It seems that sony is gonna start making money off every PS 3 it sells instead of losing money.

This with the awesome library and exclusives to come like God of War 3, Killzone 2, GT 5, Infamous, Uncharted 2, Final Fantasy versus XIII etc etc it looks like the PS3 is looking up and is making a complete 360 (excuse the pun) isn't it time to get on the PS3 bandwagon. :)

link http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=2701

Business Week has an interesting article up today on the cost of manufacturing PS3. Apparently, Business Week spoke to iSupply to determine how much it costs Sony to make a PS3. When the PS3 launched in the USA, iSupply said that the 60 Gig ($600) PS3 cost $840 to make. Retailers buy products cheaper than ordinary people do, to make money on the markup, so it's entirely possible that on the 60 gig model Sony was losing as much as $300 per PS3, though ~$270 is more likely. At any rate, in 2007, iSupply estimated that the 60 gig PS3 cost $805 to make, when retailers were likely buying it for $475 or so to sell to gamers at $500. The 80 gig model had been introduced to offset that increase in losses per PS3 as the channel was cleared of the original model.

As of today though, in late 2008, iSupply estimates that the $400 PS3 costs $448 to make. Retailers likely buy the system at $360 to $380, putting the losses at under $100 per PS3 sold in the USA. Depending on where the components of the PS3 are made, the losses are either greater or less due to the currency exchange rate between the strong Yen and other currencies. In 2007 for instance, selling a PS3 to a Gamestop for $370 would bring in 42,250 Yen. Right now, selling a PS3 to a Gamestop for $370 would only bring in about 33,300 Yen. So if the cost of making PS3 is $448 at the current exchange rate, Sony is only losing about $100 per system sold in the USA when the current rate in the Yen valuation is added to the normal loss, instead of simply $370-$448. However, Sony's production prices were likely set to when the dollar still bought 115 Yen. So instead of PS3 costing 40,320 Yen to make ($448 * 90 Yen/Dollar) it's likely a case of PS3 costs equaling $448 * 115 Yen to make - 51,520 Yen. If that is the case, the situation is not as good, because Sony can only sell the $400 PS3s (retailer price of $370 * 90) for 33,300 Yen. If this is the true scenario, then the loss per PS3 sold to retail is 18,220 Yen in the USA, which is $202. In reality though, Sony has likely made some adjustments in where it manufactures goods to compensate for the currency changes, in which case ~$150 lost per PS3 serves as a compromise between the iSupply figure which likely does not account for the weak dollar compared to when Sony bought the components en masse, and the $202 figure which assumes Sony did nothing to respond to the currency changes.

Another interesting part to all of this is Europe. PS3 sells for $560 or so in Europe (outside the UK) at the current exchange rate. If the cost of making a PS3 for Europe was the same as the USA, and the exchange rates hadn't changed, Sony probably would be making a profit, as selling a PS3 to a Gamestop in Ireland for 360 Euros would bring in $504, which is more than the $448 production cost cited above to make a PS3. However, with the extra taxes, and costs of translating Playstation 3 products into other languages and different electrical voltages, whatever profit margin may have been possible is at least somewhat reduced. The real issue though is the Yen. At this time last year, 100 Yen bought only 6/10 of a Euro. Today, 100 Yen buys about 8/10 of a Euro. In other words, it takes more Euros for Sony to get the same amount of Yen revenue on PS3. So if the current model of PS3 costs $448 * 115 Yen to make because production began last year, Sony has to get 51,520 Yen per PS3 in countries with the Euro. However, at the exchange current rate, if we assume that PS3s made for Europe cost roughly the same as PS3s made for the USA, Sony gets ~360 Euro * 126 Yen/Euro for each PS3 sold to an Irish Gamestop which is only 45,360 Yen per PS3. Again, the actual costs are likely different because of what is in a European PS3 vs. an American PS3, and Sony likely has acted on currency changes by moving or altering production of PS3 components to shave the losses.

Overall though, costs of making a PS3 are dropping rapidly, and if the currency exchange rates correct to their usual levels anytime soon, Sony will be making money on each PS3 sold. iSupply estimates that Sony will be profitable on each PS3 sold in 2009, and it certainly looks possible in mainland Europe in a few months, though the USA and UK will take a bit longer.

No need to be worried about the PS3 it's doing good when it had it's price cut it was actually outselling the 360 and it is much better quality then the 360 it also has much better exclusives already in the library and coming MGS, LBP, Resistance, Home, God of War 3, Tekken 6, Uncharted 1 and 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Killzone 2, Flower, plus the games which are multiplatform GTA IV, Bioshock, Dead Space, Call of Duty, Fallout 3, Fear 2, Bioshock 2, Street Fighter IV, Resident evil 5 etc

yesterday I passed by a couple of gamestops and I saw a bunch of people in the PS 3 corner buying PS 3 games and in the wii area and no one in the 360 I kinda walked over to the 360 because I felt sad for it.

The PS 3 with it's library and line up to come is making alot of people want to buy it whats the 360 have coming Halo wars wow more fps and gta exclusives that's about it.

