PlayStation Losses Nearing $5 Billion

According to figures on Sony’s investor relations page, the Japanese giant is now totaling losses of over $4.5 billion, although the figures do appear to be reducing year on year.  The figures for 2007-2009 are pure losses on the gaming division, whereas the current half year figures include Sony’s Vaio business too, as the department previously called “game” is now “Networked Products and Services”.

• FY 2007: -$1,970,923,859
• FY 2008: -$1,079,994,103
• FY 2009: -$577,207,240
• FY 10Q1: -$413,541,667
• FY 10Q2: -$653,333,333

Consoles normally release at some kind of a loss, and recent talk of the new slimline PS3 actually losing Sony more money is an interesting one.  Naturally, the company strives to claw back some of the research and development and manufacturing costs with every game sold, so if you want to try to reverse this current flow of cash pouring away, get out there and buy five copies of LittleBigPlanet.

There’s more here, if you’re that way inclined.