*parrots*

I have voiced several times on these board that any public company need to appease the stockholders first.  So yes, a loss is never good.  But was the PS3 a bad business decision because there is no demand for the product in a thriving economy?  Of course not.  Things happen like a failing economy which is bad for SONY because of the huge investment of the PS3.  But I think the growing demand of the PS3 is encouraging for the gaming community that there is a demand for a quality product.  And why quell that demand by preaching potential doom and gloom?  In fact the increase of demand and the reduction of cost should be a positive sign that when you support the system this will financial help SONY in the longrun.  According to the reports and figures this makes sense.

...Kinda like how beer goggles can make a girl whos a 5 look like a 10! =D

SONY was loosing more money because production costs were greater when the economy was better.  Now, production costs have lessen, more PS3's have been sold, the economy is worse, and SONY posted a smaller loss than last time.  Two different scenarios.

I wouldn't know.  I touch alcohol maybe once every five months, and that's in small quantities. 

That almost sounds like Sony is doing consumers a favour by selling a product at a loss.  The truth is that Sony miscalculated and overvalued the power of the Playstation brand.  They expected they would sell a ton at $600 which would drive down manufacturing cost so that they would start making a profit from hardware relatively quickly.  They also expected that with a ton of PS3s in customers homes they would sell a mega ton of software and with the combined profit from hardware and software they would quickly make up the initial losses.  Now it is clear that the initial losses will not be made back.  If the PS3 is not a financial disaster I don't know what is.  If they had just released a $300 console without blu ray and which wasn't trying to be a super computer they would not be in the jam they find themselves in now.

You said "some users [...] are claiming that the PS3 was a bad move by SONY when in fact we can account a lot of the losses was the cause of a failing economy."

That's the part I don't understand. Most of PS3's losses aren't due to the failing economy.

Yeah, the economic factors won't really show until the upcoming quarter.

I am not as pessimistic on this as others, because there is a bigger picture to SONY's plan. I think many of us gamers (myself included) sometimes fail to see the forest for the trees. Yes, SONY is still losing money out of the gaming arm in large part due to R&D/manufacture behind the PlayStation 3 (lagging software sales tied to the PSP notwithstanding), but the high price point was long acknowledged as being troubling in the short term, and the division is nearing profitability again. Sales appear to be steady and meeting targets, and the future of Blu Ray and SONY's downloadable content offerings are very bright.

The PS3/gaming division will return to health as consumers get over the initial sticker shock and high barrier of entry and are able to invest in the games and Blu Ray movies in the coming years.

Long term, the gaming division will be fine. SONY's bigger hurdle over the next decade will be their other consumer electronics, which continue to carry premium prices for less-and-less feature differentiation. Really, all the big Japanese manufacturers are at risk with their TV and stereo and camera sales being cannibalized by cheaper Asian imports from Korea and China.

I am a lot more optimistic about the PS3 now than I was a year ago, both as a content delivery system/BD player and as a gaming console. The major brick-and-mortar retailers are slowly trimming DVD shelf space and stocking more and more BD content. That is an encouraging sign for the future of the PS3. SONY's biggest coup in the gaming division had nothing to do with games, but rather the ridiculous sales of Iron Man on BD.

SONY might be battered and bruised for its efforts, but it appears going all-in by tying Blu Ray to the PS3, while having downloadable film available to the next big emerging market, will pay off. I'm sure it's taking longer than anyone at SONY thought or would ever care to admit, but they're getting there.

I don't think SONY is neccessarily doing consumers a favor.  When I first heard of the $600 PS3 pricetag, I was appalled (<- probably misspelled), but a buddy of mine demo the PS3 for me in my home.  And I've learned since then that the product is worth the money, but it doesn't mean that applies to everyone because it doesn't.  This is how I see it from a consumer's point.  Also, I do agree that SONY miscalculated the PlayStation brand, but I think that was at first.  According to SONY, they are on track for PS3 hardware sales while their projection was made before this economy crisis.  With these reasons, I think the economy is the major culprit right now for SONY's reduced profit projections.