Mario Galaxy, NMH, Brawl, all shovelware junk that have sold loads.-DrRobotnik-

Your kidding me right ? those are the few quality games on the wii mario galaxy is awesome

I would put as shovelware effortless games without any quality made to cash in on the casual consumer.

wii music, wii play, imagine babiez, we cheer, those petz games, little pet shop theres more just to many to mention.

yuk imagine babies :( wii is capable of making good quality games, but they are focused on cashing in on whats making them win the console sales wars new gamers with no clue on ****c and hardcore games.

on a business point of view it's smart why would you go back to the way gamecube was when that didn't get you as much money and on a business point of view it hurts us gamers that love the ****cs Nintendo used to shell out, I guess Nintendo figures they can give us a bone of mario galaxy and smash brothers once in a while and make profit of unuspecting moms and little kids that buy stuff like imagine babiez and petz game, which is working for them.

Me I am happy with my PC, playstation 3 and wii for awesome hardcore games like GTA IV, MGS, Dead Space, LBP, Bioshock, Resistance I go to PS 3 for games on the xbox like Gears, Halo and left4dead I go to Pc and for games like mario galaxy, metroid prime corruption and super smash brothers I go to the wii.

I guess if u have a wii I suggest getting another machine if you can afford it the best one is PS 3.

Ihope they intergrate the next gta with homePrinceofSarcasm

I get gitty at the thought of that :D

Back on topic, GTA IV falls victim to what alot of other titles have fallen victim to: realism. The reason Vice City was so great was because the entire game was a big neon-wrapped 80's joke. You spend almost as much time laughing as you do playing the game.

svetzenlether

Well to be honest I had alot of laughter from GTA IV Roman was funny and Brucie and I couldn't stop laughing at the "out of the closet" mission and many things like the internet and tv shows were hilarious I dont think GTA IV was without humor.

But the thing is, most of those things don't actually add to the "replayablility." Do you play the internet? Do you play driving the taxi (well, you do have the taxi missions, but that's not what I mean, and that's not what you mean either :P). Hanging with friends got old fast IMO. They should have at least made it like SA's dating, where you could just go to the people's houses whenever you wanted, instead of having to get calls from them every 2 seconds, even when you don't want to go out with them. I wouldn't mind having it in there if it wasn't as annoying as it was, and in fact might actually have liked it. I do agree about bowling and those kinds of things though. I kind of wish that you could do more. In fact, if they had more of those kinds of activities, it might have made it much closer to the others in terms of fun. Still not quite up there because of the actual mission variety lacking, but still...Hungry_Homer111

Well the no 1 thing that adds replaybility IMO was the added multiplayer none of the other gtas had that and it's fun. as for the in game internet I do feel it was a nice touch to add ringtones and find dates it was funny to read the stuff in there. I agree with you about the friends calling it's like they keep calling to hang out after every mission I just ignore most of them, the good thing I like is that by hanging out ur friends give u added stuff to the game.

I liked the mini games they added like bowling, pool, darts, I wish they would add checkers and chess and casino games :)

yeah, that's right. i want a gta 5 to feature a remake of vice city. gta vc is one of the best in the gta series, better than gta sa in my opinion. sure, there are many things to do in gta sa, i understand many people like that, but i feel that gta sa is more of quantity and less quality. gta vc is also the funniest in the gta series, vcpr became my favorite radio station thanks to maurice chaves. i wished there was more phil cassidy mission because he's entertaining. the storyline of gta5 should be set in modern day and only loosely related to gta 4, and no characters from gta 4. rockstar should take their time for gta 5, release it for the next-gen console and use a modified and optimized gta 4 engine. i prefer they just expand on the engine rather that write the engine from scratch.

Syaz1

lol It scares me when people talk about next gen we just started this one starting over and having to buy new machines again yikes!!!!

GTA4 was good but san andreas was funner just because you could do so much more eg. putting body kits and paint jobs on ur cars, fly that massive aeroplane, have gang wars, buy property, driving school flying school motorbike school, workout at gym etc. etc.

but i think most ppl liked san andreas because it was just epic to experience everything you could do and it was so much more than previous GTA's. GTA4 seems like so much has been taken out from it that made san andreas the best.

The realism is fun for a couple hours in GTA4 but then i felt it kills all the fun after a while

981Master

I would agree with that to a certain extend there where many things I liked about GTA San Andreas like the gang wars although I don't think that would fit in with GTA IV's theme, the schools were not necessarly it did not add much replay value IMO I did like the airplane and it would be nice in this one but not as a mission, I mean what next make Niko take a space shuttle to the moon ? In San Andreas Carl did almost anything impossible which made it like a cartoon.

I am not saying San Andreas was bad but preferably I like the realism better the hood part of San Andreas was realistic reminds me of 90s violence and the story was awesome but out of nowhere they changed the thing around and then instead of Carl in the getto fighting gangs in the hood and making sure his homies prevailed out of nowhere he was in some redneck place and then doing toy missions for some nerd and then flying aeroplanes into canyons and turning into James Bond it became out of place with the beginning of the game and unrealistic. then to top it off there were some missions that I had to travel a long long long long distance to get to point x I was wishing for a taxi like the one in GTA IV in those missions.

GTA IV makes the world and the people believable and the characters are epic and you can feel their struggle it's like a great film and as I said also the additions they added I feel are much better for replaybility than in San Andreas for instance online multiplayer, bowling, hanging with friends, the cell phone, internet, taxis which drive you from point a to b, the improved city with regular citizens feeling more alive, the shooting has improved alot etc etc I feel this GTA IV improved alot from last years and I hope next one is also more realistic.