People sepculating that the PS3 will be priced in the 299-340 range are dead wrong.

[Broccoli Storm]

On the more technical side of things...

Like someone mentioned before, debt to a corp. like Sony is a lot different than it is to a normal person like you and me. First off, financial statements can be a very tricky thing to base a company's profits/losses off of. Companies and their accountants often move numbers around to get certain benefits, make certain areas of the company look more profitable, etc. Second, for a company as big as Sony, even if they are making a loss every year, if they stopped production, they might be making an even bigger loss, so staying in business is the lesser of the two losses. With a company as huge as Sony, there are plenty of fixed costs. These costs are there whether they're making money and products or not.

 

[Quackzilla]

Step 1: Market penetration (selling console at a loss, but getting a lot of people to buy it)
Step 2: Game sales (selling and liscensing games, making up debt and paying off the consoles)
Step 3: Profit (make massive amounts of money)

 

[TurkeyOnRye]

Here's something you can take to the bank: Regardless of price, the PS3 will sell. You'll buy one, your mama will buy one.

What you need to be doing is taking bets on important matters such as:
1. number of people trampled to death in the resulting frenzy
2. number of fights breaking out between disgruntled parents soured by tickle-me-elmo/furby experiences
3. prices going for empty PS3 boxes on eBay

 

[Kastides]

Apparently alot of people dont know the state of Sony's finances. PS is their only "bread" maker at this point. Their PC division loses more money than a gambling degenerate and their Movies bomb harder than terrorist.

Remember the mini CD???? Another failed project and we all know ipod is kicking the shit out of people in the MP3 market. Also, Sony TVs are not selling like they use to.

One more thing Sony is not the M$ of electronics. ARE YOU ON CRACK? They arent even the biggest Electronics company in Japan.

 

[dafoomie]

[quote name='Quackzilla']LOL at all you ing retarded fanboys responging to this lame assed flamebait topic.

Bitch 1: Sony sucks!
Bitch 2: No it doesn't!
Bitch 3: t3h b00merang!

GO YOURSELVES!

This isn't gamefaqs, motherers![/QUOTE]
1. Kutaragi has said that it'll be more expensive.
2. Learn how to take a joke. You'll lead a much happier life. Alternatively, you could grow a thicker skin, and not get angry when people crack jokes about the system you like.

The OP isn't offering any solid information, but given the multiple quotes from Kutaragi and the cost analysis from Merrill Lynch, its not unreasonable to say that $399 is the likely price for PS3. Is that a bad thing? I dunno. Where the fanboyism comes into play is when people say childish things about it.

 

[Chacrana]

My guess is still $400 or $450.

 

[Photomotoz]

I think people awlayws forget about the keyword : Bulk. When bought in bulk everything is cheaper, and when an item is sold to one company on enourmas scale it becomes even cheaper. Ofcoures a single component such as the processors would cost a lot. A P4 3.0 processor costs around $180 retail, Dell has the exact same processor in a desktop priced at $350. And by no means is Dell losing money instead they profit quite nicley from selling such computers becuase they buy everything in obcene amounts. In the end I think retail cost for a PS3 might be around 300-450. I doubt that anyone would drop half a grond to play videogames even if the console is meant to be used for 10 years.

Also I read that Sony's saying that the PS3 might be price might have a trick to make MS put thier price up high so they would think thier console is cheaper. If that is true than it certainly worked. I dont think Sony would be dumb enough to charge over 450 for a video game console.