PlayStation 3's cost to Sony so far: $3.32 billion
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Jun 24th 2008 at 9:40AM }
The $3.32 billion investment, which includes the monolithic system's complete development and introduction, "may not be fully recovered," according to Sony. The manufacturer warned that should the PlayStation 3 fail to reach "favorable market penetration", it would have a "significant negative impact" on the company's profitability.
While the cost may seem astronomically high, especially compared to the JoyStack, we've seen rival manufacturers taking their sweet time to reach profitability (a top priority for Sony). The race is a long one -- and we've seen each competitor's fortunes improve over the last year.
[Via GameDaily]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
el serpiente @ Jun 24th 2008 9:48AM
Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that?
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing in the world smells like that.
[kneels]
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
bigsofty @ Jun 24th 2008 12:36PM
What a waste of money how is it every going to make that back?!?!
LordChimp @ Jun 24th 2008 9:48AM
I could go for a JoyStack right now.
4MyFriends @ Jun 24th 2008 9:50AM
This comment section is going to be interesting...
*grabs popcorn*
Christian @ Jun 24th 2008 10:19AM
Grab as much popcorn as you want, but please stop spamming this thread with such useless dribble. Seems that everytime there is a Microsoft or Sony related article there are idiots who feel the need to show their 'cleverness' by posting comments like this in anticipation of a flamewar.
Mogaar @ Jun 24th 2008 3:13PM
The word you're looking for is "drivel" not dribble. Just keep that in mind the next time you want to appear intelligent (or clever, as you put it). I swear, between bad word choices and the homophone apocalypse that I regularly see from commenters on this board, I weep for humanity. Didn't any of you take grammar?
mogaar @ Jun 24th 2008 3:16PM
The word you're looking for is "drivel" not dribble. Just keep that in mind the next time you want to appear intelligent (or clever, as you put it). I swear, between bad word choices and the homophone apocalypse that I regularly see from commenters on this board, I weep for humanity. Didn't any of you take grammar?
4MyFriends @ Jun 24th 2008 3:54PM
Oh stop your damn crying and accusations Christian
samfish @ Jun 24th 2008 9:55AM
IT EATS MONEY!
samfish @ Jun 24th 2008 10:08AM
Also, while w e're talking about the Playstation...did anyone ever play that Red Ninja: End of Honor game on the PS2? Is it any good? I'm thinking about picking it up for $10 dollars.
Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 24th 2008 10:19AM
I have a copy I never played. I'll give it a shot Sunday evening (I'm in a race against time to finish my gnomon entry so no free time until then). I was curious about it too and I couldn't turn away from the $7 tag.
Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Jun 24th 2008 10:57AM
RIP George Carlin and sexy Princess Peach avatar. : (
Raikage (GOLDEN Gun Of The Patriots) @ Jun 24th 2008 10:57AM
I remember reading a review on it... or maybe it was XPlay, but they basiclly said it was a broken Tenchu which to my knowledge is broken itself...
Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 24th 2008 11:21AM
Yeah but XPlay exists on a pedestal so high only those who can afford to finance the half hour specials gets the top marks.
I mean, they've been wrong about games in the past are are more often than not interested in how many times they can use paper puppets or interns in their reviews than the review itself. Plus, they were reviewing it's value as a $50 game, not a $10.
Raikage (GOLDEN Gun Of The Patriots) @ Jun 24th 2008 11:40AM
I agree to disagree with the value part, a game has to be worth my time, above worth the price, I'll pay $50 for a game I'll like over $15 for an OK game. But if you have a little more free time than me, I understand your logic, but it's not so applicable for me.
I suppose I'm an elitist when it comes to games...
Except Matrix: Path Of Neo and Advent Rising are amazing :P
Smoke_Dawg_187 @ Jun 24th 2008 9:57AM
The RROD was only a 1/3 of the PS3's cost.
Noshino @ Jun 24th 2008 10:00AM
and that is...good?..
Remember that Microsoft initially was also selling the 360 at loss...so count that in with the RROD costs, and it should be about the same...
xFenixKnightx @ Jun 24th 2008 10:07AM
NintendoWii: What a loser.
Xbox360: I know huh.
PS3: Just wait...
arrrgh @ Jun 24th 2008 10:12AM
Everyone: But ps3 you've been saying that since launch!
Mr.ESC @ Jun 24th 2008 10:23AM
But it haz teh Metal gears nao? Nao wut?
I was going to pick up a Ps3 with Mgs4 but the effing bundles are really hard to find.I hate Kojima limited editions.When normal developers release a limited edition its like 1M units,see halo 3,but with Kojima when the guy says limited you better effing believe it.
Seriously where I can find a MGS4 limited Edition?
Vcize @ Jun 24th 2008 10:27AM
Ebay.
xFenixKnightx @ Jun 24th 2008 10:36AM
Señor Esc.
