Home Gaming Playstation Losses Pulling Sony Down?

Playstation Losses Pulling Sony Down?

1 min read
54

PS3_thumb.jpg

I know that the title for this post seems seriously flame-bait-ish but it isn’t because the stats are pretty scary.

According to the investor relations page on Sony.net, Playstation is currently nearing the very scary figure of $5 billion dollars in losses ( that’s 39.5 Billion Rand). Now I don’t know about you but that seems like a seriously large amount of money to be losing.

Most consoles start off running at a loss but the money is usually made up later with licenses and game sales and so on but you really have to wonder how big Sony really is to be able to take losses this huge over such a long period of time without crumbling down.

Stats after the jump.

  • FY 2007: -$1,970,923,859
  • FY 2008: -$1,079,994,103
  • FY 2009: -$577,207,240
  • FY 10Q1: -$413,541,667
  • FY 10Q2: -$653,333,333

It would be a sad, sad day if Sony had to shut the Playstation down but for the moment it seems like they are still holding on.

I realise that even with price drops and all that jazz going on, it actually means nothing in the whole scheme of things because there is no amount of holiday sales that will be able to make back that large amount of money.

Let’s just hope that Sony are managing it well so that we can have the Playstation around for a very long time to come.

For more information that explains everything and links to even more hit the link below.

Source: The Sixth Axis

Last Updated: November 2, 2009

54 Comments

  1. I think Sony made so much money from the Playstation 2 that they could continue to operate at a loss till 2050 and still be ok.

    Reply

    • ewie

      November 2, 2009 at 18:51

      Actually not, currently all profits for the gaming division back to 1998 have been wiped out.

      Reply

  2. lans

    November 2, 2009 at 18:45

    well they do get alot of money from blue ray royalties and ps3 did help them win one of their few proprietary format wars.

    home apparently is quite profitable and psn is picking up as well as well as overall disc based software sales so i think even though they lost so much they can still try and not give up

    their exclusives are amazing and should sustain them in 2010

    Exclusives they could explore to gain significant momentum and accelerate their market share once they turn a profit.

    MAG pre orders are very good at 72 000 in america currently in less than 3 weeks mag can generate alot of income is it becomes popular if they get 2 or 3 million subscribers every month that will be insane

    Wipeout Next Gen HD…..wipeouthd is not next gen!

    Dark Cloud 3
    Heavenly Sword 2
    Jak and Daxter
    Killzone 3 scenario on earth rather than helghan with a more earthly vibe
    FF13 Versus
    Agent
    Mass effect, get that game somehow
    Last Guardian
    MGS5 exclusive?
    Sony Wand could help
    Eighty days apparently is starting production again after the studio finished with eyepet
    Getaway is also a possibility
    Netflix available globally

    Theres is no way sony can fail so bad they quit, im sure they’ll recoup most of the losses back ps4 will not be that big a leap technologically speaking unless ken kutaragi is rehired. So the loss wont be as bad as ps3 as it wont have any burdens like blueray and etc which will be cheap and affordable.

    Download only hd games is a joke and only arrogant self absorbed pc gamers or rich clueless gits would expect a 300 million users of games to switch to download only! do you know how many retailers would be affected by this!

    Reply

    • ewie

      November 2, 2009 at 19:00

      No they do not get a lot of money from blue ray, blue ray is owned by a consortium of companies, of which Sony is just one, Phillips get a lot more money out of it than sony. Even Microsoft get royalties out of every blue-ray movie as they use the codec from Microsoft in it. Where they do make money is asking $10 for every game published on the console.

      Reply

    • evilrezombie

      November 3, 2009 at 08:33

      jip… and take ps 3 software sales compared to the xbox and wii in 2009 / 2010.. ps 3 will win due to piracy…

      As I predicted Sony started a big turnaround in 2009 and this will just become bigger in years to come..

      Reply

  3. lans

    November 2, 2009 at 19:06

    guys its not like xbox 360 is doing that much better
    Xbox are very good at spinning financial results. Xbox Data is also very padded with Xbox live and Halo sales
    XBox 360 sales in the us have actually been the same for the past 2 years and the year on year growth ms was boosting about was all short term.

