Sony views silver lining on PS3 cloud

IN A QUOTATION that could have been written by Sony satirists the world over, Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda has told journalists that there is certainly a silver lining attached to the cloud of the PS3's poor sales figures: "Sales of the PS3 have risen but we booked losses due to our strategic decision to price it below the (production) cost... Actually, because the number of units sold was not as high as we hoped, the loss was better than our original expectation."

In other words: since Sony loses a tonne of money on every PS3 sold, selling less actually means the company loses less money. It's a winner, both ways!

Oneda can't imagine that his is the official party line, but it makes a handy retort to claims that Sony is doing badly both on the books and in the marketplace, competing against Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. Losing less money is definitely a benefit, although perhaps less so when your entire business model is built on getting these things out the door, whatever the cost.

Furthermore, the money man claimed that "Software developers will continue to use the PS3 as an important platform to which they are committed," which we might expect.

PS3 sales continue to go slowly, although this weekend Sony did reveal that Rockstar's next big franchise, post-GTA4, will be PS3 exclusive. Could this be a killer-app for PS3? The Master Chief might have something to say about that. µ