Just because PSN is not doing as good as XBL, doesnt mean its on struggle street. Last time i checked PSN was very profitable for Sony. PSN made more than 170 million$ profit for Sony, and sony made more than 1 million on downloadable costumes in Home

Those are special deals. I was using the official price of $49.99, which is also mentioned in the link.

I would define special deals as a one time offer. I've been reassured time and time again these deals are easily accessible and easy to find. Also, isn't the price of the 360 official that the ps3 fans use?

The PSN DLC situation should improve as PSN cards continue to s-l-o-w-l-y spread around the globe. I had my PS3 for about 18 months before I finally got a gift-card to work on PSN. Ironically, 3 days later, I saw PSN cards at 7-11 and bought a $50 card.

It is true that some stores have kinda unlimited deals for extra cheap gold subscriptions. However I think it's valid to say that you can get gold for a much cheaper price as long as you're really willing to get such a deal. It's not that hard afterall.

But when it comes to the global market those deals never in hell represent over 15% of all subscriptions, so they're almost meaningless to Microsoft.

Now even if 25% of all gold subscriber would've bought a membership for $30 and the rest for $50 (which would be an exreme scenario IMO), it would still mean that Microsoft will earn over $500.000.000 this year.

maybe if Sony launch PSN cards in Europe (the place where half of PS3 userbase is) thy would would start making profit 10x times bigger

well that considering that 360 have a year more.

in the end ps3 will may not be that far.
considering ps1 games have bumped DLC alot.

About half of the someones at SCE(x) need to be fired.

No its not in struggle, its just that XBL is more popular.

THIS.