    You may not believe menow but with a company as big as ms all you see is smokes and mirrors.

    Xbox 360 is not run like a proper business any other competitor who ran their business like xbox would be destitute by now.

    Instead of creating their own ips they rely on 3rd parties and throw money around! Do you really think the ballad of gay tony is worth 25 million dollars?
    instead of using business strategies all they try and do is a me too attitude and try undercut the competition ms has money but they cant run a gaming division…truth be told. Sure ps3 cocked up worse but despite that its not like the xbox is running away with anything those deep price cuts did not do anything for the in the long term except rob them of profit sure they gained market share but the problem was never price it was perceived value we should have been hearing about a radical redisign from the xbox wayyyyy before the s3, instead ms just spread misinformation and give consumers what they want. Poor quality products with a good warranty wth the world dissapoints me more and more

    Reply

    • ewie

      November 2, 2009 at 19:09

      Ant what does this have to do with the article at all ?

      Reply

      • lans

        November 2, 2009 at 19:12

        it is related so dont troll all im saying is the hd systems are always loss leaders

        Reply

    • SlippyMadFrog

      November 2, 2009 at 19:25

      Where to begin…

      “Xbox Data is also very padded with Xbox live and Halo sales”
      That doesn’t make sense. It’s like saying the PS3 data is very padded with console sales. XBL and Halo is a product they sell to consumers.

      “XBox 360 sales in the us have actually been the same for the past 2 years and the year on year growth ms was boosting about was all short term.”
      The sales in the US the past 2 years was consistently good is that is what you mean by “the same”.

      “Instead of creating their own ips they rely on 3rd parties and throw money around! Do you really think the ballad of gay tony is worth 25 million dollars?”
      Instead of buying first parties they pay 3rd parties for exclusives, what is wrong with that? Do you know hoe much profit The lost and damned and gay tony brought in? I guess then you can’t say how much it’s worth

      “instead of using business strategies all they try and do is a me too attitude”
      Like what Sony is doing with the PSN, trying to copy MS? Also, Trophies says hi!

      I’m going to stop here. Forget about MS, your post seems more like smoke and mirrors to me. Just let it go.

      Reply

      • lans

        November 4, 2009 at 00:25

        your thinking is very short sighted.

        If you develop first party studios they are sustainable, you dont need to dish out large somes of money just to delay exclusive content those gta epidsoedes will find their way to ps3 eventually.

        Xbox strategy is all short term
        All im saying is that ms release financial statements with alot of spin ms declared all their rrod losses 1 year early so that they would show a profit in 2008 what ever1 forgets is that they lost over a billion in the previous quarter.

        Sony does spin but does not maneveaur to the same extent as ms to be seen in a favourable light

        Reply

      • lans

        November 4, 2009 at 02:04

        Xbox 360 sold the same amount of units in 2years, but in the second year they had massive price drops + gears 2 wtf???

        Xbox has been declining for a long time, ms has depreciated their product in a mad attempt to gain market share.

        Sure things look good on paper, but ms wont be able to burn money forever, the bigger they are the harder they fall.

        Reply

        • LazySAGamer

          November 4, 2009 at 06:49

          This Xbox is Microsoft’s opportunity to get into our living rooms and it’s gonna take a lot more than a few billion dollars to scare Microsoft away from that goldmine.

          And honestly since the Xbox division is now making a profit and Microsoft has billions in the bank it could feasibly carry on burning money forever.

          But how did the comments section turn into discussing Microsoft when the issue at hand Sony?

