On the heels of more bad news (rumours of only 200,000 for US launch) those analysts at Merrill Lynch, who so kindly estiamted the cost of production for ps3 has even more doom and gloom to bestow on sony -

http://ce.seekingalpha.com/article/20369

FISCO news service of Japan reported on the ML analyst report. Details of the downward revised financials were not provided.

Target share price revision: ¥4,700 --> ¥4,000 ($40.05 --> $34.09 at ¥117.35/US$1)

Total PS3 operating loss expected over 5 years: ¥738.9 billion ($6.3 billion at ¥117.35/US$1)

CAn anyone find some good news (its just becoming sad now) for sony, i mean come on! Anyone? Oh well.

In 5 years, also expect to see Tech demos for the next X-box, it' s
unavoidable.

Sony can' t survive another 5 years of losses... they simply can' t. Unless they start making profits in the next year or two the company is literally going under completely.

CAn anyone find some good news (its just becoming sad now) for sony, i mean come on! Anyone? Oh well.

The good news for Sony is that there' s a vast majority of people who don' t pay any attention to the kinds of behind-the-scenes pre-launch information that all of us are obsessive about. In fact, according to a recent survey, there' s a huge percentage of current-gen console owners who are blissfully unaware of the PS3' s steep pricetag.

A new report from analyst firm Compete has surveyed U.S. consumer demand surrounding the upcoming PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles, revealing continuing discrepancies between public concepts of the PS3' s pricing and reality.

According to Compete’s October 2006 survey of active current-generation console gamers, almost half (48%) of those considering a PS3 expect it to cost less than $300.

Furthermore, according to the same article, even though over half of consumers who were informed of the actual price of the PS3 thought it was overpriced, PS2 owners are apparently more loyal to the Playstation brand than Gamecube owners are loyal to Nintendo' s console. Read the article here.

blissfully unaware ?!?! boy are they infor a shock!! LOL

Well this is a small vision of hope compared to the catastrophe this article paints for sony.

loyalty matter little compared to the bottom line, and if this estimate of a US$6.3 billion dollar operating loss is true, this news is just rubbing salt on the gapping wounds blu ray and ps3 has (self) inflicted on sony.

I know you were trying hard to find some really good news for sony so kudos for the attempt

people are forgeting that PS2 hardware and software sales are still keeping sonys neck above the water.

Sony' s biggest problem with regards to the PS3 is that they won' t be able to produce them fast enough. Even if they lose a lot of marketshare I don' t think they' ll be in a position where they won' t recouperate their loses.

ORIGINAL: Terrak

On the heels of more bad news (rumours of only 200,000 for US launch) those analysts at Merrill Lynch, who so kindly estiamted the cost of production for ps3 has even more doom and gloom to bestow on sony -

http://ce.seekingalpha.com/article/20369

FISCO news service of Japan reported on the ML analyst report. Details of the downward revised financials were not provided.

Target share price revision: ¥4,700 --> ¥4,000 ($40.05 --> $34.09 at ¥117.35/US$1)

Total PS3 operating loss expected over 5 years: ¥738.9 billion ($6.3 billion at ¥117.35/US$1)

CAn anyone find some good news (its just becoming sad now) for sony, i mean come on! Anyone? Oh well.

Just barely... you forget they' only made 6% this fiscal year compared to the last fiscal year and have taken out several multimillion and billion dollar loans just to stay afloat. Sony has no money. They are in so much debt at this point they can' t recover. Their money is all coming from game sales (before the PS3) and huge loans. Loans are money they don' t actually have... they are spending other people' s money...

Rampage i asked for some good news for sony!

Not the pits of hell truth (LOL)

ORIGINAL: Terrak

Rampage i asked for some good news for sony!

Not the pits of hell truth (LOL)

Sorry... uh, Heavenly Sword looks cool!

ORIGINAL: Rampage99

ORIGINAL: Terrak

Rampage i asked for some good news for sony!

