Man I forgot outside of the US woolworths is still around.... their old buildings are cool..... 

also no this has been coming for years with the low profit margines, not due to the economy ... sony drove itself into the ground, this happens periodically with large comapnies look at IBM mid 90s, or apple at the same time. I do have faith it can turn around, but as in the artical there will need to be major reoganisation 

Given the number of consoles sold thus far, they would be wise to close down a few of their SCE studios to lower their overall operating expenditure. If HD Publishers lost money this generation and they target 100% of the HD market how can SCE studios be assumed to be profitable? Their big games tend to be expensive and long in development with an unknown quantity of bundling throwing us off their real sales figures.

Bankruptcy isn't really a item in the current equation, imho, since sony has nearly 6 bln in the bank, but as we've seen in the case of GM and other auto makers, this can change fast.  We will have to see if they post a loss, and by how much, in this coming qtr to decipher were things stand.  Look at M$, with $20 bln in the bank, and they are talking cutbacks in staffing levels...free cash can turn to no cash quickly, if you don't watch your bottomline...

I'm not much of an analyst, so I won't comment on the business aspect of this.

However, I do have my personal feelings, and I feel like sharing.

A few years ago, the Patriots kept my favorite team, The Colts, from going to the superbowl, by icing their field to counteract Peyton Manning. I have never liked the Pat's since then. I relish in their failure, even though I enjoy and watch their football games.

See if you can figure out how this relates to myself, and Sony Co.

yea that is one thing that has to be hurting Sony with the PS3.  There have been so many bundles for the PS3 in its time.  And when it has a bundle it looses any money it would have made for that game selling not in a bundle.  And in situations like Metal Gear Solid 4, doesn't Sony have to pay Konami so much for every game they bundle.  its not like konami gives them free games and says throw it in the pS3 bundle for free we dont' care.

Sure its something that a console has to do sometimes to drive up sales is bundling, but its never good for them to have to do it basically all the time and still as of now a pretty decent amount behind the closest competitor

Bundling is VERY expensisve, especially for top titles on release.  M$ and Nintendo rarely or never do it, and it's because you are seriously hurting yourself.  Sony is bundling third party games, which benefits them how?  Sure, it strokes your ego for game sales, but it's something that will play havoc on your economic data by boosting revenue, but tanking profits. 

Tough times for everyone.

I thought that was what i was saying. That any bundle they are giving away a FREE game that they did not MAKE for FREE, so they are loosing money there.

And if a 3rd party bundle Sony has to pay that company for the games that it bundles. So all bundles are a bad situation for a company.

What you say is true, but you have to keep in mind that bundled systems such as with MotorStorm, MGS4, Uncharted typically retail for far more than the core systems. Also, 1st party games like Uncharted have already more than made up for their development costs so now every game sold is almost pure profit for Sony. By bundling a game like Uncharted with the 160GB PS3 which costs around $450 to manufacture and selling it for $500, Sony is probably actually making a small profit off the bundle.

@ Fishy Joe - interesting article. I definitely think quite a few of Sony's decisions are coming back to haunt them. In your opinion, which divisions have their heads on the chopping block?