Sony profits up, but PS3 losses double
By Nilay Patel 
posted October 25th 2007 1:39PM
posted October 25th 2007 1:39PM
Sony reported its second quarter earnings today, and while the company's overall profits were up, at ¥90.5B ($790M), the Playstation division's losses for the quarter came in at ¥96.7B ($844M), double those of a year ago. Sony says that once it's done accounting for all the recent PS3 inventory changes, it hopes the Playstation division will break even -- potentially in the second half of the fiscal year. Of course, since the PS3 is sold at a loss, the numbers might indicate that Sony's selling more PS3s than ever, but something tells us that's not exactly the plan.[Via Joystiq]
(Note that I didn't read any of the comments above me.)
Considering that they lose money on consoles, but earn money on selling games, there must be some kind og ratio they will have to reach in order to go in plus. Well, what if, say, Microsoft were to sick amounts of PS3, yet never any games. That would potentially make it possible to damage Sony quite a bit, wouldn't it? This whole lose-a-lot-per-console-strategy seems kinda risky from my point of view. Not that I think such a thing as I said will ever happen, but IF, then it could be devastating.
And to make sure, can Sony stop a company from doing this in any way?
Wow - $844 million is a LOT of money to lose in a quarter. How does that even work out in average loss per player sold?
I guess the profit potential for video game platforms is enormous or they wouldn't be willing to lose so much money along the way.
I wonder is MSFT is making money on the 360 platform. I know they had been having large losses but the release of Halo3 could have allowed them to turn the corner.
Video games are a tough business.
Metal Gear Solid
Gran Turismo
Drakes fortune
Tekken
Final Fantasy
Nuff Said
What? Is that the whole PS3 game catalog?
Yea, that is awesome(sarcasm). How many are out yet? And after checking out Lair, Heavenly Sword, and Warhawk I think I will wait and see what those games are like. Check out real word reviews at gamefly. Lame-o
I think Drakes fortune and Tekken look pretty good.
Gran Turismo(I'll believe when I see it) looks barely acceptable based on the down loadable demo so I'm crossing my fingers. But it is up against PGR3, PRG4, and Forza 2 that are all good and available today.
Metal Gear Solid - - - Crap. Only the first one was any good. The rest ALL sucked and were more cinemas than gameplay.
Gran Turismo - - - Nice, but Forza's pretty good too, and personally I prefer Need For Speed. `Not as picky about steering.
Drakes fortune - - - Meh. Give me Bioshock instead, thanks.
Tekken - - - Meh. Fighters are repetitive and dull now. I got sick of the Tekken series in the 90s.
Final Fantasy - - - Overrated JRPG crap. I prefer my RPGs to be free-form instead of on rails, and I really don't like games where the cinemas outweigh the actual gameplay. FF is for anime freaks, not for real fantasy role-playing fans. I'll put Oblivion up against it any day, and I'd definitely prefer Neverwinter Nights 1&2 to this Japanese crap.
So you've offered me NO compelling reason to get a PS3.
Really. Where are the games that appeal to western tastes? I hate the Japanese style games-- They're made to be homogenous, simplistic, and chock full o' cinemas, but they're amazingly short of actual gameplay. Lots of atmosphere, little actual user input. That's how they like them in the east, and there's nothing wrong with that--- It just doesn't appeal to me.
I like games that are short on cinemas and forced plotlines and high on gameplay content... You know, those parts where I actual DO something with the controller instead of just watching a bunch of anime characters talking to each other.
You can keep the PS3. It's not for my taste. It's for anime freaks and sports fans. That doesn't mean it's bad-- It just means it's not geared toward what I like and therefore not worth my money.
not really... none of those reasons are gonna make me buy a ps3 or even persuade me to get one over the 360 (already have the wii)
Why would people care about backward compatability.
If you have a large amount of ps2 games then it obviously means you have a ps2, use that to play your ps2 games.
Why would people go back rather than forward, use your ps3 to play blu-ray movies and next gen games.
would you rather show off your ps3 running ps3 games or ps2 games?
$399 for an entertainment system that lets you connect to the internet, any media device from mp3, cameras to usb sticks, built i hard drive, ability to load an OS and use it, load pictures to view on high def screen, allows you to play next gen games, and it lets you play blu-ray movies and dvd movies.. In my eyes, that is a damn good deal
Lots of people DO care about BC, including Sony until recently (it was one of their selling points, just read the exec interviews in the last two years). At the very least it means less clutter around the TV. I like the picture quality I'm getting from my PS3 when I play PS2 games.