Not the pits of hell truth (LOL)

Sorry... uh, Heavenly Sword looks cool!

Wasn' t that just recently delayed to next year? Oh well close enough!!

I just can' t see the playstation division surviving something like this. 6.3 billion dollars? How can they start on the next playstation, or they really serious about letting the system survive for 10 years? I don' t know, i though it would be bad for sony, but never this bad

To add to that PS3' s Backwards Compatability is taking a hit...with only....wait a sec. the article disappeared...I wonder if Sony is trying to cover something up. If someone can find the article where it is confirmed that the PS3' s software is having problems emulating the PS2/PS1 I would be grateful :)

I think they' re gambling everything on Blu-Ray becoming the dominant HD disc format. They' ll rake in massive amounts of money if every movie studio is paying them licensing fees for using the disc technology they developed.

But I think they' ve really shoe-horned that technology, along with Cell, into the game system. Sony was very successful with the first two Playstations regardless of the fact that they weren' t the most advanced/powerful systems. They' ve really changed up their strategy with this generation by aiming for the high end. Haven' t they ever heard " if it ain' t broke, don' t fix it" ?

Having said all that, I still think the PS3 is going to be a success, I just don' t think it' s going to be the far-and-away market leader. I think by 2008 we' ll see a market more similar to the 16-bit era.

ORIGINAL: Alecrein

To add to that PS3' s Backwards Compatability is taking a hit...with only....wait a sec. the article disappeared...I wonder if Sony is trying to cover something up. If someone can find the article where it is confirmed that the PS3' s software is having problems emulating the PS2/PS1 I would be grateful :)

Here you go -

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/LptjwE2XXtpC0h/Sonys-PS3-Not-Playing-Some-Older-Games.xhtml

That was it. Thanks Terrak.

ORIGINAL: Zoy

I think they' re gambling everything on Blu-Ray becoming the dominant HD disc format. They' ll rake in massive amounts of money if every movie studio is paying them licensing fees for using the disc technology they developed.

The problem is pretty much every studio dropped BluRay and went to HD-DVD because they though it was better and is also FAR cheaper to produce. It still costs less than a dollar for movie companies to produce stuff on HD-DVDs since they just have to slightly modify their current machinery.

BluRay costs around $15 a pop from what I hear which cause a HUGE loss in profits for anyone using the medium. Even for games. I mean think about it... for every game that' sold 25% of the money paid for the game is disolved into the cost of just using the disc. That is pissing of a lot of publishers right now. For movies it' s no different. We' ll be seeing a big drop in HD-DVD prices on the horizon but with BluRay it will take much longer for them to start dropping the price.

people are forgeting that PS2 hardware and software sales are still keeping sonys neck above the water.

How long do you think it will do that? And if the average gamer thinks the PS3 only costs around 300$ and they found out its actually 500, or 600, i think a lot might just skip it and go for one of the two solutions that actually does only cost 300!

Sony can' t survive another 5 years of losses... they simply can' t. Unless they start making profits in the next year or two the company is literally going under completely.

Most of sonys profits doesn' t come from videogames. Maybe the Playstation won' t survive but Sony will.

people are forgeting that PS2 hardware and software sales are still keeping sonys neck above the water.

Everyone that wants a ps2 pretty much has one, its not gonna be selling for long. Most ps2' s selling now are from ps2 failure and expired warentys

ORIGINAL: JalleNalle

Sony can' t survive another 5 years of losses... they simply can' t. Unless they start making profits in the next year or two the company is literally going under completely.

Most of sonys profits doesn' t come from videogames. Maybe the Playstation won' t survive but Sony will.

What are you talking about?! The only thing making Sony profits is the game department! The PS2 is literally the only thing keeping them afloat along with massive loans. They have been loosing massive amounts of money in the rest of their departments. The PS3 is a last ditch effort by Sony to stay alive.