Sony Still Takes 10% Hit on PS3 Systems

This is something I failed to notice in my couple of reports on Sony's earnings report yesterday. ITmedia, covering Sony's Tokyo earnings briefing from yesterday, has a quote from CFO Nobuyuki Oneda stating that the PS3's cost to Sony is still about 10% higher than the system's price. This is current as of the end of March.

The PS3 is priced differently in each territory, but in Japan, 10% would mean about a 4,000 yen hit (this is assuming Oneda is referring to the retail cost, which may not be the case). Sony has, of late, been selling between 20,000 and 30,000 systems per week here.

As reported here yesterday (based off a Nikkei article), Oneda also said at the earnings conference that Sony has further cost savings in store for the system. He declined to comment on the possibility of a price drop.

Oneda also addressed low PSP software sales, noting that the system's attach rate is lower than hardware from other companies and that increased hardware sales is not leading to a similar increase for software sales. According to Oneda, Sony hopes to improve the attach rate through such methods as making the system capable of playing PS3 and PlayStation software.

I'm not sure what the "PlayStation software" comment is about, as the system already has access to Game Archive games (most recently Final Fantasy Tactics). But the "PS3" software comment is interesting. It could be in reference to a game like Qruton, which is being released simultaneously on both PS3 and PSP.

Alternatively, it could just be in reference to Remote Play... although I don't see how that would increase PSP software attach rates.