Sony: We Won't Repeat PS3 Investment | Edge Magazine

Will move away from loss-making early investment in PlayStation 4.

Sony has admitted that work has begun on a new home console - but insisted that the enormous initial investment that it made into PlayStation 3 will not be repeated.
Speaking during an investor briefing - reported by Nikkei and translated by Andriasang - CFO Masaru Kato noted that reduced PS3 manufacturing costs had helped Sony over the past year. With that in mind, Kato said: "It is no longer thinkable to have a huge initial financial investment like that of the PS3."
Kato responded to a question from an investor about R&D costs by admitting that a new console was at least it Sony's thoughts. "For the home equipment the PS3 still has a product life, but this is a platform business," he said. "So for the future of the platform, when will we introduce it? What product? I cannot discuss that. But development is already underway."
Yesterday Sony's networked products and services division - which includes its PlayStation business - reported a profit of £267.4 million. With sales revenue growing just 0.4 per cent, it was a significant turnaround from the previous year's £625.6 million loss - which goes some way to explaining Sony's desire to keep costs low in future.


Wow - it took 5 years for PS3 to finally have a small yearly profit - after billions of dollar of losses for the PS division.


Well - Sony has come to their senses - their not going to do that again - too bad momentum for their systems has cooled considerably since the launch of PS3 as well..


Discussion time - was the PS3 debacle the biggest fumble by a console market leader in the history of gaming? All things considered - I vote yes.

That's cool, though. We all know that 20+ year-olds with self respect stick to Sony and their amazing ideas and wise statements.

Yeah, Sony did pretty bad this generation. Here's to hoping they do things right with the PS4.

PS3 is way to expensive and the games are way to expensive, thats why Xbox did well in my Country the games are slightly cheaper but now they raised the prices to match the PS3. I guess they want ppl to decided that a PS3 is slightly better cause of Blue Ray and hoping to sell more.

Wii is the best its sold more then the Xbox and PS3 and its cheaper lolz...

In my opinion i think Sony has sunk in the past few years, just how they handled certain business aspects and gaming contracts that restricted games becoming multiplatforms didnt serve much justice in the eyes of the public and possible future consumers. I for one chose the xbox over the ps3 because that reason alone. i now regret it and wish i had a wii instead. lol

I almost think game cube was the worst. personally i preferred it over the wii though,
probably due to the fact that the wii had so many bad games that only little kids will play (and probably not enjoy)

My favorite console over all is the ps2. it's simply awesome (and really cheap)

I vote "yes," too.

I bought one, but only because I was a die-hard Final Fantasy fan and wanted to play FF13 on the day of its Japanese/Taiwanese release (2009/12/17). At that point in time, I was an English teacher in Taiwan and my salary was less than $1,000 a month, so shelling out $300 for a console wasn't exactly something I was thrilled about.

The PS3 immediately rubbed me the wrong way for all of the following reasons:

1. RIDICULOUS cost. $300 isn't bad for a launch price, but three years after release, if the console is STILL $300, that's ridiculous.

2. Initially good features that Sony REMOVED after release. Early PS3s had backwards compatibility with the PS2 and OtherOS support. Then Sony removed those features (which were both extremely important to me) and continued to charge the same ripoff price.

3. Sub-par library of games. Only one Final Fantasy and zero mainstream Dragon Quest titles. Lots of brainless action games with big hunky dudes that smash things, though...

4. Awful Internet browser -- I couldn't even access my Hotmail.

5. Firmware updates that removed functionality, but almost never added functionality. Why upgrade? Because Sony is blackmailing you into doing so. Don't upgrade, lose your access to PSN, which brings me to the next point...

6. Serious flaws with PSN. When I played with PSN in Taiwan, it was very unstable and it was nearly impossible to enter group rooms because the online service constantly crashed. The selection of PSOne classics was also very spotty; there was no FF4, FF5, or FF6, and the Dragon Quest games were missing. Lots of other good games were missing as well (like an English version of Ape Escape, so I ended up downloading it and beating it in Japanese).

7. Graphics that, although great, look NO better on an SD TV than PS2 graphics. Sure, they look great on an HDTV, but how am I supposed to afford an HDTV when I have already shelled out $300 or $400 for an overpriced console? When I first got FF13 and played it on my SD TV, my first instinct was "this game looks no better than FF12 -- why the hell did I just shell out $300 for this stupid console?"

I eventually got fed up with the system and decided to sell it. I got about half what I paid for it, if that.

I'm glad Sony realized what a big mistake they made. Hopefully their new console won't have a launch price of $400 after tax, and continue to sell for $300 five years after launch.

The PS3 launched for $499-$599 in the US! I suppose it is different in Taiwan

I thought Dragon Quest with the exception of one or two games was a DS-only franchise? I don't think it's fair to criticize a system for not having one or two series you want.

I play on a SD set with the PS3 and, yes, I agree. I suppose I could upgrade to a better TV but I'd much rather spend that money on more games.

It's still an ok system though. I wouldn't have got it if I had to shell out $300. It was a graduation gift.

Actually, it was probably around $499 or $599 in Taiwan at launch, as well. However, when I bought it, it had gotten "cheaper" -- 9,900 NTD when I bought it three years after launch ($342.94 at the current exchange rate).

$342.94 for a three-year-old system in a country where the minimum wage is approximately $3 an hour. Not cool, Sony!

Fortunately, I finished my contract in Taiwan and now work in Japan, where I am paid 3x more and can actually afford an overpriced system like the PS3, now. But I've decided to get more into portable games, for a few personal reasons.

I think you and I are playing a different PS3.

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Perhaps I was generalizing too much, but I think we have different tastes in games.

I remember perusing the PS3 section at my local PlayStation 3 store on Jianguo Road and not finding anything that interested me. So I mainly just bought PSN cards and used them to buy PSOne classics, since I couldn't find any titles that called out to me.

I had some fun with PSN's PSOne classics: I downloaded and beat Ape Escape, Aquanaut's Holiday: Memories of Summer '96, Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon, Final Fantasy II, and also downloaded Samurai Spirits I/II but never finished either.

Then, one day, I had the epiphany that I was using this $342 hunk of advanced harware to emulate games from the 1990s, that my computer could do that just as well, and decided to cut my losses and sell the darn thing.