Sony: PS4 losses will be nothing like those of the PS3
PlayStation business will be hurt by currency changes, but smaller investment in hardware will help avoid a repeat of last gen
Sony lost billions on the PlayStation 3 launch, and the company is determined not to see that happen again with the PlayStation 4. As reported by Bloomberg, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House assured investors in a conference call last week that history would not repeat itself.
"We will not generate anything like the losses we did for the PlayStation 3," House said. Sony CFO Masaru Kato also noted that the investment in the PS4 is "much, much smaller," a result in part of using PC-like architecture with more standard chips for the new system instead of custom hardware like the PS3's Cell processor.
However, Sony is expecting its game division to post losses due to shifts in currency exchange rates. As the Japanese yen strengthened in recent years, Sony made arrangements to pay suppliers in US currency. However, the US dollar has been gaining value over the yen this year, and is predicted to strengthen further through March. Those losses will be partially offset by the increased value of US PS4 sales, but Sony, which had previously expected its games unit to break-even for the year, now expects those earnings to "deteriorate significantly."
Most people won't see this as a PC box (I mean, the original Xbox was basically 'a PC' too), just another Playstation that will allow you to play exclusives and third party games instantly and with a low barrier hardware price.
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Adam Campbell on 12th August 2013 4:44pm
Sure, we can use Steam in the living room now but people are struggling with price and form factor (What's the right balance? What is most practical?), so I don't think that's an immediate threat to the consoles. Really, there isn't a similar device right now to PS4 or Xbox One when it comes to those sorts of games in the living room.
I'm keen to see what the incentives of developing for this device over a market place like steam or iOS will be, and I'm keen to see if they have got down to work producing an operating system that can do more than gaming this time around. Along with games pricing, both of these factors will be key for them getting traction with the developers and consumers alike.