http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19463

Not how the Sony head thinks. Even if you take his position and tone it down a little, I expext them to gain profitability by end Q2 2009. Not bad after the pounding they took early.

@Grooski

Actually, I made a different post with numbers. Here is the link.

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=32610&start=0

@bumidan

Yeah I saw that - great post btw

I think the difference Hirai states is that the PS3 divisionals (hardware+software+marketing+operational) will be profitable in their own right.

Even with the profitability of the PS2 and PSP as you've stated, this will make Sony's game division on a great footing leading into 2009.

With MS turning a profit this year on Xbox and Nintendo selling a Wii to every damn 10 yr old on the planet, the consoles are now able to shell out a little more in marketing and investment terms. ie more investment into 3rd party, more purchase of 1st party teams and increased localised marketing.

Either way, this coming 12 months will be a gamers dream...

Lotta data here to process, but on the surface, Sony has to get the cost down for the PS3, otherwise, they are losing money into year 3 of the console at an unacceptable rate, and this is why M$ killed original xbox...they built no efficiencie into the console...now, that's clearly not the position the PS3 is in, but with $3.5 bln in losses expected for 2007 thru 2008...something needs to change....sooner or later, it reaches a point of diminishing returns.  I know they are working hard on reducing the cost of the chips and the brd, but the movie format hasn't taken off yet, and electronics division is losing money on that format as well...I wouldn't want to be the head of those divisions...NO BONUS!  The PS2 is one of the greatest  electronic devices made in the past 30 years, but it can only keep the others afloat for so long...

I'm suprised nobody else has pointed this out already.  The problem with that is the 5.5 million number was from when the reported shipped from manufacturing plants(either to their own warehouses or their customers a.k.a. retailers/distributors).  Starting FY2007(Which ended Mar '08) they switched their reporting method to shipped to retailers/distributors, which is the 9.24 million number.

Going by http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/07q4_sony.pdf shows that the 9.24 million is a 5.63 million increase.  Thus FY2006 was 3.61 million and their reported total thus far is indeed 12.85 million(though iirc either MS or Sony increased the numbers of the last two quarters in some report by 60k each, but if it was Sony it's still a long ways from 14.74 million).

That's what I got from reading the article as well.  However, I didn't have the luxury of reading that article before doing the analysis.

Even though, I think it would be interesting when they report their June 2008 numbers.

Either the reported numbers blow us away (ie. increased sales of everything) OR they do lose or make a little profit for the quarter.

Remember, especially if you read the previous thread analysing the past 3 Sony fiscal years, this methodology is to show and create a "model" for analysing Sony numbers and inferring profitability or losses of each division.

I hope my predictions are somewhat close.  If it is, then that means the financial model has some basis and can be used in future predictions.

 I agree.  As a note, if you read MSFT financials, the ORIGINAL XBOX was STILL LOSING MONEY in their final year of production.

That is, the original xbox console hardware NEVER made any money.

Linkzmax, I did see that in their notes.

Given that change though, I still believe that the 5.5+9.24 figure is the "correct" figure.

I think that 9.24 is adjusted to reflect the previous "mistake" of announcing the shipped from "manufacturing plant".

Therefore, I think that though they may have over reported the 5.5, they probably adjusted for the 9.24 so that the total figures will jive with their recognized revenue and profit.

That is the general rule of reporting revenue and profits in the financial sense.

This also applies to software too.

So I think pretty much what Sony has reported and will report from now on will reflect the LTD shipments of hardware and software to their customers and what they recognize in the revenue and profit announcements.

Sorry bumidan, but No. Here's the link I was looking for

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps3_sale_e.html

Thanks Linkzmax.

Then this would mean that Sony lost SO MUCH MORE PER UNIT for the PS3 in the previous fiscal year.

If we just attribute the losses to 3.61 million PS3s instead of 5.5 million PS3s, assuming PS3 software is still the same, then for FY End Mar 2007, Sony lost:

$733 per UNIT LOSS per PS3
(including all other fixed and variable costs)

My original analysis was $481 per UNIT LOSS for 5.5 million PS3s.

If not, then the PS3 software unit also lost money, if you attribute it to the software/PSN department. (eg. Home development, etc)

Linkzmax, do you have the same type of data for PS3 software?

Thanks for the info.