Pretty much.

Last wave of trolling was triggered by the megaton FF13 news.

Nowadays it's about the ps3 being outsold worldwide.

Since when?  As of June, 2008, Sony had only lost around $3 billion on the ps3.

As of September 2005, Microsoft had lost $4 billion on the Xbox, and that number increased to over $6 billion upon the launch of the 360, and then there was the $1.15 billion they were forced to spend on 360 repairs.

Also, Sony has been tightening their belt primarily through cutting manufactering costs.  Thus far, they haven't curbed any spending on development, unlike Microsoft.  Hell, they bought Evolution Studios in the middle of 2007, when SCE was at it's weakest.  Conversely, Microsoft has shut down Ensemble and FASA, as well as let many of their second party affiliates get bought up by larger publishers (BioWare, Bizarre).

The difference between Sony and Microsoft is that Microsoft has always been losing money on the Xbox brand, and is only now making a slight profit (and those profits may be due to other things in the Entertainment and Devices division, rather than the 360 itself).  The division has yet to provide any real benefit to Microsoft.  Sony, however, hit the ground running when they first entered the video game market.  They've tasted success (SCE was one of the most profitable divisions in the company up until just a few years ago), and I'm sure they want it back.

is this 3 billion Sony's division losses? or losses solely for the ps3?

Ha.

/looks at charts from November 2007 til now

But last month wasn't so good, was it? and that's when the heavy trolling started again.

I thought the conventional wisdom was that video games actually sold better in an economic recession?

I think Sony and Microsoft share that same problem.

i dont care abt their pocket, i wan xbox360 to be cheap and i will buy it soon. PS3+360 i have, i wont miss any games finally :D thank you microsoft for slashing ur console's price ;)

Microsoft -- as a total company -- will do well because it has several MUST BUY products. (You get a computer, you get an OS, you get a package of software -- usually the last two are Microsoft).

The Microsoft Entertainment Division meanwhile, is facing the same pressures that Sony and Nintendo are facing. Potentially soft (to sagging) sales because of the worsening global economic climate. Stock prices are a measure of relative wealth and were admittedly over-inflated (remember when Nintendo had the second-highest stock value of any company in Japan?). It does not necessarily measure or even correlate with profitability.

The economic conditions will mean reductions in R&D and risk-taking. That makes it harder for a console using newer technology than for one using older technology. So Sony will NOT be getting rid of the PS2 anytime soon and Nintendo will benefit from its lower-tech Wii. Meanwhile, the HD consoles will have trouble as those who do not have them will probably delay purchases. And all software sales will slump (less units bought).

So the reaction to economic tough times is "down-sizing" and "right-sizing" -- no one can say that is a surprise for units that are losing money (or have a history of losing money). Actually, the bigger surprise is that they remain open because often entire units/product lines can get canceled when the economy tanks. And if conditions get much worse, we could see that -- and the Crash II.

Mike from Morgantown

I still think M$ is making some money at $200 retail. The hardware is 3 yrs old now. DVD drives cost what $15-20 to manufacture. Its not the easiest business to be in but with an attach rate of over 7( that averages out to 70$ per customer for third party royalties and 30-40 bucks for every first party title) i think M$ should make it just fine- they have decided to go mass market instead of an elitest(no pun intended) price tag.

So will SONY but not before 2010.