According to the numbers provided in posts paragraph 1 goes out the window. Sony stands to lose over $3 billion soon and its losses are accelarating not slowing down. MS has managed to make a profit. Overall MS's pocket are much deeper than Sony's so comparing that point is moot. Sony stands no chance in a battle of deeper pockets.

Paragraph 2 is a myth started by... Sony. The hardware (CPU+Buses) are not more advanced just different unless you want to claim old Apples were faster than PC's. Take the hint they werent for 99% of normal usage and most of the time they were slower just like the PS3 has been proven to be slower in many x-platform games.

Sony as a company has some of the worst leadership I have ever had the displeasure of working for. I wouldnt go back to work for them for any reason except for doubling my salary then maybe I would put up with their internal BS and their lack of motivation/skill. Sony is in bad shape at this time.

For the record, I dislike MS/Nintendo just as much as Sony which is why I havent baught a console yet... although I am leaning towards the 360 for certain games.

I hear a lot of people saying Microsoft has deeper pockets. That's true. But Microsoft are not dumb enough to just keep sitting still and losing money! To be honest, if Microsoft comes out of this generation in the red again. I think their best option is to become like Sega and just make and publish games. They can become another EA if they wanted to lol.

"Microsoft and Sony are destroying their (and each other's) gaming business"

??? Competition is mostly beneficial. So the business does win. The profit of the two companies may not benefit but I am a consumer so who cares.

Wow... Way to go on you're first 4 posts. I never intended to enter their conversation till you did. All I can say is keep out of it. You know their after each others necks already. You're just advocating the fued.

Only two billion Dollars ? for the whole Ps2 thing ? thats nothing i cant believe it 120 Mio Consoles to an average price of maybe 200 Dollars are 24 billion plus maybe 600 Mio games for maybe 20 billions and 6 Billions for gamepads memory cards about 50 Billion Dollars so the Profit is only about 4% ? and all that money they lost on PS3 ? 11 Mio Consoles 200 Dollar los per console is 2.2 Billions But i read a long time ago that the losses are only 100-150 Dollar and you shouldnt forget Europe because there one console was on the beginning 599 Dollar sometimes even more at this time that was 800 Dollar per console and now the cheapest modell costs 399 thats 630 Dollar i think in Europe they make profits and they sold 5 Mio in Europe if they should lose even in Europe 100 Dollar they would lose in the U.S about 350 Dollar per console thats impossible. theynever lost 2 bln to Ps3 maybe in US and Japan thats 6.5 Mio the lost about 150 Dollar thats 1 bln

Netyaroze, Sony uses a lost leader strategy. It took Sony years to make money off of the PS2 hardware. This took a huge chunk out of the profits Sony garnered from its own software sales and licensing fees. Sony didn't make a profit off the PS2's hardware until its third year on the market and if you noticed that when they made the most money the PS2. When you use that type of strategy it great reduces your profits to create a larger userbase that the company hopes will make up for their initial losses.

"This took a huge chunk out of the profits Sony garnered from its own software sales and licensing fees. "

There are two additional small things.

First the PSP which is Sonys first ever handheld, so you can add its development and launch costs to the profit of the gaming division if you want to know how much money the PS2 made them. (It will be many hundreds of millions or billions by itself)

Secondly 2 billion 2000 are (for a public traded company) almost 4 billion 2008 because they expect a return on investment of 8%.

So the PS2 made them much more money than you implied.