Business wise this is pretty much suicidal unless you are an extremely profitable company with ALL of your other divisions making some big profits.

Depending on the number of PS+ subscribers and the number of games sold per console, that pricing wouldn't hurt them at all. It would be a gamble though.

They need to sell a console for a profit, even if it is a mediocre one. This selling on a loss crap is not working.

You realise that would brankrupt the company? Especially if it was sucessful.

Sony has a difficult time financing itself at the moment due to their "trash" rating. A favorable PS4 announcement might help them on that department.

Its nice to see the fans caring about the corporate side rather then their own habits.

I was expecting: "Bring it on less money for me to spend!" type of comments. Color me pleasantly surprised.

Considering the situation Sony is going through, i wouldn`t advise a loss of any kind.
Seeing as the european economy isn`t that great and that in fact, it`s Sony`s best market it could really damage the company.
Better price it a little high than risk losses. And if MS does the same, that covers both companies.

i dont they would concidering when console first launch they sell out and people have them selling for way inflated prices online.

There's no need to lose all that money. A powerful and feature-rich console for tech enthusiasts and power whores can sell a few million units also at a higher price, in its first months after launch, particularly if these months include Xmas. Price can be cut later, when costs become lower. Sure, price must not be too high, but the first sweet spot is having an entry level unit within $400 at launch, and possibly a premium unit too priced higher and hopefully selling at little or no loss at all. BTW there's no need to lose too much money, as so much time passed since 7th gen launch that even mid-low-range late 2013-early 2014 HW will offer at least 4x performances compared to PS3 and XB360. This puts MS and Sony in a good position, as at least on the HW front the price of their new consoles will be perceived as justified, so the aspects they must focus on are game libraries and marketing.

Sony is so desperate for money they have been selling their HQ buildings and renting them from their buyers. I don't think they have the resources to lose that much on each PS4. The system will either have less tech and sell with no loss or have more tech and cost a premium and sell with little to no loss. I just don't think Sony can take a hit again.

are you asking for a proof that we are not living in 2011?!

The EDD made 365 million USD in FY 2012
http://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar12/financial-review/discussion-analysis/index.html

And 620 million USD in the first half of FY 2013
http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY13/Q2/default.aspx

Kin, Zune, Nokia, Windows Phone 7 account for 1.5 - 2 billion USD loss in the past 5 years as well. So the Xbox 360 and even more so XBL are highly profitable businesses.

OT: Sony would go the way of the dodo.