PlayStation 3 'unlikely to break even'
According to research from surveying firm DFC Intelligence, Sony is unlikely to break even on the PlayStation 3.
According to Gamasutra, who were covering a report given by DFC Intelligence at the Game On Finance even in the US, Sony is likely to lose a huge amount of money on the PlayStation 3 even when game sales and licensing payouts are factored in.
"Sony has the most to lose with this current generation," said DFC's Senior Technology Analyst Wanda Meloni.
Current predictions for sales of the PlayStation 3 show it only carving out around 40 to 50 percent of the games market compared to the 67 percent held by the PlayStation 2 at the height of its success.
Particularly telling were the latest financial results for Sony's Games Division, which showed that losses had been cut to 'just' $405 million USD (£245 million GBP) in the last three months of this year. In the same three months of last year the Game Division lost more than double that.
That said, PlayStation 3 sales are slowly on the rise thanks to the success of the Blu-Ray format in the overly-dramatic sounding Format Wars. Sales results show that in the last three months Sony has shipped more than 2.43 million units, which is again more than double that of the same period last year.
Do you own a PlayStation 3, or do your console allegiances lie else where? Let us know in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyThat and you dont have to deal with people on xbox live.
you realize you dont need a 40"+ screen to notice HD like so many people suggest?
you got an fairly new lcd computer monitor? use hdmi>dvi adpater and youre good to go.
people dont know what they are talking about when they say you cant notice the difference under 40" or so.
but you are right, the PS4 will do much better profit wise. Im sure they will use the Cell chip again along with BluRay. PS3 has caused the manufacturing costs of those to go down so when PS4 comes out it wont sell for a loss as long as the PS3 will.
Very true. The average player age on PS3 is quite a bit higher as its more expensive so that means very few 12 years screaming into the mic trying to hit on older men pretending to be girls.
As a business student I don't see how the PS3 and Xbox 360 are 'apples and oranges' - they're very much direct competitors in the sense that they both target the same customer - console gamers. They each have their unique selling perspectives but as it stands for those who would have either/or but just want any console that plays good games, they're probably going to go (and with good reason considering the cost and range of games etc.) with the xbox 360.
The thing with the PS3 though is it has a submarket of customers who buy specifically for the bluray compatibility which obviously the xbox doesn't have, so if you factor that in the cost may not be so significantly higher than the xbox for the utility you get - but to the core market that makes little difference, they'll get the best bang for buck and console gamers are generally more concerned about games than bluray.
My 2p.
It's a profile 2.0 blu-ray player with a network jack, upgradable over the internet and usb port for storage. Frickin bargain actually. Probably the 60GB of the 360. I've seen that for £140
.. that blu-ray player is £170 normally, there was a 'one day only' deal at Lasksy for £130.
But it's still possible to spend less than a PS3 and get all those features.
So if you offline game you save.
It's a hidden charge almost. and if you have xbox live access for 7 years (the approximate lifespan of the console) that's another 245 quid subscription at least 245 + 170 = 415
(PS: I am still of the firm belief that most counter strike players have the average IQ of half a brick)
if it ever comes out,
i used ot be adie hard playstation fan ive had allgeneration of the last 2, and the PSP, but im so dissapointed with their putting gamesback i've given up, mainly Gran Turismo portable, that was supposed ot be released about a month after PSP origional launch, and then got shelved for GT5 and now rumoured to be back on after GT5 which IIRC is massivly delayed.
i bought a Wii only to keep my G/F happy i honestly thought it was a "gimmick" but now ive got some games that relly captued me and the controls feel natural, i would like a 360, but im not a big fan of FPS (i know there are other games)and the only game that really looksgood is Forza 2, and i cant wait for Forza 3, i may by a 360 then
Currently I have a 21" CRT TV and a 19" monitor @ 1440 x 900.
It's not that it looks worse per se, it's that the perceived quality gets worse the further you sit away from a screen. So this in turn means that when sitting at a constant distance from a screen, the percieved quality gets worse as the TV gets smaller. If you are sitting within 4ft of a 32" 1080p TV, you will be seeing all of the 1080p goodness. If not, you won't. It's just how our eyes work.
http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html
In short the war is still:
Wii - for family/friends/party playing.
PS3 - Media Center, High Grahpic gaming, many new games coming atm.
360 - Hugh number of games.
Most 3rd party titles do not take advantage of the PS3's architecture and of course it makes sense (if you don't like Sony's 1st party titles) to buy a 360 and hope that you don't spend just as much in accessories/peripherals/extra features....