Sony’s losses on PS3: $3 billion and counting
For all the talk of hundreds of millions of dollars spent on writing big games like Grand Theft Auto IV, software development is relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things. Building consoles (and making sure they work right *cough* Microsoft *cough*) is a dazzlingly expensive endeavor. Since consumers won’t pay four figures just so they can play Donkey Kong, selling hardware at a loss is really the only option for companies that want to keep fighting in this market. Then again, there’s one company that proves that piling on the losses isn’t the only way to do business in the gaming world: Nintendo, based on strong sales of both the Wii and the DS, reported record sales in fiscal 2008, with earnings of a whopping $2.6 billion, up 48 percent since 2007. With $10.5 billion in cash, you can hear Mario laughing all the way to the bank. more
