In before the lock.

From Kotaku:

I think it would be sad if this was locked, since there really isn't any console "bashing" and a decent discussion on numbers.

That said, is Sony still estimated to be losing money on each PS3 or is it even now?

I wouldn't say good, but definitely better than the competition...

I assume the SFIV LE sales were also tracked separately? I'd think the PS3 LE was a lot more attractive, with the Ryu figure and the movie on Blu.

Ah, console bashing, it never gets old.

See, some of us are you videogames, in general, fanboys. Some of us even have the three consoles, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. So if we "attack" the Wii is not for fanboyism, is because we bought it early when it was released and haven't played it a lot.
For me, the PS3 and Xbox are almost the same, if you have both some people would prefer one over the other. In my case it's the Xbox 360, why? Maybe because it was first released and I got used to Xbox live, Live Friends, Achievements, etc. I haven't had any issues with it, no RRODs, no nothing. And yeah, I got it in release date.

The quote from Sony doesn't make sense since they've been reported to been losing close to $300 per console at the beginning while the Wii has been profitable from day one. Considering the PS3 has dropped $200, and the Wii is the same price, means the spread is even bigger now.

Hype, for one, and price, for other. For nearly a year the price of the PS3 was almost 2.5 times the price of the Wii.
That being said, PS3 buyers paid nearly 2.5 times more than Wii buyers for their console of choice, but when came to quantity, it was just one console of each.
I'm sure the amount of impulse/regret purchases is a lot higher with the Wii than with the other 2 consoles combined (This is where "Hype" comes in)

I have all consoles this generation. I will always complain about the load times and large forced hard drive installs on the PS3, until they fix it for the majority of games (Killzone II was a good step). I'll complain about the d-pad and RRODs on the 360. The lack of games I want to play on the Wii, as well as forced motion controls. The lack of games overall on the PSP. And, uh, well, I love my DS (I guess my only "complaint" is that the majority of games I love on it don't really use or need the stylus, and a bunch are mainly ports of games from previous generations). I think I've gotten enough enjoyment at this point out of all five of the systems that if they went under tomorrow, the initial cost would've still been worth it to me. But hey, I'm an equal opportunity basher. I think I would've been happy if we had been stuck with the GBA and the PS2 for a few more years.

Ocelot, I think the reason your post got so many replies is because you basically say it doesn't matter, but then you strongly reinforce your opinion that the PS3 is the best and the others are garbage. So you're saying "other people may sound like they're making personal attacks, but they're really not... by the way, here are some more non-attacks, PS3 rules, music games suck."

BTW, GOWIII will save the PS3. If not, I predict Blasto II.

You can't take in consideration just the price.
Remember that when the PS3 and Xbox 360 were released they were losing money with each console. So you have to discount that. The Wii has had a profit since it was released. I'm talking just about hardware here.
The other part is software. The one Microsoft likes to talk a lot. The famous "software attach ratio", or something like that, that of course is, or was, higher for the Xbox and really low for the Wii and PS3.

When Peggle is released in the PS3 everything will change forever.

Wasn't it the relative profitability of the gamecube console key to allowing Nintendo to be successful that generation, even if it was largely thought of as the neglected stepbrother of the other two consoles? I'm sure high attachment rates of 1st party games helped as well.

If that many people regretted their Wii purchases, it seems like word of mouth would cause sales to slow instead of accelerate. Maybe those people are disgruntled and want their friends and family to also feel ripped off?

The simple fact is, all of the console makers have done some things right and fucked other things up this generation. Nintendo's kicking ass and Sony is in the last position it wanted or expected to be in. In terms of market share, Microsoft is probably about exactly where it thought it would be, but I'm guessing the folks there are pleasantly surprised to find that Nintendo & Sony have flipped positions.

Also, your price-to-quantity-sold is a great illustration of how Sony's fucked itself in the ass so far this generation. They misjudged the market and made a product too expensive to provide the kind of sales they want and need. The margins on consoles are always slim (or sometimes nonexistent) because companies tend to rely on software sales to drive overall profits. A smaller install base of consoles is harmful to a company because it limits that complementary revenue, which is where the lion's share of profits comes from. It's nonsensical to say 'but PS3 owners were willing to spend 2.5x the money of Wii owners!', when you realize that Sony would much rather dominate the market than have a minority of people willing to pay for their product. Sony saying that they're pursuing console profitability instead of market share is a laughably idiotic lie. On top of needing a large install base to boost software sales, the PS3 is their 'trojan horse' to foster acceptance of blu-ray. The last thing they want is the smallest piece of their industry's pie.

