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Sony Finally Turning a Profit On PS3s

Posted by Soulskill on from the catching-up-with-moore dept.

When the PS3 launched in 2006, estimates pegged the price of producing the consoles to be as much as $250 more than the price at which they were sold. Production costs have dropped since then, but there have been several price cuts as well. Now, almost four years later, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida says they're finally turning a profit on the hardware. "This year is the first time that we are able to cover the cost of the PlayStation 3,' Yoshida said. 'We aren't making huge money from hardware, but we aren't bleeding like we used to.' In May, Sony began shipping new PlayStation 3 consoles with smaller and more cost-effective graphics chips. Now, Yoshida said, Sony is looking at replenishing retail stock that has been running on empty since January rather than cutting the price. 'When we bring the cost of hardware down, we are looking at opportunities to adjust prices if we believe that will increase demand,' he explained. 'At the moment, we are trying to catch up our production.'"

8 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Why cut prices? by CaptainNerdCave · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why not return the features that were removed? Why not add more features? I was going to buy a PS3, but scrapped those plans when several things went out the window. How many other people are like me?

    A cheaper turd is still a turd.

    1. Re:Why cut prices? by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Features such as PS2 backward compatibility. I'd mention Linux but, frankly, the backward compatibility is the big one.

      Funny that they don't mention dropping hardware for PS2 games. Wikipedia says they don't even emulate anymore. Guess that saves them some time and money too.

    2. Re:Why cut prices? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Informative

      I think that it's a simple software feature that they removed once they saw that there was still demand for new PS2 consoles.

      It wasn't software emulation at all at first, and it was never all software emulation. The very first PS3s actually had what amounted to a PS2 built into them (hardware compatible PS3s were never sold at all in Europe). Then they eliminated the most of that hardware and covered it up with software emulation (which resulted in the PS2 emulation breaking with some PS2 games). Then they eliminated the rest of it and told folks, "Want a PS2? Buy a PS2." PS3 models that were built to emulate PS2s still do; it's just Sony hasn't manufactured PS3s that do that for years now.

    3. Re:Why cut prices? by Narishma · · Score: 4, Informative

      You can see the evidence if you open a PS3 with PS2 backwards compatibility, and one without and compare their motherboards (or go to a website that does that sort of thing). Then you'll see that the newer ones don't have the PS2 chips. PS2 emulation on PS3 always relied on PS2 hardware inside the PS3. At first it had both the CPU and GPU, then they removed the CPU and emulated it on the Cell processor but left the GPU in there. Finally they removed the GPU so it wasn't possible to run PS2 games anymore. I don't think the PS3 is powerful enough to emulate PS2 games at full speed in software.

      --
      Mada mada dane.
  2. Nintendo says... by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 4, Funny

    "What's that?! Speak up! I can't hear you from this giant pool of money I'm swimming like Scrooge McDuck!"

    1. Re:Nintendo says... by Troed · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Handy tip for those who don't know: Add #t=XXmYYs to any Youtube link to jump directly to that timestamp.

      The above AC link would become http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vouJTvrpHGQ#t=3m30s - and you can thus easier see how non-funny it was.

      --
      it's in my head
  3. And just in time! by Psaakyrn · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now, they can start not making a profit again when they ship Move!

  4. Has the console arms race ended for now? by mykos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I remember the 90s being full of consoles:
    3DO, Dreamcast, Saturn, PS1, Atari Jaguar, N64, Philips CD-i, in addition to existing ones like Genesis/SegaCD/32x and SNES which were in the prime of their lives in the early 90s.
    Now the 360 has been out for five years and the PS3 has been out for four. Neither company seems interested in making new hardware anymore, which is understandable since they lost so much money working out the bugs. But it seems that nobody wants to one-up the other anymore.
    Rather than pursue hardware that is clearly superior to their competitor (as many attempted in the 90s), they just blow money purchasing exclusives.