I personally found the best use for PS3 is media. Photo viewing - amazing implementation and flexibility, especially with ability to stream them from network. Viewing photos on 1080p LCD TV gives a totally new perspective to your photos. DVD upsampling is superb, best of any player I have, including specialized playback software for my HTPC. BluRay playback is also great. Video and music streaming works too, though there's a lot of room for improvement.
But games are just not there - I played only a few and except Resistance and Flow I didn't really enjoy them much. My Xbox sees about the same amount of use as my PS3, except that it's used for games exclusively. PS3 is a great media machine - but a lousy gaming console. For the lack of content, yes, but I also believe it simply does not have the kind of power that Xbox360 has. Not the number crunching power, but the general purpose power. As a developer myself, I think Microsoft engineered the CPU right (too bad they screwed up the hardware design). Triple-core general purpose CPU seems to soundly beat specialized asymmetrical Cell when it comes to general purpose programming, which is games - d'oh. Cell is likely better in custom programmed media tasks - video and audio processing - and it shows. But if Sony doesn't figure a seamless way (through API) to bring PS3 to Xbox360 levels for general purpose tasks, I don't have much hope about having much good content on PS3 any time soon - if ever.
I think people are forgetting the xbox 360 has been out for close to 2 years, whereas ps3 close to 1 year.
It took xbox 360 awhile to release blockbuster games like gears of war and even halo 3. Ps3 has some stellar games coming out, even this year, ratchet & clank, uncharted , tekken 6 are coming out. I enjoyed heavenly sword
Also, next year we have white knight story , final fantasy 13, the monster of a gaming series metal gear solid 4!
These games are huge and sure to sell the console a heck of alot and bring a wider range of games to the ps3. MGS4 is especially a game i am looking forward to and the reason i got a ps3
Developers are tapping into the cell and you can see the ps3 does lightning, and effects like smoke better than the xbox 360 ( compare the alpha shots of lost planet for the ps3 to xbox 360). The only advantage i see is how xbox 360 has more ram, but ps3 comes standard with hard drive and it's blu-ray discs offer alot of storage (Rockstar, GTA4 mentioned this as well, as they are having difficulty squeezing it into a dvd, assassin's creed developers mentioned this as well)
I think people are quick to jump because the xbox 360 has been out for so long, if you compare xbox 360's first year and ps3's first year..ps3 is doing better, especially on delivering games. Next year is ps3's year, this year definently was 360s for games..next year will be huge for the ps3
Well, White Knight Story is my personal favourite "to look forward to" game and it looks like it could revitalize JRPG and I am very much looking forward to it. Also Drake's Fortune looks like it could be a superb game. But there isn't much else on the horizon that I care about other than FF13 which probably won't come out next year (I care not about MGS, nor Rainbow Six for that matter).
On the other hand Xbox 360 lineup in its second year is very, very impressive. The number of great games that came out since last Christmas - and are still coming out - is extraordinary. I still think the PS3 will have only a small number of really well done games - which will rake up huge R&D costs - while the rest will be non-exclusives, and those so far seem to be coming out late and technically inferior (with a few exceptions). I am glad I like JRPGs and BluRay since I'll get some value out of PS3, but I doubt it'll be anything like what PS2 was in the last generation. I only hope they improve media capabilities so I can stream video without having to transcode to MPEG1, then I could retire the HTPC.
To tell you the truth I think Sony is nuts to take that much of a loss on each unit. They should have known other companies would fight Bd from becoming the only option. The XBOX360 has just as good of hardware and for the price of a PS3 you can pretty much get an XBOX360 and HD-DVD player (with 5+ free movies). The XBOX360 though gives you several cheaper options and has a ton more good games.
I actually totalled up the sales of all three for this year (Jan through Sep) and the total was 1.17B PS3, 2.19B XBOX360, and 3.44B Wii. This gives Wii about 51% market, XBOX360 32%, and Sony back at 17%. To top that off, the trend is not looking good. The PS3 sales are actually decreasing while the other two are increasing. I think if MS can get an XBOX360 out sometime next year with an HD-DVD player built in for around $400 then that would be a hard hit for the PS3. What can they get to make their's better... Add a larger hard drive? Bundle more stuff? lower the price? The XBOX360 is cheaper to make already and Sony is taking a big loss. They might not ever recover even 2nd place in this generation of consoles.
