Sony holding back PS3 stock despite demand to lessen loss?
Several weeks ago I wrote a story discussing a curious trend we have seen where the PS3 stock at major retailers have not been meeting the demand of the consumers. It seems Sir Howard Stringer’s recent comments may shed more light as to why this is the case; details after the jump.
In the previous story I speculated that despite the PS3 MGS4 stock being depleted constantly over and over again after restocking, Sony maybe holding back stock in order to keep interest going for a long time. It seems that the actual reason maybe a bit more economical in nature than that.
Recently in an interview with Welt, Stringer a British native, currently running one of the largest and most powerful Japan based company in the world Sony, verified our story that currently the demand is far outstripping the supply we have been recording in our previous story. It seems like Stringer painfully states immediately afterwards, that with every PS3 they sell they are loosing money.
Also near the end of the interview Stringer brings up an interesting fact when asked if Sony could recoup the 3 billion in losses from the PS3.
Stringer says:
Not for as long as I live (laughs). It will certainly take some time. The traditional business model for the Playstation envisaged us making a loss with the hardware in the early years until the production costs had decreased to a point that enabled us to break even. In the meantime, we earn money with the games. We are currently at the stage in which we need to get a grip on the production costs. That takes time. We are already making more money with the games than we are losing with the hardware.
The last sentence immediately catches my attention as this statement indicates Sony’s first party software and third party royalties are offsetting the loss incurred by the PS3.
Putting these two facts together, could it be that Sony is strategically controlling PS3 production in order to insure that the Playstation division comes out in the black next quarter as far as profit is concerned? You have to remember Sony is a CE company at heart and hardware has always been a huge focus.
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3 Responses to “Sony holding back PS3 stock despite demand to lessen loss?”
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August 31st, 2008
No the reason why there has been a drop in stock levels is because there is a new sku coming out. The MGS bundles were the last of the semi playstation 2 compatible 80gb sku’s. I would imagine some of the stock come from europe to feed the american demand.
Now they are switiching to the no backwards compatibility PS3 (with ps2) with the Cell having the shrink like the current 40gb in addition an RSX shrink. This means that even with 80gb hard drive the new 80gb sku will be much cheaper to produce for Sony so they may start breaking even selling the PS3 at this point.
Obviously due to the new motherboard due to RSX shrink there is going to be a delay while these newer SKU’s go to market hence the shortages.
September 2nd, 2008
Justin, I’m glad that you mentioned that. My question is can I trade my PS3 back in, keeping the same model but just to have the new chips (65nm or 45nm) replaced with the old one? I currently own the original 60gb PS3.
I don’t know the exact terminologies of 65nm and etc. But I would like my PS3 to run a little cooler and consume less energy. Because right now my PS3 runs hotter than my Halo 3 Edition Xbox 360.
September 2nd, 2008
I heat my house during the winter with my PS3! Ok not quite, but the 60gb does pump out some heat. When I have the PS3 going and my wife has her laptop, it does warm up the room.