Res Plus said:
Great post mate, thanks, very interesting figures. I guess the flip side of this discussion, is will either giant actually make any money? I have seen reports (admittedly I didn't scrutinise too deeply) that suggested Xbox was costing Microsoft about $1.5bn a year, it was effectively buying market share. Sony, on the other hand, have all sorts of issues fiscal issue.
The last generation was particularly rocky for both at the start. Sony took huge hits on every ps3 sold for years and MS had the epic RROD that cost them another $1b.
From what Sony said, they're not losing anything close to that at all. Maybe even breaking even. From what I've seen, the cost of manufacturing and materials comes to $381. With the cost of a controller being $18 and retail being $59, I'm thinking they're likely in profit territory on most sales which is incredibly rare for console launches nowadays.
http://www.gamefront.com/sony-probably-loses-money-on-each-ps4/
The PS3, if you recall, was something like $800 to make and retailed (unsuccessfully) at $599.
I'm not sure about Microsofts specific situation. From what I understand, there was more to the numbers than what meets the eyes but I CERTAINLY wouldn't place any faith in the future of my XBO library with talks of selling it off. Depending on how much of those losses were just R&D for the XBO and something else then it may not be as dire as it looks. But this is a major concern for me and perhaps the number one reason that I'm not going with the XBO. Why would a buy a console that the manufacturer is considering getting rid of the division that owns it? It doesn't help them that I prefer Sony's exclusives by far either but there's a lot of non-game related issues with the XBO that has me more concerned.
Haha, it just occured to me that Nintendo could buy Microsoft's gaming division... that'd be... epic and confusing at the same time.
crewreav said:
Went to Saturn on monday. Absolutely no PS4s but several dozen XBOs.
Saturn, I guess that's a gaming store from your region?
Sexual Harassment Panda said:
Xbones seem to be readily available from certain retailers and backlogged from others. PS4's are sold out everywhere unless you're willing to buy one of the extortionate bundles that have been put together.
Ah, so you're having those bundle prices too where you're from? They can get quite steep.