So, how exactly did they reduce costs of production by $200 in 9 months? Surely they must mean that they are on schedule to release a product in the future which will be 70% cheaper to produce than the original PS3?

$200 cost reduction would have to have meant HUGE die shrinks across the board, casing shrink, cooling system shrink, motherboard shrink, and even then that's probably only about $100-125.... I don't see any possible way they could have taken out any more production cost unless they like remove the BD drive... but that would be stupid of Sony.

Anyone actually have any educated thoughts on where the cost reductions could be coming from since the actual system has yet to change since the $450 cost to produce figure emerged.

(if this was covered earlier, sorry, I'm not reading 7 pages of stuff to find out )

LOL @ people talking about a couple months ago report. The fact that the slimline isnt on shleves yet doesn't mean its a future model. Sony is probablly already manufacturing it which would make it present for them.

Why not? It's part of the budget for the game. It's part of the process.

And no, Sony does not advertise agressively. Certainly not enough to spend $10 million. Talking about Heavenly Sword and Uncharted.

LOL @ slimebeast... you should stop making a fool of yourself.

nightsurge said: So, how exactly did they reduce costs of production by $200 in one year? Surely they must mean that they are on schedule to release a product in the future which will be 70% cheaper to produce than the original PS3? $200 cost reduction would have to have meant HUGE die shrinks across the board, casing shrink, cooling system shrink, motherboard shrink, and even then that's probably only about $100-125.... I don't see any possible way they could have taken out any more production cost unless they like remove the BD drive... but that would be stupid of Sony. Anyone actually have any educated thoughts on where the cost reductions could be coming from since the actual system has yet to change since the $450 cost to produce figure emerged. (if this was covered earlier, sorry, I'm not reading 7 pages of stuff to find out )

Well, just as you are hinting, it's impossible of course.

I'd love to see an educated estimation of cost reductions, just to see how unlikely and ridiculous it would look in print.

There's obviously a good explanation to the 70% cost reduction claim, and my guess is that it's either a misquote, a misunderstanding or a slip of the tongue. I'm sure this number will be clarified within the next few weeks.

You can quote me on this.

^Even the Slim, which is what I was hinting at with my areas they could reduce costs in, would still cost $325-350 to produce....

They'd have to take out something bigger and more costly.....

I agree, Slimebeast, it has to be a misquote or something.

Slime - an average HD game would cost SONY less than 500k to break even.

They are devs. and Publisher and console manufacturer they get a lot more per game than 3rd parties. They also don't have to pay licenses or royalties to themselves. And they don't have to pay for their own dev kits. Lern yourself something. And no... the rule of thumb is NOT to take half the dev cost. You pulled that outta yer ass.

You don't know how it works. I understand you'd think it's logical that it'd be part of the process, but think of it this way:

A developer approaches the publisher with an idea for a game (or the other way around) and they decide on a time-scale and a budget (according to the team size as the most important factor, and estimated development time of course). This budget will change over time depending on how development progresses and in the end you will have a final cost ('budget'). This figure can be announced publicly as soon as the game 'goes gold', and can not be changed after that.

Think of it as a commissioned work by the publisher.

Now depending on how the end result looks, the quality and commercial potential of the product, the publisher will market it accordingly. It's all under his control, and marketing is a separate process where success of the game over time can prolong and increase the marketing efforts and costs. Marketing costs are seldom if ever published to media.

Slime just stop... I don't even think LBP ad campaign was 10 million. Sony said the budget themselves. And that was a Holiday release. Just stop.