Sony, in a statement to investors, revealed that the company has lost a mind blowing $3.31 billion on the PS3 by selling them below cost. That puts them in the same league as the original Xbox. It will help when Sony eventually starts making money on the consoles but the billions already lost is hitting the company pretty hard right now.



Source: http://kotaku.com/5018899/sony-lost-331-bi...ce#viewcomments


I wonder when exactly is it they will start making a profit.

To my understanding they lose money getting the hardware to the masses, but somehow make their money through the games that are sold. Any thoughts how Sony will make a profit from this

Get more juices out of MGS Fruit

no wonder sony malaysia hasnt official launch ps3 until now...

I thought since the 40gb model, they are making money again due to cheaper manufacturing costs and also removal of certain hardware (emotion engine, flash drive, smaller hard disk, etc,)?

If they are still losing money, well sucks to be Sony.

Development cost was almost half that of the original 60GB($800) PS3s on the 40GB($422). On the contrarary, they're still losing money with every PS3 sold.

I think it's the combined costs of the Blu-Ray technology and PS3 manufacturing technology that's gotten them into this mess. plus the weak PS3 exclusives apart from Uncharted and MGS4 aren't working in Sony's favour.

it's still not too late though. costs of manufacturing can only go down once the technology has been more accepted by the masses and there's actually demand for Blu-Ray. but as for the costs of development, God knows how long that'll take to cover.

at least Sony don't have to worry about RROD.

I dun see sony giving up so easily.... just take a look at their betamax tape format... finally died in 1988 (it was introduced in 1975!) As painful as it was to put the blu-ray format into ps3, sony will recoup part of the cost through their bd division. Either way it'll be a win win situation for ps3 owners - no way can they increase price (and risk falling further behind the other 2 consoles) as they will have to cut costs further (which might led to even cheaper hardware).

I only see Sony cutting costs of their PS3 when and finally the RSX in there is manufactured on a 65nm process. Something which is up in the air as it is basically a modified 7800GTX from Nvidia.

The Cell is already running on 65nm process on the 40GB PS3s(which accounts to the significant drop in manufacturing prices).

I'm thinking since BD has become the standard format, the demand for it will start kicking in on holiday season. It seems to be the most viable option for Sony to break even.

Tough times alrite, especially with recession, but if you wanna be successful, don't stop pushing through Sony.

now you guys know why SONY uses crappy Blu Ray lens.....

I thou this is lighting69 thread but im wrong lol.

If (touch woodlah ho) the lenses kong ..can change betta one or use the same one

Only pirated can save the console..a lot of my cheapskate friend (ni kalo tau mesti mati ditembak ngan dier rang) wait to play pirated then they jump to PS3.

Just look at previous PS and PS2..

It's still the same "HIGH" quality lens....but the bright side is...no stupid 3ROD....no need to strip naked your console just to make sure it'll survive... like this one

i once heard , ps3 is not going to be sold in Malaysia, because of the piracy problem~. not sure though

Pity.

Could it be because of there's no pirated games around????

no pirated game for ps3, but its predecessor. so , in order to not let the same thing happen to ps3, they refuse to sell ps3 officially in malaysia

still too exp for those copy cats to invest in and produce *ahem* games in bd format lar.

Yea rite.... and they sell it in India, in Hong Kong and in China....

Opps... thats my pic... No offense, if i got a PS3, i will do the same thing, i do it on my slim PS2 b4.... my point is just want to make the life long.

3.31 Billion. That's the price to win the format wars (BD).

Let's hope it is worth it.

they sell it in Malaysia, but not officially

they lost in ps3, but profit from others (psp)

PS2 and PSP which is about the only thing keeping the Sony Entertainment division alive. They're lucky they have gained so much back from the PS1 to PS2 and now recently the PSP as well which is racking like hot cakes in PSP.

didn't Sony lose money in hardware sales for the PSP initially?

sure they are making some of it back now that it's selling well and even acknowledged that it's partially driven by how easy it's to hack and pirate PSP games!!

It's a big gamble for Sony and if they fail, they will lose both markets at one go, PS3 games plus BD titles as well.

be thankful because HD-DVD just demised, so Sony can expect to collect more loyalties for every BD player they licensed, through blu-ray association. (not really sure how much money will Sony get from this).

one way or another, Sony won't let SCE bankrupt one... our gomen lost more than 10 times of that amount yet never see them bankrupt yet

Gomen bankcrupt then Malaysia mampus lor....

nyway can nybody tell me wat is the purpose of thid thread...

