honestly that would be by far the healthiest thing to happen to the gaming industry.  I don't think it will, i think we'll see a PS4 (or some other named sony console) but it would be far healthier for everyone if they became a software only company and we had 2 consoles.  Hell i would rather see only ONE console but thats still a while off

though i do think the PS4 will certainly be a budget console especially because of what you said where are they going to get money for R and D costs?

The total costs of R&D of PS3 is not included in Sony's financial statements. According to the financial statements PS3 losses are around 3 or 4 billion dollars. The PSP and PS2 revenue slightly offsets the PS3 losses.
If we added the costs of R&D to the PS3 losses than we are talking about X billions + 4 billion dollars in losses attributed by PS3.

What Sony studio made Ratchet and Clank? Nintendo should buy them.

so ill ask again, was the cell development cost bundled into SCE or was it stashed somewhere else, because if it is in SCEwe have always been lowballing ps2 profitiability and its die off will hurt far more then i could have imagined

Guys, Sony won't be leaving the gaming industry. >_<

At worst, Sony just won't drop the price of the ps3. With the drop to 65nm RSX at the beginning of the holidays, and the drop to 45nm Cell at the beginning of 2009, ps3 hardware costs are getting lower than ever. As shown through the holidays, the ps3's sales are drying up at the $399 price point, and probably won't be very high at the beginning of the year. Low sales + lower hardware costs results in much less lost on ps3 hardware overall.

This combined with more big 1st party releases next year than ever before (Killzone 2, White Knight Chronicles, and InFamous all in the first five months), plus the new revenue source found in Home (whereas before it was just a money sink) should lead to Sony losing much less in 2009 than previous quarters, if not making a profit.

When they begin breaking even on every ps3 sold near the end of the year, they'll be doing fine. They may be far in third place, but they'll be profitable.

And that's assuming things are at their worst.

oh i know like i said there will be another sony system i simply said i would love to see them drop out even though i own and love a ps3.  Then after they dropped out i would love to see either microsoft or nintendo drop out.  I don't care which two drop but i want one console for all third parties to develop on. 

Look at it this way. Last Christmas, the ps3 was the same price it is now. However, they were selling a LOT more of them, and they were losing a LOT more on each sold than they are now. Yet SCE still managed to turn a profit for the quarter.

This year, software sales are higher than they were last year, they're losing less on ps3 hardware overall (due to lower costs and lower sales), and the PSP is booming in Japan (though the ps2 is slowly dying off around the world).  I have a feeling SCE will pull a profit for this past quarter (though it still won't be very high, given the floundering of the Yen), and next year they should be doing alright, assuming they don't cut the price of the ps3.

you know what I havent done this before but ill make you a bet they loose money this quarter in SCE land.  

Okay, I was comparing this year's WW charts to last years:

• PS2 hardware is down about 50%
• PS2 software is down about 50%
• PS3 hardware is down about 25% (less losses on ps3 hardware)
  
• PS3 software is up about 60% (higher profit margins on ps3 games than ps2 games)
• PSP hardware is down about 10% (however, they probably cost less to make now too, so it's a wash)
• PSP software is down about 10% (but that is not including Dissidia FF numbers - 500k in a week, when the PSP was selling 600k a week TOTAL worldwide before that)
• SCE released better sellers this year than last (both LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2 are tracking well above Uncharted, Sony's best seller last holiday season)

Based on this, I'd have to take that bet.

Though I hope this doesn't bite me in the ass, due to the falling Yen.

Edit: By "this" quarter you mean the holiday quarter, right?

yea holiday, ill put in my sig i was wrong if i lose, you do the same if you lose. sound fair? 

*note, yearly trend will be interesting too... also why does sony start quarters for the next year mid the prior year seems very weird nintendo does it too is there some sort of luck or tradtition thing there?