[quote name='dallow']I meant overall.
The PS3 is slowing them down right now, but their career in games has been a profit overall.[/quote] I'll go back as far as I can. Overall results:
Q107: ($29)
FY06: ($232)
FY05: $8.7
FY04: $43
FY03: $68
FY02: $113
That's a net total loss of $28 million since April of '02, which is as close as I can get to the same spot after the PS2 launch as we are after the PS3 launch. If you could go back further (Sony doesn't have that info on their
financial reports site), the losses would go back up again due to PS2 subsidies (back through Q2 '00), and there would be shrinking profits in the few years before the PS2 launch (as there were from FY03-FY05) due to R&D. The overall number (since the beginning) is probably positive though, I'll give you that. But I would hope that would be the case with them dominating two generations and selling well over 200 million consoles (and the software and accessories to go with them).
But this time around, the PS3 has taken the place that the Xbox did last time. It was late to the party, carried a subsidy greatly in excess of the norm for a console launch, is only marginally (if at all) more powerful than its competitor, doesn't have nearly as many exclusives as its competitor, and is getting half-assed ports for many crossplatform titles. All of those things are reasons the Xbox did so poorly last gen, and are the same reasons the PS3 is a financial anchor for Sony this gen. It won't look as bad for Sony because MS didn't have a previous-gen superstar in the market to offset its current-gen losses.
[quote name='dallow'] MS has never made any money.
(and as you have pointed out, it's nothing near "billions")[/quote] Completely true. They would have broken even this year if not for the warranty extension, and Zune launch costs

ed them pretty hard in '07 as well (same division). FY08 (started in July) should work out pretty well however, with no launch expenses and the $1B+ hit for the RROD already written down in FY07. But it'll be awhile before they recoup previous years' losses.
[quote name='dallow']They let their audio/video go to shit, that I remember.
Their ES line used to be nothing but quality, but for the last few years, AV enthusiasts have gone elsewhere.[/quote] Yup. This AV enthusiast has gone elsewhere (to the
Onkyo TX-NR905) because the STR-DA555ES he paid $1000 for in 1999 never completely worked from the day he bought it, and after being repaired no less than SEVENTEEN times, does not work at all. Well that's not entirely true--the power light comes on.
However, we're really starting to drift offtopic, so this is the last financial/electronics post I'll make.