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[Lukas]

Thanks

 

[DCharlie]

you mean....

Dev & R&D Costs + advertising + plant construction + fabrication etc... ?
No idea.

a fair packed no doubt.

 

[sonycowboy]

you mean....

Dev & R&D Costs + advertising + plant construction + fabrication etc... ?
No idea.

a fair packed no doubt.

Bring it on! Can you disclose your super secret source yet??

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

I remember scoffing at PSX in it's early days. Seemed to get a lot of PC and arcade ports more than anything.

 

[belgurdo]

I also remember when people thought the PSX would fail, and everyone put their support behind the Saturn (they even had "official" Saturn mags out on the market.)

Then the suckers saw Toshinden.

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

Toshinden rocked. I wonder if it still holds up, it's been so long.

 

[Lukas]

I read that Sony was also taking losses on each console sold just like MS....was wondering how much they lost in comparision to MS

 

[BenT]

Toshinden rocked. I wonder if it still holds up, it's been so long.

It was and always has been a terrible-playing game.

So it will hold up in that respect. Or at least be the same.

 

[Spike]

I read that Sony was also taking losses on each console sold just like MS....was wondering how much they lost in comparision to MS

It's true that Sony was taking losses while producing the PS1, but they did eventually manage to make profits. That's what selling close to 100 million consoles worldwide does eventually.

Microsoft, IMHO, won't make a profit off the Xbox, what with the talk of Xbox2 releasing at the tail end of 2005 or early 2006. But, they set out to cement themselves in the market place, and even if they don't break even, they've accomplished that. Next gen is going to be very, very interesting.

 

[belgurdo]

(and Vermillion, too, but I can't find a pic of him)

The only reasons I (and probably many others) actually stuck with the series

That, and positioning characters so that they'd walk off the stages during their win poses

 

[jarrod]

I read that Sony was also taking losses on each console sold just like MS....was wondering how much they lost in comparision to MS

They were slight losses to force Sega to respond with the more expensive Saturn and bleed them dry. I'm a little surprised Microsoft hasn't used the same tactics against Sony...

 

[Gahiggidy]

                                                            Yen in millions
                                                -----------------------------------------
                                                           Year ended March 31
                                                -----------------------------------------
                                                   1996           1997           1998
                                                -----------    -----------    -----------
<S>                                             <C>            <C>            <C>
Operating income (loss):
  Electronics                                       193,331        239,312        314,538
  Game                                              (8,938)         57,045        116,936
  Music                                              40,129         45,216         54,084
  Pictures                                           23,862         28,925         35,544
  Insurance                                           7,116         19,099         20,326
  Other                                             (6,078)        (1,422)       (10,292)

Can't track down the numbers from 1995, sorry. Before then Game was lumped together with a bunch of other products as a "Other Products" segment.


p.s. I should get paid to bring you this info...perhaps the GAF should higher me on to run a new feature, "Ask Gahiggidy".

 

[DCharlie]

"Bring it on! Can you disclose your super secret source yet??"

it's not secret - i'm sure the details are out there.

 

[DarienA]

Lukas I think your questions, your real question has already been answered. Sony was able to turn a profit on the original Playstation.

 

[DCharlie]

um - i think there is a missunderstanding in at least this thread.

I though the question was how much did they initial lose to get the PS1 started up,
not over the PS1s lifetime (which was obviously profitable).

 

[DDayton]

Not enough to make any sort of rational parallel between Microsoft and Sony.

 

[Nintendo Ate My Children]

I still remember reading in Next Generation magazine about Sony spending $500 million on Playstation R&D. Have no idea about the rest of the numbers.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

um - i think there is a missunderstanding in at least this thread.

I though the question was how much did they initial lose to get the PS1 started up,
not over the PS1s lifetime (which was obviously profitable).

Where do you draw the line though? What exactly constitutes the startup period? The first 6 months, first year or two? When did Sony market enough that Playstation entered the cultural vocabulary? No one is ever going to make a meaningful schedule for that.

 

[DCX]

It was and always has been a terrible-playing game.

So it will hold up in that respect. Or at least be the same.

I agree, it looke nice, but it sucked hard.

DCX

 

[bishoptl]

That, and positioning characters so that they'd walk off the stages during their win poses

I thought I was the only one to do that!