Sony's woes continue

[noxibox]

How much can they drop the price? How many games per console do they need to sell to recoup their current loss?

 

[GavinMannion]

The rumour is a $100 price drop and I would guess 10 games per console at the current loss. But that is over the entire life time of the console remember.

last I heard they where losing $230 per console, so if they make $20 per game, which seems excessive, it will take 12 games per console.

 

[arf9999]

The rumour is a $100 price drop and I would guess 10 games per console at the current loss. But that is over the entire life time of the console remember.

last I heard they where losing $230 per console, so if they make $20 per game, which seems excessive, it will take 12 games per console.

The $230 number was one sucked out of an "analyst"'s thumb. Since much of the hardware of the pS3 is produced internally, it is very difficult to get a real number... but I'm sure they're bleeding heavily.

Also remember that a significant portion of the costs associated with PS3 are start-up costs which will be spread over the first portion of the consoles produced - likely the first 1 or 2 year's production (let's say 8-10 million for sake of argument). Their costs drop considerably as soon as that quantity is reached. In addition the move to reduced material costs (no integrated PS2 hardware, 65nm chipset, economies of scale for Blu-ray drive), and rationalisation of product line up (dropping of 20GB model) will further drop their costs going forward. So the target for attachment for games is probably around 5 games per unit to break even...(this was the level for PS2 at launch as I remember). edit: i'm guessing like an analyst here

Sony Computer Entertainment might have made a royal f#ckup of the PS3 launch, but it is unwise to underestimate Sony. Reading the financial results, the business actually looks good with two exceptions: PS3 (and the losses are not because of slow sales or costs, but rather because it was late) and the battery recall (all the future estimated costs for the recall have been accounted for in the accounting period). They claim that the bad news is over... we'll wait & see.

 

[GavinMannion]

It's all rumours and here say I agree....

However since sales of the PS3 are now slowing while the Wii and 360 are still increasing I just don't see the light at the end of the PS3 tunnel yet.