Sony has made its annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - and it makes for terrifying reading. Since its launch in 2006, PS3 has apparently lost the company $3.3bn - the inevitable consequence of selling the machine below (maybe even well below) cost price for the last two years. The report refers to this as 'strategic pricing'.
Here's the bit everyone's quoting:
Even if Sony is able to sufficiently recoup its investment, significant negative impact on Sony's operating results could occur during the introductory period of the platform. Further, even if the platform is ultimately successful, it may take longer than expected to recoup the investment, resulting in a negative impact on Sony's profitability.
[Deep breath]... on the positive side, PS3 software sales increased from 44.6 million to 57.9 million units within the fiscal year, with the PSP on a surprisingly good 55.5 million units and good old PlayStation 2 on 13.73 million units.
Of course, the problem now is that Sony is going to have to claw back that money on videogame and Blu-ray movie sales - in the midst of an economic downturn. Gulp.
