It's somewhere between $300-400 after the stores get their cut of the money. Sony may also never make profit on the console as they have a much bigger amount to start saving per console before they're out of the red.
And for Sony, they don't have exactly the best track record when it comes to pushing new media types. They tried the same thing with UMD as they are with Blu-Ray, and UMD's didn't exactly do well. Difference here, they have a MUCH tougher battle this time as they have much more of a loss to make up for before they start pulling in the profit. As I had mentioned, in Sony's on little perfect world where all of their staff work on slave's wages and sony gets all the cash from game and such sales, they have to sell around 15 games to break even.
There is also the psychological advantage that HD-DVD has over Blu-ray. Everyone knows and loves DVDs. The big new rage with everything is all this "HD" things these newfangled kids with their music are all talking about. People put 2+2 together.. DVD=good, and HD=good, so HD-DVD must = Very good (Followed by a brief "What the heck is blu-ray?").
And don't get me wrong, Sometimes you do have to spend a little money to make money (in Sony's case, a lot of money (which they do have)). But this is a BIG risk, and things aren't exactly favoring Sony.
Danial.Beta wrote:
If I remember correctly, the PS3 costs Sony about $300 a unit right now. The 360 was costing Microsoft about $150 a unit. Microsoft now makes money on the 360, due to decreases in cost of parts. The same will happen for the PS3. It will just take a little time. HD-DVD has a lot more companies backing it, personally I think neither is going to win, and we'll be stuck with hybrid players and a whole load of duplicates of movies on different formats :P | |
HD-DVD has a lot more companies backing it, personally I think neither is going to win, and we'll be stuck with hybrid players and a whole load of duplicates of movies on different formats :P I call BS, Blueray does. "Blu-ray's consumer electronics list is longer, with Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Pioneer and LG Electronics. PC makers that support it are Dell, HP and Apple Computer. Also on board are video game maker Electronic Arts and entertainment companies Twentieth Century Fox, Vivendi Universal and Walt Disney." http://news.com.com/FAQ+HD+DVD+vs.+Blu+ray/ 2100-1041_3-5886956.html "five out of the six major studios are supporting Blu-ray--Paramount, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Company, and Warner--or 80 percent of the market." http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123491-page,1/article.html | |
The reason they are pushing the Blu-Ray on the PS3 is because they want a Blu-Ray player in every house. This will win them the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray war, if it works. This would add to the potential profit per PS3 too, meaning that the larger lost per unit would be acceptable. You know the saying, "Sometimes you have to spend money to make money".