Edit:

If you have a different opinion on some numbers, please refer to original post.

again, you can really only change either revenue or income/loss per item on PS2, PSP and PS3 hardware and software.

@ssj12

I understand PS2 sold at a loss (though I didn't go and look up previous financial statements).

The point of the thread is to analyze actual numbers. I will try to avoid commenting on the business strategy and concentrate on just the actual numbers.

I want to get your opinion on the original numbers:

PS2 hardware - I assumed they make $15 per unit - do you have a different number in mind?
PSP hardware - I assumed they also make $15 per unit
PS3 - what is the hardware loss? I assumed $306

PS2 software - I assume they make $8 per unit
PSP software - I assume they make $8 per unit
PS3 software - ???

Basically, we have to assume 5 variable to come up with the 6th variable.
Based on those assumptions, then PS3 software LOST
$8.8 per unit on 57.9 million units sold
or a TOTAL of $508 million dollars JUST ON PS3 SOFTWARE ALONE.

Does that make sense? I ask you guys because I am not very familiar with Sony's numbers.

On the flip side, if you assume PS3 software makes money,
even at a modest $5 per unit or a total of $288 million

then

PS3 hardware lost an average of about $390 PER UNIT

Which is a likelier scenario in your opinion?

Well, I can't see Sony losing money on software sales. That just seems odd.

The blu-ray disc isn't that expensive. It costs more than 3 times of a regular one, but still clocks in at around or less than 1 dollar.

Then shipping, storage place and such should cost a little, but still not a lot. Honestly, I would think Sony earned more than 5 dollars pr software game sold.

I would also guess that advertising is included in this (or is the loss even bigger?) and that would mean that 5 dollars netto earned pr software seems fair.

I would also assume they earn less than 8 dollars on each Ps2 game, after all, they retail at a very low price now. 4-5 dollars seems more fair to me.

You also have to put in the fact that they lose money on the controllers (DS3 loses money I believe).

But overall, I believe you are correct that Ps3 loses somewhere around 300-400 dollars pr unit.

Before this thread, I hadn't believe it was even close to that, so well done and thanks :)

There is one thing that you are not considering in here and that is the cost of software that has not been published yet. For example any game made by Sony in this timeframe, but has not been published yet (and therefore did not get any money back) would result in a huge negative. I think if you take those into account the software would be in negative (since there are quite a few projects in the pipeline in that timeframe) and the hardware wouldn't have been so bad.
No numbers, just my thoughts.

gorgepir, but you aren't considering the games that were in development before that time that came out at that time either, it's mostly going to even out.

You're missing fixed costs in this analysis.

Think about it this way: in the holiday quarter, Sony made a profit. In the next quarter, they lost money. Why? It's not 100% certain, but I'd say it was due to lower sales volume, which means that the division's fixed costs tipped the scales towards unprofitability.

Fixed costs are things such as marketing, salaries, one-off expenses like moneyhatting 3rd parties etc. Maybe fixed costs is not the best expression, what I'm talking about are the costs which don't depend on sales.

It's very hard to do this analysis correctly, I think it's better to look at their quarterly report and conference and draw whatever conclusions possible from that information. They didn't reveal how much they're losing per unit, they only said that they're still losing money on hardware and that they expect to break even towards the end of the fiscal year (March 31 2009). Other than that, all we can do is guess.

@Johnsobas
I agree with you on that, but I tend to believe that there weren't that many games in development before 2007 compared to 2008. My reason is that the hardware and the kits still weren't out. I might be wrong here.

I think everyone here knows that we are just guessing, it's just trying to make an educated guess, right?

To all:
I will repost and do the past 3 reported years for Sony.
I think it will be shocking the total LOSS for PS3 hardware, software and development.

based on a quick analyis, it is closing in on $10 Billion Dollars.

http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=30468

I have posted a new thread. Please check it out. $11 Billion Loss for PS3 software and hardware since 2005.