Sony lost a lot of money with the PlayStation 3. It was priced high, meaning it sold relatively poorly upon launch. Worse is that it was sold as a significant loss leader, so money was lost on each and every sale. that shouldn’t be happening with the PlayStation 4. In fact, Sony expects to make more profit from the PS4 than they did with the PlayStation 2 – and that’s the biggest selling games console of all time.
Sony has shifted well over 7 million units of the consoles since its launch in November, and it’s a wave of momentum that Sony’s CEO Kaz Hirai feel is just getting started.
Speaking at a corporate strategy meeting (via NeoGAF )Hirai said that the strong hardware sales, and the growing popularity of digital sales and services should help the PS4 become more profitable than the PS2.
According to Eurogamer’s translators, here’s what he said.
“It is likely that PS4 will become the platform which exceeds the profits earned with PS2.”
Do you think Hirai is being hopeful, or can the PS4 actually make more money for the company than the godlike PS2?
For one thing, Sony made no money on digital stuff with the PS2, so all money was made on the hardware (eventually) and the games. With everything being digital now, and with all that DLC, it’s entirely possible that the PS4 could earn more cash, even though it sells fewer units and less software.
The PS3 was largely digital, so why was Sony not raking in the cash with that system? Last year, Sony’s tech officer Masaru Kato explained why, and why it’ll be different this time around.
“Unlike PS3, we are not planning a major loss to be incurred with the launch of PS4,” Kato said.
“At the time we developed PS3, we made a lot of in-house investments to develop the Cell chip. Development of the chip saw the silicon processing and all the facilities invested by us ourselves. But this time, yes we have a team working on chip development, but we already have existing technology to incorporate and also product investment, and all the facilities will now be invested by our partners, other foundries, so we don’t have to make all the investment in-house.”
Last Updated: May 23, 2014
Jedi JJ
May 23, 2014 at 12:16
Trust in Sony
Hammersteyn
May 23, 2014 at 12:19
I so called this. So long ago I can’t even remember when. But you would really only know what I’m on about if you have a PS4. Put it like this the PS4 is to the PS3 what the PS2 was to the PS1
Pheonix182
May 23, 2014 at 12:20
PsS4?
Lardus-Resident Perve
May 23, 2014 at 13:41
http://9gag.com/gag/a5dgz5o
JFC10
May 23, 2014 at 14:43
And this is why
http://youtu.be/H5kwvRYJRnw