They make tons of money on Spiderman movies too, but besides that. Sony knew they would be losing money on every PS3 sold at the time of launch. Its opening price was $600, and even at that price they were losing $200 on each sale. It took some years until it made profit on each sale.

And because of the PS3's success that lead them to what is more commonly referred to as the "PS4."

Who 'pretends' the PS3 was a great 'financial' success?  I think the reality is,  Sony will probably come close to breaking 'even' with the PS3 when it's all said and done. Which given where it began -- is a huge win for the company and the future of them within the console business. It's still selling well and a healthy amount of it's big selling titles we're Sony published games.  The console business isn't about the short term game,  it's about the long game.

Sony has the resources to downsize tremendously and still maintain profitable divisions (like the gaming division).  Nintendo is soley reliant upon gaming.  They simply have diverse businesses. A bad console / bad handheld launch back to back could really hurt their future.  

Imagine the scenario that Nintendo was in not too long ago.  N64 (One of my favorite consoles - but poor in sales) -- Followed up with Gamecube (One of my least favorite Nintendo consoles) -- If the Wii had been a failure (Which they were fortunate based on the tremendous pricing difference of the HD gen consoles and fad catching motion controls).  Nintendo would be in potentially some dire straights.   The Wii was good in my opinion because it keeps Nintendo around as a console manufacturer for a few more generations regardless.

sony is just one of the many founding partners of blu-ray.

considering that rights-to-use fees aren't that much to begin with when licensing, it amounts to even less when it's all split up.  

This. We're not ignoring it, we just dont care. Why should I? SOny is still delivering the goods, something you cant say so much for Nintendo (judging by sales and game support that is, but still IMO) 3ds is fine. Wii is pretty much done, Wii U is having a hell of a time 3ds is good. PS4 is on fire, PS3 is STILL getting supported, Vita getting slammed. 

They never made that money back from the gaming division.

ok...so what? what does that have to do with the support PS3 got and is still getting? I mean isnt that what is REALLY important? the games? Hell Wii made alot of profit and the last thing they put was JD2014

I know this. Doesn't change the fact that what I am saying is still correct. Microsoft did try to kill Blu Ray and Nintendo stayed away from DVD because they didn't want to conform to a format Sony was backing so they hired panasonic to make them a mini-disc and later another disc that held half the capacity of a DVD disc. Sony has always been pushing formats and influencing outside markets. Regardless of how many people there are backing Blu Ray its Sony taking the fall and reaping the benefits in the end by name value because its because of them why Samsung, Toshiba and numerous other members of the Blu Ray Association can enjoy giving consumers comfortable prices. 80 million Blu Rays sold via PS3 alone compared to when it launched and Blu Rays were more than $600? When the PS3 launched it was the cheapest Blu Ray player on the market. Remember that.

Because Nintendo is only about games for the most part. So when their brand takes a hit, it takes a big hit. When SCEA brand takes a hit Sony Corp. is largely unaffected. The Playstation brand is probably still going strong but the Sony brand is taking a hit. Same thing with MS, except even less so as MS does not rely on their Xbox division very much.

How do judge good games by sales? Are you saying ps4 first party is better than dreamcast?  Sony sure are giving instant classics like knack and killzone. Both which are under pikmin on the metacritic. I'm starting to think Sony fans are more interesting in Sony winning console wars than producing actual great games.