PS3 Makes Profit and Outsells 360 Worldwide in 2007?

[Black Dynamite]

The doubters have been silenced. Sony has done in one year what took Microsoft 6 years to accomplish: post a profitable quarter for their gaming division. This, despite the massive costs incurred with providing state of the art Playstation 3 technology at an affordable price that includes the Cell microprocessor, Blu-Ray, a standard hard-drive, and free online play with dedicated servers.

Sony is no stranger to reporting profits; before the Playstation 3 was released Sony had dominated the videogame business for years. However, with the costly inclusion of Cell and Blu-Ray, Sony lost money on their videogame division last year on behalf of their love for gamers by providing a machine that is unrivaled at a price that could be afforded by mainstream consumers. Below are the figures reported for Q3:

Operating Income (millions of U.S. dollars)

Sony Corporation $1,661

Game $113


These results, fresh off the heels of the reports of Sony working on a 45 nm version of Cell and shrinking the Blu-Ray diode component to 3 mm, Sony clearly has the best hardware engineers in the videogame business — and that’s what they know how to do best; run a videogame business. Microsoft was bleeding for years due to the costs of the Xbox 360, the red ring of death fiasco, and lackluster hardware/software sales. But, that’s what we’ve come to expect from Microsoft: delivering inferior hardware at inflated prices due to terrible management.

Not only has Sony’s videogame division returned to profitability, but the PS3 outsold the Xbox 360 in 2007. According to their respective financial reports for Q3 earnings, Sony sold 4.9 million Playstation 3’s compared to Microsoft’s 4.3 million Xbox 360’s. In Microsoft’s “best year”, their first year, they reported 10.4 million 360’s sold. In Playstation 3’s first year, and with the platform not even released in Europe for a full year, Sony moved 10.49 million units. This, despite the PS3 being priced at $599 in the US and even higher in Europe, with many of its titles delayed, thus significantly lowering the software quality of its fall 2007 relative to the Xbox 360 which enjoyed Halo 3, Mass Effect, and BioShock.

This is a sign that the tide is drastically turning in Sony’s favor and ‘08 looks to be even more promising. With killer software such as Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Turismo 5, Resistance 2, MotorStorm 2, Little Big Planet, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Devil May Cry 4, Sony is looking poised to recapture the industry the videogame industry. With Blu-Ray’s victorious defeat over HD-DVD, the popularity of high-definition media will only increase, leading the way for billions in profit for Sony over the next decade.

Indeed, 2008 is the year of Sony.

2007 Quarter 1 PS3 sales = 1.91 million units.
2007 Quarter 2 PS3 sales = .71 million units.
2007 Quarter 3 PS3 sales = 1.31 million units.
2007 Quarter 4 PS3 sales = 4.90 million units.
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data...s3_sale_e.html


2007 PS3 annual sales total = 8.83 million units sold worldwide compared to 7.3 million units of Xbox 360 sold worldwide in 2007.

They have alot of ground left in america to catch up on. But overall they've definitely made progress. More than enough to get some momentum this year depending on the quality of their exclusives.

[Tahoe]

Good news for them.

re:Live gaming. I hope there is competition for XBlive, but until they produce the LIVE gaming for a buck a week, I'm sticking with XBL.

[DrRay11]

^^Uhhh... what? lol

[MoTown]

Not that I'm a 360 appologist because I could care less about "Console Wars", but wouldn't some of this be due to the fact that 360 was out for a year longer?

[Black Dynamite]

Not that I'm a 360 apologist because I could care less about "Console Wars", but wouldn't some of this be due to the fact that 360 was out for a year longer?

Yes and no. In that I mean that that M$ sold their share of units, but at the same time took much longer to turn their "cheaper system" over into profits. With that said its not the greatest accomplishment ever, but a vast improvement and the fact that Sony found ways to improve revenue in spite of the price drop is pretty good on their part. From a profit standpoint they cover even more ground because of the red rings debacle. Again it puts them in a spot where they can decent momentum push in 2008. But alot of that now falls on their software.

And nope I dont think you sound like an apologist. Its a good question.

[Fool]

More lead time usually helps consoles outsell rivals. Only when one console is at the end of its life-cycle (read as: out of date technology) does the "out before" work against the console.

However, I would imagine most of the PS3's sales are still from riding its good name from the PSX and PS2 as 3 hasn't really showcased itself as above and beyond the 360 IMO.

[WTFchris]

I read that PS3 has had some titles pass on it because of difficulties adapting to their system. What sort of game titles might be missing because of this? I'm the type of gamer that has a half dozen titles (regardless of era/system) that I play and buy every few years and generally don't play many games besides those:

1) First person shooter (Bond/Halo/Unreal/COD,etc)
2) Madden
3) Tiger Woods
4) NHL
5) NBA
6) NCAAF

I pretty much always get that stuff on whatever system. My Wii is a little different of course.

Can I expect to get all those sports games on PS3? What titles is PS3 missing out on that I would care about?

[DrRay11]

Yeah, you'll get all those on PS3. For FPS, you'll have Call of Duty, Resistance, eventually Killzone 2 and Resistance 2. As far as what's missing that's on Xbox 360, I'm not really sure, nothing's really sticking out at me at the moment. I'd have to think awhile.

[WTFchris]

What's your favorite FPS? It has to be one that is multiplayer on the system itself, even though I'll do online as well. Right now I play Battlefront (on the system) and Halo 2 (system and online) for the Xbox. I love COD, but the lack of multiplayer outside online keeps me from buying that. I've never loved Halo either. It's pretty cool, but not as fun as Goldeneye was when that first came out years ago.

[DrRay11]

Well I don't own a PS3 so I'm not real sure, I thought Resistance might do that... We'll have to let V take that question.