Sony has yet to reveal any specific launch date or price point for the PlayStation 4, but it's already expecting the PS4 to perform a lot better than the PS3 in one very important category: Profitability.
Speaking during an earnings call on Thursday, Sony's Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato told interested parties that the PlayStation 4 is expected to be profitable a lot sooner than the PS3 was when it first launched back in 2006.
"Unlike PS3, we are not planning a major loss to be incurred with the launch of PS4," Kato said, according to a Eurogamer report. "At the time we developed PS3, we made a lot of in-house investments to develop the chip, the Cell chip. Development of the chip saw the silicon processing and all the facilities invested by us ourselves. But this time, yes we have a team working on chip development, but we already have existing technology to incorporate and also product investment and all the facilities will now be invested by our partners, other foundries, so we don't have to make all the investment in-house."
You may or may not remember much about the PS3 launch outside of the outrageous price point (five hundred and ninety nine US dollars, in case you forgot), but even that was cheap. Sony didn't end up turning a profit on each PS3 until four years after the console shipped. Clearly, the company doesn't want to suffer a repeat of the same scenario with the PS4.
So, does this mean Sony will be selling the PS4 for a profit at launch? Just because the company isn't expecting a "major loss" doesn't mean the console won't be sold for one at first. Still, the fact that Sony feels compelled to bring this up at all suggests good things for PS4 development going forward.
In fact, the company announced that it turned a profit of $458 million only one year after it posted a record loss. Game sales were down 12 percent, but the PS4 launch should do a lot to alleviate that number.
"Sales are expected to increase significantly," Kato said, "primarily due to the planned introduction of the PlayStation 4 in the fiscal year ending 31st March 2014."
