PS3 Hardware May Finally Be Profitable in 09; Price Cut Possible?
December 23rd, 2008 | Written by Gabriel Rumbaut | Topic: PlayStation 3, Rumors
Though the PlayStation 3 hardware has pretty much been bleeding money from the start, a fall in production costs may finally allow Sony to break even, or even turn a profit, on every PS3 console sold in 2009. This may give them the means to provide consumers with a much-needed price cut on the most expensive console on the market.
According to a recent Business Week article, Sony is still suffering a loss of about $49 per console. While this is a rather large loss, especially when compared to the profits being made by some of the other game companies, it is nevertheless a vast improvement from the losses sustained in 2006. Back then, the basic PS3 model cost Sony $805 to produce, and was sold for $499. A reduction in production prices since then has allowed Sony to produce the console for $448.73, and sell it for $399.
If this trend continues, better hardware and the integration of cheaper parts will reduce this loss even more in 2009, thus removing the final obstacle to a price cut. Whether or not Sony will take advantage has yet to be seen, but considering the low prices of the Wii and the Xbox 360, they’d be foolish not to.
Source: Teardown of Sony’s PlayStation 3
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Comment by JacobS on the December 24th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
It looks like the PS3 is stagnating quite a bit this holiday. It's difficult to tell your consumers to get two jobs in order to afford your product when many people can't even find one. I don't know how much money Microsoft is losing (they're really trying hard to sell the 360 to families), but it's a much more attractive offer. When many companies are trying to trim down, Sony set themselves up bad with this recession.
Comment by Danreb V. on the December 26th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Being last to release their console really put Sony in a bad spot. Last generation, Microsoft battered the rest because of the extreme size of their console and the fact that it could simply do more than anything else–then Xbox Live came along, causing all sorts of gamers to bust a nut.
I thought the E3 we just got through would allow Sony to find some sort of momentum, but all they did was give us announcements to make us scoff. No more backward compatibility with the PS2? A fake price drop? Final Fantasy XIII going to the Xbox 360 as well?
Unless this is a HUGE price drop, I don't think anybody is gonna care. After Black Friday, I'm pretty sure owners of Xbox 360's have doubled.
Comment by TheForgotten0ne on the December 27th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Sony really need to make a price cut, if they don't do that, then they will fall behind. They will lose, they have to understand that the average person will have troubles buying their console with the current price!