Um, what the heck are you spewing? Gamers DO care if the console makers make profits. It goes into R&D for their next console(s), and helps them plan out other things for the company. Sure us consumers want their consoles to be at an affordable price, but we do plan on the companies to make some / a lot of money so that they will make better consoles and such.

On top of that, I absolutely HATE Sony's business plan; make an expensive console with high-tech hardware, lose money on profits for awhile until the software sales pick up and they get their revenue back. Absolutely absurd and dumb of them to even think of that. They should make a console that is 'powerful' enough to play high-end software, but is affordable enough to be used and get the job done. Wow, that sounds like a console already out on the market.

What is MUCH BETTER??

Making a console that's less expensive, doesn't require raw horsepower for graphics, but the games are just as fun; then it sells out fast and the company gains profits on each console sold off the get-go.

OR, make a console that is very expensive, has a lot of horsepower and the games are just as fun; but it sells SOOO slow due to price for the 'mass-market,' games that do not expand through the mass-market (but are still fun to play but only a select group of gamers; a gaming niche) by appealing to everyone and the company loses profit on each unit sold.

I'd rather stick with the console that is cheaper to produce and sell so that it gains profit on each unit sold (even though the company didn't know it would sell like hotcakes at first!).

Bundling can be a (some what) successful way to improve the value of a console for a consumer but I suspect that the value of bundling is related to the price of the console ... Consider that a $50 game for a $100 console just seems like a far better deal than a $60 game with a $400 console. I suspect that to (really) get an appealing bundle at $400 you might need an additional controller, 2 games and a HDMI cable.

The way ps3 is selling now I don't see them cutting price until next year no matter what microsoft does but who knows.

i think they will be watching the prices of other BD players and making sure to keep it under that cap, but as far as the 360 is concerned there is no need. Especially if FFXIII hits this Xmas.

That $1 Billion dollars a year! As they would then be in a cycle of reducing their price to follow MS.

So here’s what could happen.

 1. Sony makes more profit in the last few years of the generation, but in the next gen, Sony will launch at the same time as MS, Effectively shortening the life span of the PS3. (huge loss here for the PS3. All Sony is doing is delaying the inevitable)

2. When the Ps4 launches, the price of the PS3 will still be quite high (higher than that of the PS2 at the same time in the life cycle) so the switch to the next console will be at a lower price differential and we will see a higher number of people jump to the next gen sooner.

3. They continue to lose $100 per console until the focus is on PS4 (estimated 2012 i.e 4 years of $1Billion + losses)

These 3 scenarios would see Sony losing every dollar the Play station business has ever made, the only saving grace the PS3 has is blu-ray.

Most of their loss is in the cost of goods. The other costs are small in contrast to this.

Care to explain your conclusion? I mean it wasn't that Oct-Dec last year, Sony was still selling boatloads of 1st and 2nd generation PS3s (the ones with the heavy production costs tacked on), or was it?

M$ price cut will only help them in NA Sony can afford a regional price cut. We will soon know how much they are losing per PS3 so these predictions should be held off till then. Sony is focusing on profit; but profit doesn't really mean intimidate profit. They need a somewhat large base in NA to make sure their software continues bringing in the dough; giving M$ a massive boost in hardware will hurt them in the long run.