          Reply

          • lans

            November 4, 2009 at 11:57

            it just seems as though you guys are picking on sony, i think you should look at the industry at the whole ever1 is suffering, i know what you’re doing is earnest but all you are doing i stigmatising the ps3 as a failed console that will bankrupt sony, i dont see much articles about nintendo share prices falling or nintendos sharp decline in profits with sales falling to half in japan, and about 20-30% worldwide.

            i dont hear about ms who lost about 9bn on the Zune and some other gadget.

            the negative news is always against the ps3 and that is so 2007…so please be more 2010

          • lans

            November 4, 2009 at 11:59

            remember enron, remember parmalot? both companies had oodles of cash but they still went bankrupt. No company is infallible not even microsoft

          • LazySAGamer

            November 4, 2009 at 14:43

            We also don’t post about how well the iPod is doing or Sony’s latest TV.

            We post about gaming and both Nintendo and Microsoft are now profitable which leaves Sony the odd one out.

            I did however post up earlier about Microsoft’s boring rewards system and Nick posted about Forza’s dodgy physics but that didn’t get much response.

  4. ewie

    November 2, 2009 at 19:18

    You need to read your own reply to see what trolling is.

    Reply

  5. RampageZA

    November 2, 2009 at 20:28

    Thanks nick your flame bait worked perfectly 🙂

    Reply

  6. Nick de Bruyne

    November 2, 2009 at 21:46

    The reason that this is an issue, and why the Xbox 360 really can’t be pulled into this comments thread really comes down to the fact that MS have a Gajillion dollars, so even if the Xbox 360 had done really badly, they could just carry on with nothing but a tiny little dent when compared.

    The numbers are super scary though, I seriously can’t think of how they are going to push those numbers out of the negatives, it will need to be something really big (like the way that iPod’s took over as the primary MP3 player years ago)

    Reply

  7. LazySAGamer

    November 2, 2009 at 23:22

    What really made me sit up and take notice is that Sony lost $577m is the 2009 financial year and has so far lost $1066m in the first half of the 2010 financial year… so losses are double what they were in half the time when things have been getting better for Sony.

    That doesn’t make any sense, at this rate they are heading towards their biggest every loss in 2010 and really Sony are not big enough to handle that. From what I can find they are not making a profit as a company at the moment, that must be a worry even in the world of fake corporate accounts that we live in

    Reply

  8. WitWolfyZA

    November 3, 2009 at 07:06

    They’ll pull through… Its just a hiccup that’s all lol

    Reply

  9. nintendo ds r4

    November 3, 2009 at 07:36

    This is very big Company just for Economic crises they suffer some loss.I hope in this they come out from this
    Loss

    Reply

  10. nintendo ds r4

    November 3, 2009 at 07:37

    Sony is capable company to come out from loss just for some reason period company suffer loss .I hope inthis year they come out.

    Reply

  11. Napalmdeth

    November 3, 2009 at 09:16

    Japanese government will never let Sony go down. If Sony crumbled the economy would really feel it. Sony is a big player and accounts for alot of Japans export market. There would be some type of bail out if all else failed.

    Reply

  12. BHW

    November 3, 2009 at 09:40

    Problem at the moment is that the hardware still selling at a loss – so increased sales = increased losses and a lot of their high profile software releases though technically brilliant have not been commercial successes. I doubt that Killzone 2’s 2 million copies sold recouped the 60million dollar dev cost and lord only knows how many copies GT 5 will have to sell before it makes Sony a profit. MS on the other hand spends 20 million making the game and 30 million marketing it and shifts 10 million copies in the process.

    Sony has all the bragging rights from a technical point of view – but right now Nintendo and MS business models (RROD notwithstanding) are making better COMMERCIAL sense.

    Reply

  13. Flake

    November 3, 2009 at 09:51

    Microshafts RROD budget alone was $1.5 billion (lol what amateurs, dont they know how to manufacture a quality product?), and that warranty budget doesn’t even include R&D and overheads which will be 50x that.

    Sony may lose more money, but they can at least be proud of their achievements of creating a GENUINE next gen product of generally very high quality. M$’s contribution to the next gen may have been well received by the idiotic patriotic yanks and a few local dofuses as well, but they are far behind Sony and Nintendo when it comes to manufacturing principles and creating quality products.

