Well then the 2008/09 doesn't jibe.  WSJ shows a loss and the link shows a profit.

The link NJ5 give you miss the last know quarter ( like he wrote in the huge quote) where SCE post a loss of over $ 300 million that erased the previous small profit obtained in  the first quarter.

I see it later in the thread.  Thanks for the clairifcation.

have you actually tried tunning the TV in the shop to get it to the right darkness, colours, hues, color scheme etc..? or you one of those people that believes what they see by default? 

samsung LCD tvs are usually set to MAX on brightness and other settings and that washes out the colour.

To add, were you even looking at the latest models for both companies? or your Sony love blinded you at actually seeing the model numbers? 

@NJ5: Although it would financially make sense for Sony to drop out the console manufacturing after this gen, but i see it unlikely. SCE can cut down its costs and choose a strategy to survive until next gen, where they reuse PS3 as much as possible for PS4. Notice that business today seems to be wanting to make profit with every investment, which likely means in this case, that the tech in PS3 will largely be used in PS4 also.

That is precisely my opinion. SCE's best chance to survive is to keep PS3 losses to the minimum possible, forget about market share for the most part. Then the higher ups at Sony will probably let enough of SCE stand until the next generation.

They need a massive change of strategy though. MS makes their old one a failure.

They still do promote Blu Ray. If you haven't noticed, they've been advertising the PS3 as some sort of Home Media Center all this time up until now, where they've only started to shift focus into gaming.

In regards to Nintendo and Microsoft: Nintendo has always been profitable. Always. Microsoft? Do I even have to say how deep those pockets are? Sony on the other hand, as I've said before, has their fingers in too many pies.

There has been plenty of talk about company profits, net gains, future profits, and incurred losses in this thread before hand, so I'm not going to reiterate. Most evidence has already been laid out. If you read through the rest of the thread (since these are all new posts since last night), then maybe you'll have a better perspective on how things are going for Sony.

NJ5 presents some sound information and logic, so don't miss those posts.

Now...

So they aren't going to be very profitable.

Oh, okay. You know that.

Will they recoup the losses they've sustained? Not a chance in hell. Will they even come close? Probably not.

So why do you think they'll enter their fourth generation?

Again I must state: Why do people think companies are immune from dropping out of the console race? Amidst a debt ridden, collapsing company, who's gaming division has provided them with irreovable losses (that wipe away the success they had the two prior generations), why would there be a PS4? Sony is not profitable Nintendo; Sony is not Cash Giant Microsoft. Sony is Sony, and Sony's in Shit.

@NJ5: Notice that they already have PS4 in developement, so it's unlikely that Sony would scrap their next gen hope, especially when Sony knows that they can profit from the games industry.
Of course, the shareholder aswell as the board have pretty close eye on SCE at the moment and there always is the possibility of pulling the plug, but the way i see it, Kazuo Hirai has been doing pretty good job and SCE propably will turn profit before the end of the gen. The most critical time period for SCE will be next year. Since it's expected for Sony to have a rough ride in 2009, SCE may be forced to make profit (the whole) next year.

Agree  for the next sstem they need to get rid of the playstation brand or atleast of the enumeration and completly rethink their business strategy.

The only way Sony could drop out of the console business is , IMO, a) if the main company is in a really bad shape or b) if the console business cease to be seen like strategic asset for the company.

Last quarter they posted a loss, Leo. $379 million. First quarter they had $51 million profit, they are at $328 million losses for the year.