Seriously, it's just a forecast... It doesn't mean they would sell this extra 1,5 million PS3s with the previous one. How is it bad for them? They decided to stick with more realistic plan. I see nothing bad here.

 Good question. I believe they can sustain the profit, barely. By making an increasing profit, or at least a smaller % of loss on each PS3 as time goes on compared to the constant phasing out of the PS2 sales, I think the profitability will be somewhat less, untill Christmas again.

It tells you the difference between Sony and Microsoft though.

Sony has 3 systems, 2 of which turn a profit, one that presumably has a loss.  But Microsoft with a similar HD console is profitable with just the 360.

Could this have been Sony's master plan 10 years ago?

To create the PS2, which dominated and sustained a low price point, create the PSP, to add to profitability, and create the PS3 (which no other company could have created to offset its losses/ but now Nintendo could) in the hopes that it will turn the greatest profit of all eventually.

I doubt it. Infact theres no chance.

EDIT: Nevermind he's trying to keep it cool

Hmmm, well this is indeed fantastic news. Seems like they knew what they were doing. Kaz must be doing some right moves.

This this sort of really makes it hard for the sony-haters to spin, for some "certain" individuals...  but they still keep trying ;).

If Sony wanted profit from the start they wouldn't have added Blu-ray. They know it would lose them money for a while, but they thought it would be worth it overall.

We still don't know if it paid off, but as Blu-ray get's closer to the new format and they aren't losing money anymore (for now) it could work out good.

(P.S. I'm not saying in any way that they anticipated this slow of sales).

Forecasts in financial reports are important because they affect the company's strategy and the investors' decisions. It's not like someone at Sony just dreamed up a number during an interview, forecasts are an important part of most businesses.

And yes, the 11 million number was unrealistic, people have been saying so for at least 6 months (it would require the PS3 starting to sell at more than Wii levels of production). However, Sony took a long time to admit it, as they now did.

Looks like all those "sony are in deep shit, and got no money" talk goes out of the window.

Did you hear a single analyst opinion that Sony will achieve their previous forecasts? Probably not because people were bitching about outlandish forecast pretty loud. Get real - investors have own research about current situation and this situation is good enough even without this 1,5 million. PS3 is doing fine. Almost 10 million right now. Few months ago you've been talking about 6,5 million as for December 31th all the time. 

 The report says that PS3 has "reduced operational losses". To me that says loss.

Yes, I did in fact. Even game companies such as EA were saying that they would hit their forecast.

And I wasn't talking about that all the time, I merely had it in my signature along with other predictions. Obviously I failed due to the unexpected large price cuts. So what?

If it makes you happy, I also underestimated the 360 and the Wii.

Wow, a sony thread thats actually nearly troll-free... I geuss alot of people were expecting something else.

Its so quiet.