and graphics elements would already have certain customizations made specifically for gaming, rather than the broader brute force approach a desktop, and even a laptop would take. Custom hardware is about eliminating stuff that isn't efficient for games to make room for things that could be, or to lower cost.

Long story short: custom hardware is present to make a better GPU. They're not picking parts off a shelf.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=46613455&postcount=1687

Why do people keep saying next Xbox will be more powerful than Playstation? From what I understand, NextBox is more focused on Apps/multitasking...etc while PS4 is made primarily for gaming. PS4 would have an edge in most games, but the real deciding factor is the ram. 8gig DDR3 for Xbox and 4gigGDDR5 for PS4.

I would take anything Aegis says with a grain of salt when it comes to the Orbis...I believe he worked for MS even. He tends to....well let's just say show a tad bias when talking about the two companies. But his info on Durango should be solid

Mainly because two users over at gaf (proelite and aegis) are saying so or at least trying to push that mentality. One of them still work for MS and the other used work for MS and is currently working for polygon which iirc has MS's backing (not sure about this one tbh so feel free to correct me)  so yeah

the one they call Mr. Accurate..a dev under NDA said both are pretty much equal :) just strengths in different areas. 

Objection your Honor! The reply above calls for pure speculation!