Several of my family have XBOX360s and a few have the Wii, but I do not know one person with a PS3. I just see them rotting on store shelves. The Wii is still really had to find. I just wish the Wii hardware was a bit more powerfull, but even with VERY next generation hardware it is still fun.
first of all 360 hardware is by far inferior to the ps3 as 30% have been sent back for repairs. second you can get a $400 ps3 with built in everything you need. if you could add correctly you'd see that the cheapest 360 is 280 with no hard drive. so if you add on the hd dvd player for $180 it equals $460. that is 60 bucks more for the cheapest way to go to get console plus high def movies but your still missing a hard drive which is a HUGE thing to have in todays gaming world lets add another either 100 bucks for 20 gb or another 180 bucks for 120 gb that comes to either $560 or $640 bucks but wait if youd like wifi you need another 100 bucks bringing it 740 dollars. even without the hd dvd player and only a 20 gb hard drive add on is still 380 dollars which is only 20 bucks less but it is much less as far as value goes.
i'm failing to see ANY options that are cheaper than the ps3. maybe you should recheck your math.
also @ tabbott almost forgot that you get 5 free blu-ray discs with the purchse of a ps3 also.
Let's also not forget that a 360 allows you to play in HD OUT OF THE BOX!!! YOu don't need to buy any extra cables.
Yes, the 360 allows you to play those $50 games right out of the box. Until it bricks on you and you have to send it back to Microsoft for repairs. It's a good console when it works, and it would be the best if Microsoft hadn't been so hasty to get it out on the market [ahead of the PS3] without proper QA testing.
You can buy good cables for less than $10 from Monoprice. Yes, Sony is stupid for not including them but that's not really an advantage worth crying for.
The library of games is, though. It's really too bad Xbox is so unreliable. I waited 3 months to get mine repaired! But there's no alternative, a hard core gamer has got to have a Xbox360 as its library of games is unsurpassed so far.
chris halo 3 one could wait on and play on a pc along with mass effect and bioshock you already can. that leaves you with metroid which is a good game and mario galaxy...
pgr is not even close to how good GT5 is gonna be. and there is at least another 4 exclusives coming out soon that you cant play on a PC.
what i really dont understand is that you guys rip on sony so much for the ps3 and have been since it came out. mainly for the price tag which WAS high, even though i thought worth it for everything it had built in, but for the average/casual gamer was to high. now tehy dropped the price considerably and are taking a loss on each console sold but you act as though they are trying to screw you, like they hate their customers and are ignorant, how is this exactly? they have been taking care of all the bitches you guys have including price, rumble, and games which great games are right around the corner. yet you people want to see sony fail so much just because you went with the other guys console that you'll come on to places like this and bitch about backwards compatability? come on this isnt a big deal as almost everyone has a ps2 store it in the hall closet or something and the very rare occasion you need to play a ps2 game break it out and hook it up, only takes like 30 seconds. it is only the 40 gb model that dont have B/C so if it is such a big deal sell your ps2 on ebay or something to compensate for a chunk of the extra hundres bucks for the 80 gb model which will play every ps2 game there is besides the crappy ones that didnt sell well, which may change in the future to even play then with a simple update.
i have all the consoles and my wife works for microsoft and though the 360 is a good console the ps3 is better in so many ways. same with the wii which the only games i want to play on it is zelda and metroid, the rest are to focused more for kids. which is the only reason i got the wii, i hate the wiimote after a long day of work i dont want to be waving a wand like thing around, to much effort, i'd rather use my 360 or ps3 while sitting back or laying down on the couch with the controller in my hands.
Your post lacks considerable amounts of .... facts.
Sony was taking a loss on the PS3 from the START, even when the damn things were $600. They're idiots pure and simple.
$844M loss for the Playstation brand?
Is that with the "profit" they are making on the PS2 and the PSP?
ps3 sucks and is just another one of sony's propertarian format, DRM conduits!
DGAR: No doubt. My brother's 360 broke down very quickly, and when they finally fixed/replaced it, they equipped it with the loudest cooling fan I've ever heard.
My PS3, however, seemed to have an HDMI meltdown. It started out fine, then started outputting choppy, distorted picture and sound, then stopped outputting altogether. As it did so, it destroyed the HDMI port in the receiver, and delivered mild electrical shocks to the touch.