    Sony will lose money because of a variety of factors including the financial crisis unlike M$ which lost loads of money because inferior quality & overpriced products. I will continue to support Sony after the fiasco that was the 360. I don’t think I will ever support an M$ product again in my life.

    Reply

    • LazySAGamer

      November 3, 2009 at 10:54

      Microsoft revolutionised the FPS genre and online play ability on consoles… yeah their product may be on inferior quality but they are a major part of the next gen war and rightly so.

      As are Sony and Nintendo…

      Reply

      • Flake

        November 3, 2009 at 11:17

        The online ability of consoles was adapted from already available tech at the time. Ask ANY PC player with a Windows OS. And M$ revolusionised the FPS genre? WTF? Are you serious? I can’t believe you even said that. If anybody, it was ID software that revolutionised FPS. The closest M$ got to FPS was hiring Bungie for their IP and it was Bungie that did all the work while M$ got all the credit. They have been pulling this kind of crap since their inseption (DOS anyone?). I do know that MS, Sony, and Ninty all have roles to play, but M$ is given far to much credit than they deserve.

        Reply

        • SlippyMadFrog

          November 3, 2009 at 13:35

          “The online ability of consoles was adapted from already available tech at the time”
          Seems like someone forgot to tell Sony about the available tech at the time.

          “The closest M$ got to FPS was hiring Bungie for their IP and it was Bungie that did all the work while M$ got all the credit”
          Are you on crack? Simular to Sony using Naughty Dog to create Uncharted now Sony gets all the credit? You do realize that doesn’t make sense. Are you maybe the same person as lans? You both share common delusions.

          Reply

          • Flake

            November 3, 2009 at 15:24

            It doesn’t make sense to you because you a f*cking retard froggy boy. Unfortunately I don’t have any remote sketch tools to draw you a picture asswipe so my reply will have to do. Hahahahaha.

    • SlippyMadFrog

      November 3, 2009 at 13:30

      “Microshafts RROD budget alone was $1.5 billion (lol what amateurs, dont they know how to manufacture a quality product?), and that warranty budget doesn’t even include R&D and overheads which will be 50x that.”
      Are you implying that R&D and overheads cost MS 50 billion dollars? :w00t:

      Reply

      • Flake

        November 3, 2009 at 15:20

        You actually right faggy frog, because I bet that your gimp master Mr Gates didn’t even put $5 into R&D. And why should he, okes like you bend anyway so why should he invest more. Muahahahaha.

        Reply

        • SlippyMadFrog

          November 3, 2009 at 16:25

          lol, nevermind

          Reply

  14. 0rk0

    November 3, 2009 at 09:54

    Funny.

    If Windows 7 didn’t come and save MS then they would have been in it deep. Visa didn’t do them any favours along with all the repairs and trade-ins on the xbox360 RROD.

    September saw the release of the PS3 Slim which will be cheaper to manufacture and selling at a better price.
    Very convenient to only show Q1 and Q2 figures.

    Wonder what happend in Q3? :whistle:

    Reply

    • ewie

      November 3, 2009 at 10:05

      This include sales for september, and q3 is still in the future, so hopefully for sony q3 will have improved results.

      Reply

    • SlippyMadFrog

      November 3, 2009 at 13:54

      looking at the above figures, Q1 and Q2 losses are twice as much as the whole of 2008. They better have a stellar Q3 and Q4 to offset the losses of Q1 and Q2. We are talking Fiscal years so Q2 includes September.

      Reply

      • 0rk0

        November 3, 2009 at 14:15

        Thanks genius, but I got that from ewie’s post already.

        Reply

  15. eXp

    November 3, 2009 at 11:25

    I wonder if the loss of money by both Microsofts XBOX and Sonys PS3 even make a dent overall. I’m sure Sony makes it all back in Microwaves and stuff like that, whereas MS makes it back in Windows and Office.

