Sony Promises That PS4 Losses Won't Be Anything Like PS3

Considering that the PlayStation 3 left Sony in a financial crater equivalent to the one that prompted the onset of the last great ice age, it’s reassuring to learn that the Japanese giant is not planning on burning quite as much cash with its next generation console. Speaking as part of an investors meeting last week, group president Andrew House told shareholders not to panic.

"We will not generate anything like the losses that we did for the PS3," he grinned, presumably while dabbing the sweat from his brow. Masaru Kato, the Chief Financial Officer at Sony, added that the investment in the PS4 is “much, much smaller” as a result of its straight-forward architecture and less ambitious chips.

Despite this, the company is expecting its games division to post losses on account of currency exchange rates. Due to the strengthening yen, the firm had arranged to pay suppliers in US currency. Unfortunately, the humble dollar has been gaining value over the yen this year, and is expected to further strengthen through March.

The platform holder predicts that the losses will be largely offset by the PS4, but it no longer expects its games division to break even for the year. Instead, it reckons that its earnings will “deteriorate significantly”. Still, at least it’s not going to a report a $3 billion loss like it did with the PS3. Yeah, that was a bit of a disaster.