I bet if you did get trophies for it, you'd agree with them.

I think their biggest mistake outside of price is letting the PS2 thrive for so long. Sure it helps the bottom line overall, but those people Sony wants to upgrade aren't going to do so when you keep last gen alive for so long. They are competing against themselves for retail space. So in that year or two that PS2 continued to thrive, the competition got a giant head start.

Granted the PS2 is an anomaly, but you don't see Xbox or GCN titles when you go into Target. MS & Nintendo want you to focus on the new consoles. They should have slowly phased out the PS2 last year.

I think Sony has managed to cut costs so that the PS3 is actually slightly profitable for them at this point.

Yeah, good point. The PS2 success affected PS3 sales in the first couple of years.

Yeah, that's definitely another mistake. It was more understandable two years ago. The fact that they released and promoted a limited edition Lego Batman PS2 late last year is just bizarre. It might make them a little more money in the short term, but it's definitely going to cost them down the road.

Japanese companies are STILL making PS2 games (and pretty good ones at that). I'm not sure what Sony could have done to curb that... tell them screw you, start porting stuff over to the PS3 or else? I still contend that Disgaea 3 would've worked just as well as a PS2 game. Maybe Microsoft's limited backward compatibility really turned out to help them (considering that any domestic maker of Xbox games would have been essentially locked out of the current gen of consoles unless they had friends on the backward compatibility team)

It could've been worse for Sony... I can't imagine what would have happened if the consoles all launched in the past year and a half. Telling people to get a second job if they want to afford your console would go over even worse in the current economy.

I wonder if Sony's original plan was to keep backwards compatibility in the PS3 and drop the PS2 completely. When initial sales were bad (meaning the profitable game sales were also bad) they had to scramble to cut costs, dropping the backwards compatibility and keep the PS2 still alive.

Do GCN titles w/ waggle count?

I agree with the sentiment that until Sony lowers the price on the PS3, it will continue to flounder. Regardless of the great value you get in the PS3, it doesn't mean anything when you are the highest priced console on the market. I mean 400 bucks is not an easy thing to blow in this economy.

Also improve your advertising Sony. Besides the Killzone 2 commercial, everything else I've seen has been pretty bad. Where were the ads for Littlebigplanet? Damn shame that Sony could not have promoted that better.

People really need to quit saying that the Wii sold because of hype. People who say this, are in denial that the Wii is actually a great little system. The facts are there to show that the Wii is not selling on hype. Software sales are just one indicator that the Wii isn't being bought just on hype. Also, the system still continues to sell an insane number of units, even after the supply has increased to meet demand.

Just because people read on the internet that a few people aren't playing their Wii, lately, or haven't bought a game for a while, means nothing. That only represents a small portion of Wii owners. There are many more that are obviously quite content with the Wii. Software sales show this, accessory sales show this, data about the increase of Wii owners playing online...all of this information supports the fact that the Wii is doing quite well, and not because of hype.

All of this is not to say that the PS3 or XBOX 360 aren't great systems. It's just to say that, this generation, Wii is the leader, and that is fact.

I have a Wii, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I know many people who have them, and play games on them, quite often. I also want a PS3. However, right now, the price is too high. Especially with the fact that I already own a Blu-Ray player. If Sony were to drop the price $100, I'd bite. Will they do it? I don't know. I understand that they have to make a profit.

So, when he is talking about "our competition" packing in "two, three, four games in the unit weekend to weekend", he can only be referring to the XBOX 360. The Wii has Wii Sports included, but, I've never seen Nintendo or any retailer for the matter, include any games in as part of the original price for a Wii.

It's amazing how the gaming landscape has changed in the last 8 years. It's almost incredible how the Sony fanboys went from being the bashers to being on the defense. They went to harping on the Dreamcast because they had a system that sold in superior numbers and had software that dominated the top 10 to harping on the Wii because superior sales is apparently indicative of a "myth" of people enjoying their systems.

Yeah, the 360 has included 2 pack in games since the holidays with Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indy.

I think it's funny for Sony to criticize that when the last few weeks, retailers have had all sorts of deals with the PS3 whether it be free games, gift cards, whatever. Not to mention a coming package that includes Motorstorm and Resistance for free. Hypocritical.

I guess the Motorstorm, Uncharted, MGS4, & Spiderman 3 bundles are somehow different in Sony executive land.