    Reply

  16. nintendo ds r4 card

    November 3, 2009 at 11:50

    There’s a name for this in business management. I think it’s called The Anderson Effect (definitely a name beginning with ‘A’). Basically, if you show the world that a new version of your product will appear at ‘some time in the future’ you immediately kill sales of the current version of your product. Sony obviously would know about this but had to to show the PSP Go because, well, everybody knew about it already anyway. if Sony had half an ounce of sense they’d be running themselves into the ground to get the PSP Go to market worldwide as soon as is bloody possible, because every day it’s not on the shelves is killing them a little more.
    ‘Sony’, ‘half an ounce of sense’.. what am I thinking?

    While PS2 sales were up by 100,000 units to 1.6 million.

    Reply

  17. Super_Bonk

    November 3, 2009 at 14:15

    Maybe I am confused. Could someone please put me on the right track, as I thought that Sony predicted massive losses for the current financial year and also the next one. Economic downturn to blame. The playstation brand is not the only divivision to be blamed for this.

    Also, even M$ profits plunged by 18%. From some of the comments on this page one would think, some people would like sony to fail. Last I checked competition keeps things fresh, and breeds innovation. Oh by the way, the Dreamcast pioneered console online capabalities.

    Reply

    • ewie

      November 3, 2009 at 15:12

      Can’t remember now but I am sure microsoft helped with
      development of the os for dreamcast.

      Reply

      • Geoff

        November 3, 2009 at 15:39

        The DC ran on a modified version of Windows CE.

        Reply

      • Super_Bonk

        November 3, 2009 at 15:42

        @ewie

        You are 100 percent correct. Microsoft did help Sega with the OS for the Dreamcast, and what an awesome system!! But take nothing away from Sega.
        I don’t see why you guys are fighting so hard with each other over consoles. As long as all three companies bring quality software, who really cares!

        Reply

        • ewie

          November 3, 2009 at 18:34

          agree the more games i can play the better

          Reply

  18. SlippyMadFrog

    November 3, 2009 at 15:00

    I bet MS financials will paint the same picture.

    Reply

  19. ewie

    November 3, 2009 at 15:51

    According to the figures above Sony lost almost $200
    on every console sold. ?

    Reply

  20. LazySAGamer

    November 3, 2009 at 21:48

    I really wish I could find a nice financial breakdown of the three players in this console generation.

    My belief is that we will see Microsoft as easily the biggest and most profitable company, then with Nintendo being hugely profitable and Sony actually making a loss over all.

    But that’s just from what I have seen posted around and it could be completely off. Does anyone know where we can check this sort of thing out?

    Reply

    • ewie

      November 4, 2009 at 00:23

      This is the nearest I can get.

      http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=57802&page=1

      This is up to last quarter, but you can easily add
      the new info into it. Scary if you look at microsoft and Sony,

      Reply

      • SlippyMadFrog

        November 4, 2009 at 09:17

        Interesting…
        Msoft is hurting quite bad since the last gen. At least they started turning a profit in 2008. I wonder how long will Sony stay in the red. At this rate they will wipe out any profits made with the PS2 and PS1. Actually, looking at the Q1 and Q2 of 2010, they already erased their previous profits. Did Ken Katuragi resign, or was he fired 😉

        Reply

    • ewie

      November 4, 2009 at 00:26

      This is only the gaming division etc

      Reply

    • Flake

      November 4, 2009 at 09:48

      Yes M$ will be profitible if you believe their bullshit padded stats. They would NEVER tell the world about their losses.

      Reply

      • ewie

        November 4, 2009 at 12:24

        ? Microsoft losses are in the financials for all to see.

        Reply

      • LazySAGamer

        November 4, 2009 at 14:42

        Publically traded company.. their financials are open so your comment makes no sense?

        Reply

        • lans

          November 4, 2009 at 18:48

          As a victim of a ponzi scheme all i can say is financials dont mean jack-6 unless you are a shareholder and get to see day to day operations, financial statements are bs

          Reply

        • lans

          November 4, 2009 at 18:49

          obviously financial statements are crucial but im saying take them with a bit of salt

          Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Uncharted Movie Passes $100 Million – Sony set to Make a Franchise

After 14 years Sony finally released the Uncharted movie to medium reception. The movie ha…