blowstiq

Digitimes article has already been thoroughly discredited:

from "systems@digitimes.com" 9:34 pm (10 hours ago)
to ******@gmail.com
date May 7, 2007 9:34 PM
subject Re: Production cost of PS3 could be cut by US$100
mailed-by digitimes.com

Dear *******,

Thanks for pointing this out. This was an inadvertent error on our part and the article has been corrected accordingly.

Thank you for your continued support of DIGITIMES.


You wrote:
This is bogus. $0 for extra components for the Elite? So where's the cost for the included headset, HDMI cable, controller, etc? $6.10 for assembly - who's kidding who?
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And they still have NOT corrected the information regarding "Other components". Gee, I wonder why not, when they say they have. And I wonder why the title of the table still says "PS3 and Xbox 360 Elite", but the column heading says "Xbox 360 (20GB hard drive version)".

@#24: "Making a profit on each console sold isn't equal to turning a profit on the brand as a whole."

Read the article. Bach is stating pretty definitively that they are still NOT making a profit on each console, and that they're still trying to get their cost down to the point where they will. Once that happens, the console itself can be "revenue neutral", and they'll supposedly be in "profit" land.

As #23 and others have pointed out, this pretty much squashes those wishful speculations of a couple of months ago, that they were no longer losing money making consoles. And I eagerly await MS releasing ANY information on the number of defective units they're having to replace, as clearly this is a HUGE number, and represents a huge cost.

The one place they're not able to hide this number is in the division's financials. Isn't it obvious?: if the console was already at break-even, then surely they'd be in the black, given that all that XBL revenue and all the other micro-transactions have got to be taking in more money than they cost.

@Ken (61 & 76):

Thanks for answering my question: you really are that dumb, apparently.

"You're saying that they're including the 80GB HDDs just to cut costs, but where's a press release where Sony says that."

That's my point exactly, DUMAS! You and every other wailing fanboy crying about getting "fucked" don't even know if this will be something Sony gives to consumers at the same price, just to lower their manufacturing costs. Why don't YOU just wait until you see something officially in stores before starting to whine? Granted, that may not be as much fun for you, but at least you wouldn't make yourself look like such a douchebag.

Hell, if Sony wants to throw in newer and better components, and keep the system cost the same or lower, then it's a win-win. I won't feel obligated to run out and buy the new system, but bully for those who come after me.

Since you indicate you're a 360 owner, I'd save your venom for Microsoft for constantly changing your system's specs, and jacking the price up.

@61: Are you that dumb, or just willfully playing ignorant?

Sony is hardly forcing an "upgrade" on anyone. If they are indeed putting a larger hard drive in the system to lower their production costs, and the price remains the same or decreases (which we DO NOT KNOW YET), then that's in no way a negative for consumers.

Compare this to what Microsoft is doing in changing significantly the system specification, and expecting people to pay MORE for it, or duct-taping on external "upgrades" like an HD-DVD player. Here, I can fully understand someone being upset that the supposedly locked-down technology of a console keeps changing.

Christ almighty. What is it about Joystiq posters, that they can't resist the temptation to deliberately mis-characterize every single statment that someone from Sony makes?

While they have submitted certain paperwork which would be required by the FCC in advance of any change to the PS3, that did not irrevocably commit them to introducing the modified product. Therefore, if they stated that they had no definitive plans to do so, there's no reason not to take that at face value.

Likewise, now that they've issued a statement saying that they're "considering" doing so, that does not in any way conflict with previously having no concrete plans to do so.

Yet, Tony Carnevale characterizes this as a "reversal", and Sony Attack Squadron Alpha assembles to dance with giddy glee. Tony: you're not really Blake Snow, are you? This is the sort of thing he delighted in doing regularly, but we haven't heard much from him lately.

No reason to worry here. I'm sure Microsoft is already hard at work on the "Xtreme" edition, and maybe it'll have a full digital signal path and a blu-ray player built in - heck, maybe even WiFi.

Certainly, all the same fans who are going to snatch up the Elite will be only too happy to buy the Xtreme in a few months time. You've gotta hand it to Microsoft: release mediocre product and sucker customers into a never ending cycle of "upgrades"; a business plan that's already let them amass a huge fortune.

You guys DO know what's coming next, right? The black, external, blu-ray player with HDMI out for $300.

Hold ono your wallets, as MS is basically saying there are more iterations to come:

"we can make offerings that we can change and move within the context of the Core system. So over the next two or three years I think, yes, we’re in an evolutionary stage"

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=23859

What surprises me most is that people would be ... surprised. What did you honestly expect from a company that's made its vast fortune by releasing mediocre product, then numbing consumers into paying for an endless cycle of "upgrades"?