Next-Gen reports that Sony has managed to make a significant improvement in cutting losses in its videogame division.

The Nikkei article, via Reuters, points out that Sony’s PlayStation unit posted an operating loss of 232 billion yen for the year ended March 2007, mainly due to PlayStation 3 start-up costs. That loss is reportedly set to be slashed by 100 billion yen when the company reports its full year earnings on May 14.

This is a big improvement, but still has them in the red this fiscal year for approximately JPY 130 billion (US$1.5 billion, or 636 million British Pounds). Ironically, this would place their two-year losses at about... ulp... 360 billion. But in all likelihood on track to turn a profit this next year. Their quarterly reports show them already making a profit:

During the third-quarter Sony’s PlayStation division sales grew 31.2 percent year-on-year to 581.2 billion yen, setting a new quarterly record. The unit reported operating income of 12.9 billion yen, compared to an operating loss of 54.2 billion yen during the same quarter the previous year, “primarily due to a significant decrease in the operating losses of the PS3 business as a result of successful PS3 hardware cost reductions”.

The article goes on to state that Sony' s overall operating profit has increased, largely driven by digital camera sales, although it' s expected to come in short of their projections by JPY 30 billion.

I' m glad they' re finally climbing back into the saddle. It' s about time.

PSthree...

At least the reason they lost so much money(ps3) is also the reason they won the format war.

I just can' t wait until I have some games to start playing on mine. I will re-iterate however that I would play it a lot more if I didn' t buy all my multiplatform games for the shitbox. Yes, I call it the shitbox now, because the more I use it(which is a lot), the more I realize how horribly made it is. Good thing I still love it.

Yeah me too, i want to play games on the PS3, i just dont know which games to get for it.
Maybe Haze if its any good.

ORIGINAL: Vx Chemical

Maybe Haze if its any good.

No.

No.

Not even if its good?

One has to wonder how this experience might affect future decisionmaking in console design. All right, the PS3 was a sort of Trojan horse to establish Blu-Ray, and to reduce the cost of the Cell chip. But now that it' s becoming a profitable platform in its own right, it has a hole to climb out of that' s over $3 billion dollars deep. M$ has had its own major problems with build quality and replacing broken consoles.

Nintendo, on the other hand, was making money from day one with each Wii sold. Personal taste aside, wouldn' t it be better business for Sony and M$ to play it much safer in the next generation of consoles? Hmmm...

One has to wonder how this experience might affect future decisionmaking in console design. All right, the PS3 was a sort of Trojan horse to establish Blu-Ray, and to reduce the cost of the Cell chip. But now that it' s becoming a profitable platform in its own right, it has a hole to climb out of that' s over $3 billion dollars deep. M$ has had its own major problems with build quality and replacing broken consoles.

Nintendo, on the other hand, was making money from day one with each Wii sold. Personal taste aside, wouldn' t it be better business for Sony and M$ to play it much safer in the next generation of consoles? Hmmm...

I think everything will balance out. I doubt Sony and MS will want to compete against Nintendo for the low end. Even if one of them did go that route, the ' hardcore' will be left wide open. One of them has to aim high end. I can see MS continue in the same direction. I' m less sure about Sony.

I' m still confident that both will offer a decent upgrade over current tech.