Celebrating that Sony gave us a U$3.3bil discount on the PS3

look like TS do care how sony make profit...ehehe...

actually, since the ps2 era, they already claim they are losing money for the hardware (not as much as the original x-box thou). how they can actually make money is from the games......

during that time, i remember some news saying that for each console they sell, they lose 20-30% of the manufacturing price...lol

Losing money by subsidising the hardware is just half of the story. It's no different from telecommunications company putting up copper lines or subsidising handphones. This kind of risk have been tried and tested.

Yes Sony has been in the lost for 3 years straight. 2 of which came from PS3. However, PS3 unlike its previous predecessor is not meant for the gaming market only. Their target is worldwide penetration of BD. Sony knows that the gaming market is no way near as big as consumer electronics. Playstation has been its single most profitable product until well recently, the put it on gamble and hurried it into every person's home. Seeing that HD DVD camps have already pulled out, profit is a guarantee for Sony.

The main interest lays in BD, this can be reflected by the lack of games for the PS3. Though alot of people would love to argue, but admittedly games are not as fast out as say during the PS2 era.

But the biggest question for Sony is perhaps for how long BD will dominate? Will the HD DVD camp keep quite and let Sony dominate? We will just have to see.

Talking about ps3 games or the lack of them, this is another major factor hampering the growth. Also the lost of some exclusive titles from the PS1 / PS2 era also not doing sony any favour - more games are now multi-platformed.

Ok first lets examine why anyone would want a PS3.

1. For gaming

2. Watching blueray movies ( cheapest blueray player on the market )



So those 2 are the main reasons. What other incentives are there to get PS3 over any other product ?

1. Features, format support, streaming ( Better graphics, hardware specs compared to Xbox and Wii )

2. Game titles ( MSG4, upcoming Final Fantasy XIII series ... )



So unless people want all or some of these things, they wouldn't opt for a PS3


PS3 initially had the PS2 chip inside for backward compatibility. Sony however being smart try to find ways to reduce costs. Instead of installing the PS2 chip that would have to manufacture, they instead remove it and just have software emulation which has less compatibility with older games .......... They also reduce size of some components to also lower costs and heat. They went from selling 60 gb to 40 gb PS3's. Now their moving up to 80 gb.

There won't be any pirated PS3 any time soon. The reason being any game updates would require a latest firmware update.

Unless they created a modchip that had an update feature, and the modchip creator is able to release updates for modchip to have a new cracked firmware o_O;

As for games, the fun ones for PS3 i have so far is MSG4 and Dragon Ball Burst Limit. The later also being available on XBOX.



I didn't notice PSP was doing so well o_O:



It's kinda ironic, Nintendo selling a cheap outdated console in terms of tech, can make bigger profits and market share compared to big rivals like Sony and Microsoft. It really was a David versus Goliath miracle for them

Nintendo is doing well because the casual market is huge and most parents opt to buy that for their kids.

yup seems those newbie / casual gamers like the wii because its cheaper with supposedly more fun games (never played with one yet so i can't tell )

personally, I dont think Sony cares for PS3. They only care about winning the format war.They dont mind coming in 3rd this gen. If the manage to 'smuggle' BD format to the world, then they will laugh in the end.

Beta did not actually die. It was phased out for the consumer market but beta was used in the broadcast division. Their professional broadcast camera Betacam (which records to beta tape) is the most popular and widely used professional camera in the video industry. Of course betacam has since been superseeded by Digibeta but betacam is still fairly common here (malaysia cheapskate mah, using the same technology for more than twenty years).

Another interesting fact is, slowly taking over digibeta is new professional Sony HD cameras that records to bluray disc.

If Samsung launches their PS3 (PlayerStation 3) console game then Sony will die...

Let's face it, there's been a war between Sony and Samsung for the past few years in the electrical category... this is also affecting Sony a lot.

Only applicable in Msia i think. But Samsung cant even make proper Java machines le

Yea.... and apparently at one time, Sony's own Bravia LCD TVs are using Samsung panels...

Some extra details of the topic.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19191

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=c...=11116&Itemid=2

so more cost cutting eh