Damn, that's gotta hurt. Every time.
Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda said in their earning reports that the PS3's cost is still 10 percent higher than what we pay for it at retail. Quick math puts their loss at about $40. AndriaSang says that this figure is current as of the end of March. No wonder Sony is down a billion dollars for the year.
And here we are asking for a price drop. I don't think it's out of the question, though. Sony knows that they need to move more hardware to keep up. While Sony isn't fessing up, they do admit that costs of the PS3 will drop further.
I have an idea: cut out all of the unnecessary sh*t in the PS3. Cut out the card readers. Drop the shiny plate. Touch sensitive buttons? How much do those cost? Just make a little plastic box with a on switch and a flip-top disc tray. $200. Done.
[Via Joystiq]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
4:20 PM on 05.15.2009 | 
They shouldn't take more stuff now, its bad enough they took the retro compatibility. They should keep praying it sells poorly until their cheaper to produce. And don't do a freaking price drop, keep with the 10 year plan (don't have much choice anyway).
And the fact that Sony, and Microsoft for that matter, loses money for every console sold is nothing new. The main way they get their money back is through software sales and other sources, but mostly software. For every PS3 disc sold on the new market, Sony makes money. Consoles? Not so much.
Nintendo is really the only console manufacturer that is making any money with console sales. For every Wii they make roughly $50.
I guess they'll be able to relax once they have more 'Triple A'/popular games to sell alongside the console. God of War III might ease the financial pain a little.
- USB's are more than enough for data transfer, PS3 doesn't need card slots.
- Touch sensitivity could cost more or less, I was happy with the PS2/PS1 power buttons. Make a new SKU with removal of unnecessary components.
- Don't keep putting a bigger hard-drive every 6 months... Sony you are just wasting money here because I am still going to buy the 500gb+ HDD and replace it my self, let people buy the PS3 with 20GB and drop the price to $300.
- Instead of putting 2 games or even one, making it a bundle and selling it for $500, how about you put 1-2 PSN games for free and reduce $100 from it.
- I don't understand why at Launch there was the 20GB model and the cost was $400, if this same console was out now, it should cost below $300.
Sony could easily make stuff to fix this mistake of loosing money per console... I just don't know who is the idiot running the whole operation.
@RonBurgandy2010:
Where do you get that information? I thought it was a widely known fact that MS now makes money on their 360s, and the Wii was making $6 in December of 08. It's certainly not impossible that Nintendo is now making $50 off every Wii, but I can't imagine MS is now losing money again, especially with their Elites.
Last time I heard info like that was maybe over a year ago, and I think it was from EGM or something.
Actually, I think Sony has twice the amount of total assets than Microsoft has, so Sony is richer than Microsoft.
"Just keep making exclusive quality 1st party games and hopefully it will entice people to buy the console."
Yeah, because really worked for Nintendo on previous generations...
Also, this notion that consoles are sold at a loss is rather recent, and its rather risky.
If they made a move toward Fighters -which a weakness on the 360 due to the controller- they could make some headway. Offering the Kung Fu Dolls game free is a great start, a great way to get gamers used to playing fighters with their friends over PSN.
Cannibal the Musical reference?
@Swizzler:
That joke is about as funny as the pathetic overlord and "does it blend" statements. Give the "GC + GC + duct tape = Wii" bullshit a rest.
Are all of the editors on dtoid completely ignorant of PS3 or is there a magical portal page that I'm missing where someone shows some knowledge? More than anything I'd say the misinformation about the system is what is hurting it. Well that and the ridiculous price point it launched at.
But given that you can pretty regularly get one for $300 and it plays all the cross platform games as well as having superior exclusives there is really no reason not to own one. Also, and I'm sure this will shock all the fools who are still surprised at the incompetence of microsoft, you don't have to worry constantly about a PS3 breaking.
I can't believe Sony's really losing that much money, but I am really happy that it's built well. I'm sure they're making a bunch back on software titles.
buy it, walk away real fast, and DON'T look a gift horse in the mouth.
Manudacturers phase out smaller sizes and keeping them in production when larger sizes an be made at the same cost doesn't make any sense for a large hardware company. it costs Sony nothing to increase those sizes over time and increases the value proposition to the consumer.
The only thing they can really do to decrease costs at this point is continue to shrink the die (which also decreases power consumption and heat, which is why current PS3s aren't vented on all sides like my 60) and increase volume.
Which a price cut would probably help with, but enough to make up the difference? I doubt it. They'd need to change the media narrative considerably to do that, which we're already seeing happen but who knows how long that will take.
I'm still amazed how lopsided the coverage is given the strengths of the platform and the unbelievable failure rates of the 360.
I guess it's just too cool to hate Sony these days. Real shame because PS3 is a fantastic device.
this goes beyond captain obvious.
we knew this, they knew this, why are we bitching about it AGAIN?
I'm sorry you feel like you know everything but it would IN FACT cost Sony less if they stopped increasing the hard drive size with every new SKU.
The PS3 uses standard old laptop drives which VERY obviously can be bought cheaper if they are smaller drives. I believe the drive in the PS3 is just a standard Seagate drive (at least I think my 20gb was) which Sony obviously does not make themselves. How can anyone think that a 120gb drive would cost less than an 80gb drive? That makes no sense.
And I hardly think this is a Sony hate article. If anything, it just makes me feel sorry for Sony and hope they pull something out of their ass and soon. My PS3 is my favorite system and I wish a lot more people had one so they could enjoy it as much as I do.
And for the guy who uses SD cards to watch movies on their PS3:
Why?
A USB stick is cheaper, more universally compatible, and available in larger sizes. And if you're so inclined, you can even set your PS3 up as a media server and stream all of your video/music directly off of you PC so long as both are connected to the internet. This functionality is BUILT IN to both the PS3 and Windows Media Player FOR FREE.
It's bullshit like this that makes me think that 90% of PS3sers are twats.
Stop dragging your console through the mud. Get over your persecution complexes, and just happily play some quality games on your - very good, but not 'better enough to re-capture the lead' - system.