MGS4 will be on 360 in 2009. 10-12 months after its PS3 debut. It has been in production since mid 2007. Well at least thats what my little brother sais...
:P
Ahhhhh just buy the PS3. MGS4, Bluray and DVD upscaling is enough for me.
el serpiente @ Jun 24th 2008 10:58AM
All that gymnastic fellatio you performed on MGS4 has left you feeling a little dirty, eh fenix?
Cyro @ Jun 24th 2008 11:33AM
lol!
On a side note: Fenix what happened to the NG2 achievements. I haven't seen you try much. Surely you can beat my achievements. :P
Cyro @ Jun 24th 2008 11:33AM
lol!
On a side note: Fenix what happened to the NG2 achievements. I haven't seen you try much. Surely you can beat my achievements. :P
ThePerfectCompanion @ Jun 24th 2008 11:51AM
LMAO!
sony deserves to lose this generation.
You sony fanboys reap what you sow.
xFenixKnightx @ Jun 24th 2008 12:06PM
Cyro
Yes, I can...and I will! LOL! Wait, did you beat it on Warrior? Nah nevermind :P I'm just gonna beat it on Accolyte then trade it for Battlefield:BC. Dude I was on level 8 and now have to start over. It was kind of a downer for me.
elpmis @ Jun 24th 2008 10:08AM
Are gamers going to start acting like it matters if the console they own is profitable for the company a year and a half into production? My Wii prints money for Nintendo but I haven't turned it on in months. My PS3 on the other hands hasn't been turned off for quite some time (thanks to GTA4 and MGS4). And when I'm done with Metal Gear I'll probably pick up GRID and Bad Company. Unless you're investing in Sony stock, who cares - PS3 is fun to play.
samfish @ Jun 24th 2008 10:14AM
The only games I'm interested in on the PS3 are Ratchet & Clank and, to a lesser extent, Uncharted.
If I owned one, I'd probably buy them...but I'm not going to buy a PS3 just to play them. I can live without them. They're not worth the cost of the system, in other words.
I could not say the same for the Wii, where games like Twilight Princess, Galaxy, Zack & Wiki, Brawl and (had I not played it on the PS2, at least) Okami are all games I "couldn't live without".
IE – those games are all easily worth the cost of the system to me.
LaughingTarget @ Jun 24th 2008 10:16AM
This matters to gamers because unless Sony manages to sell 320 million pieces of software for the PS3 just to break even on the entire endeavor, the PS4 will be the Wii you hate so much next generation. And given Sony's poor innovation track record and heavy reliance on third parties that don't like changing hardware, that will be an ugly thing indeed.
mr nimblewick @ Jun 24th 2008 10:52AM
Why do people come on to threads to talk about how they haven't played a specific console in a while? Who cares? If you want to play it, buy a game. If you don't want to play it, then don't. Hell, sell it on ebay. But don't tell us about it.
Grant @ Jun 24th 2008 12:24PM
"Why do people come on to threads to talk about how they haven't played a specific console in a while?"
Because this shows that just because a console is selling, doesn't mean that the games are, and attach rate from licensing is where Sony is able to support their negative profit from console sales.
Plus he's expressing the frustration that most true gamers are feeling who bought a wii. This simple fact is the wii has only had half a dozen games worth buying in the last year and a half. That number sucks, and the wii is shovelware central.
Evan @ Jun 24th 2008 3:15PM
@Grant
A half dozen games is plenty! Most people don't have time to play video games every evening, there are too many other things to do - families, relationships, sports, exercising, housework, yardwork.
elpmis @ Jun 24th 2008 10:10AM
Are gamers going to start acting like it matters if the console they own is profitable for the company a year and a half into production? My Wii prints money for Nintendo but I haven't turned it on in months. My PS3 on the other hands hasn't been turned off for quite some time (thanks to GTA4 and MGS4). And when I'm done with Metal Gear I'll probably pick up GRID and Bad Company. Unless you're investing in Sony stock, who cares - PS3 is fun to play.
elpmis @ Jun 24th 2008 10:10AM
blah - stupid dupe post
FOXHOUND @ Jun 24th 2008 10:13AM
Thankfully, they didn't go with the original E3 2006 proposed specs of 2 HDMI ports, 3 Ethernet ports and 6 USB ports and who-knows-what-else; the cost of not just manufacturing but its MSRP would be doubled... even to this day.
I still think for the current cost, it's a pretty good deal right out of the box... if you've got the money.
nightmare452 @ Jun 24th 2008 10:21AM
I believe it is a good deal. You have a point with all does feature that were supposed to come out originally.
I love my PS3, best DVD/Bluray player I have (the only DVD player I have now excluding my 360), although 3.3 Billion is a lot to make up for in say 5 years, seeing as consoles sales slow down considerably after two years plus (most core gamers already have one, so they shouldn't just buy a second one unless something catastrophic happens).
