And on top of all that... it really doesnt matter since they will profit anyways.

Well theres a much bigger picture which includes BD penetration, software sales of increased install base, PSN sales of increased install base, mindshare of consumers to continue seling more to spurn the aforementioned avenues, brand recognition and acknowledgement across many avenues tied to the Sony name.

Just because we come in weekly to discuss and melt down or have wet dreams over numbers doesnt mean actually business operate on a weekly basis in terms of success and failure.

Whether Sony has made the correct decisions we wont know until next march financially. Good thing this is a numbers site and a sales thread not a profit thread so it doesnt fucking matter anayways, eh?

I just went back and realized I misread Zucas's post (actually I didn't reply directly to him, but to someone who mentioned the financial reports).

Having said that, I just realized that I don't agree with Zucas. He said it was an achievement of marketing and advertising, I happen to think that this sales success was not primarily due to those two things.

Let me tell you that a budget is much more complicated than green and red numbers, ie. there are write-offs from previous acquirements(production facilities, game studios, development kits, internal networks,..) spread over the time these aquirements are used in the production/development and often the companies with multiple products put all these write-offs on one product, though it in theory should have been differentiated.

Another thing is the income, in this case the Blu-Ray royalties, HD-TV sales and 3D push factors aren't included in the PS3 budget, but they are there and Sony is aware of the value.

The same goes with MS, they too can put these expenses on other products to make their let's say Zune seem less flop like.

Differentiating these things is as said too complex, thus comments like "selling a loss" (from a person who can't stand bad English :o) only becomes more ignorant the more one learn about how business is conducted.

Heck chances are that most PS3 have had different production costs due to different hardware suppliers(just look at 360 drives) and being made on different factories where the employees are paid different fluctuating salaries. EDIT: a bigger production might even mean a lower production price per unit.

In the end of the day, the best way to judge is to look at the company and it's nature, does it have a history of expanding(razor thin margins) and how is its support to the product?

CGI, generaly I agree with you. But in this case, I think you're the one being bias. It's simple: it has been told that Sony made textbook moves, others should take notes. Another user just said he didn't agree, and explained why (and that's why profitability came to discussion). I believe it's a logical way of discussion, better than saying it wasn't a textbook move and not explaining why.

Am I seeing it the wrong way?

I'd actually argue they'll profit more with their stragety then they would with the tyhings everyone else is suggesting. They made a very marginal profit last year this quarter but they are now losing a shit load less and selling gangbusters HW with having AC2 and MW2 with all the other SW they'll be selling from selling all those HW they are now with their stragety.