Korova *of the highlands* @ Jun 24th 2008 2:13PM
Its a good deal if you need the functionality right now.
If you dont, than keep the dough is a better deal.
Christian @ Jun 24th 2008 10:15AM
Be aware that fiscal reports are in some sense the opposite of marketing speak. The companies are legally bound to warn of all possible dangers and be very careful in their future projections. You usually find 'the truth' by averaging out the the marketing messages and the fiscal report language :)
nick @ Jun 24th 2008 11:08AM
You are correct! This is why I always look at the financials whenever they're made available. As a whole Sony has 10 Billion dollars worth of debt right now, which is where they were last September. Part of the problem is their movie business is underperforming. The PS2 is in decline. So the PS3 must step up.
WRE (PSN: WorstReviewEver; Gamertag: HaloKissesBoys; Wii Friend Code: 4204-4590-6106-3583) @ Jun 24th 2008 10:20AM
Syphon Filter 2? Ewww...
Mr.ESC @ Jun 24th 2008 10:25AM
To be honest I liked some Sf games like the ones that didn't sucked,you know the PSP ones.
Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 24th 2008 10:22AM
Well, cost of the console still hasn't seen a leveling off point but in other news, PS3 software sales saw nearly a 500% increase in the past fiscal year. The licensing costs does actually go towards leveraging the console and as software sales on PS3 do prove to be more viable with each passing month, this can help upturn the problem.
But on the other side, PS2 saw a significant drop in performance last year which means one of their reliable cash cows is coming dangerously close to being put out to pasture.
pavs @ Jun 24th 2008 10:38AM
WOW and people still hate sony... that just blows my mind.
How can you hate a company that takes such a loss in order to make its product more available to consumer. I understand if you dont like Playstation (I can't stand the Wii for example) but hating Sony is just absurd.
Nintendo and Microsoft would never take that hit. Sure MS lost a billion on RROD, but its their fault the system had it, and I;m sure they got their money back through LIVE fee (since they make at least half a billion a year from something that costs just a couple of million to maintain)
Sean @ Jun 24th 2008 11:07AM
Ummm... In total, Microsoft has lost a more that 3.32 billion since the original xbox came out. Microsoft also lost money when the 360 came out too so I fail to see your point about Sony being friends to the consumer. The consumer wouldn't buy the product at the original price so they had to lose even more money to bring down to a price point that consumers would buy.
Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo... they don't care about us. They just want our money. Buy the console becasue you want for its features and the games. Don't ever make the mistake that these giant corporations give a damn.
The PS3, 360, and Wii all are fun to play. Don't defend a company for their poor business decisions becasue you need to justify your purchase.
Korova *of the highlands* @ Jun 24th 2008 2:33PM
MS is down 7 bln over its 2 boxes.
Sony broke about even on PS2. Ninty is the one that made a killing last and this gen.
Also, praising Sony for selling PS3s away is like praising a drug dealer for giving away free crack. Both only do it to get you hooked in the hope of future profit. Fight naivete.
josh @ Jun 25th 2008 3:15AM
"Sony broke about even on PS2."
huh? Sony made huge wads of cash on it's PS2 business, especially if we are factoring in software (as i believe those xbox numbers do, right?) even without software, the PS2was vastly lucrative for sony...
Vcize @ Jun 24th 2008 10:24AM
Whether or not the PS3 loses money this generation is kind of irrelevant, since Blu-ray will likely make a ton of money (if they get their shit together and stop thinking that it's automatically going to replace DVD without dropping prices BEFOREHAND rather than after that happens) this gen, and the PS3 was a huge part of that.
arrrgh @ Jun 24th 2008 10:44AM
Why would they do that?
Look at all these kids buying blu ray just because it's out. Theyre stuffing money right into the companies pockets.
PERSONALLY I will wait until blu ray is ...you know..WORTH IT.
Until then, HD movies aren't enough of an improvement over upscaled DVDs to warrant me REbuying all the dvds I began collecting not too long ago
Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 24th 2008 10:54AM
I'm sorry, I don't know if this has been answered yet, but WHY is the assumption that you HAVE to rebuy all your DVD collection when you upgrade to BluRay? I never understood this concept. NEVER.
I mean, I have 300+ DVDs that still work. It's not like my 22 BluRays walk around at night rubbing sandpaper across my DVDs Data layers... but since I do now have BluRay, I'm buying new movies on the format or classic movies I never got around to buying.
So the excuse of "I don't want to rebuy all my movies" is bullshit. Upscaled DVDs look alright but true HD is glorious. There IS a difference there that's worth the little extra money. But I don't see a reason why I'm suddenly obligated to buy Super Troopers on BluRay. In fact, on many classic movies, it makes no sense to upgrade.