Tokyo (Japan) – Sony will is ready to expand the content for its Playstation 3 (PS3) game console with a movie download service, the company said earlier today.

According to a report by the Associated Press, the announcement was made by Kazuo Hirai, president and group chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, stating that the service will be made available in the U.S. this summer. Similar services are expected to be offered in Japan in Europe at a later date.

"Please expect more from our evolving Playstation business," Hirai said. If Sony gets it right, PS3 users should see lots of movies from the start, since Sony Pictures Entertainment holds more than three dozen production studios and networks. Especially noteworthy is Columbia Tristar, which owns titles such as Spiderman. MGM is an affiliate of Sony Pictures.

The new service is likely to be detailed at E3 next month and is yet another step on Sony’s path to make the PS3 a profitable platform. According to Sony’s most recent financial report, the company sold 12.81 million PS3s until March 31 of this year. Due to the high hardware cost of the PS3, Sony’s game unit reported a $1.2 billion loss for its fiscal year 2007 (April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008).

A reduced production cost as well as increasing game sales, however, helped Sony to cut the loss nearly in half from a year ago when the game unit (which includes PS2 and PSP as well as game sales as well) reported a loss of $2.3 billion.

It is generally believed that Sony’s PS3 may have accumulated losses of more than $3 billion so far.   

FAIL

Jun 26, 2008 17:50     

Looks like Blu-Ray fails. Microsoft took a $1.1 billion hit for the RROD(fixed it for customers for free, doubt $ony would do that). Looks like Sony might get alot more presure from their shareholders to stop producing a failing product.
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re: headward

Jun 26, 2008 21:14     

every console from sony has lost money the first 2 years. They make something ahead of its time, but they sell it till people refuse to buy it anymore. PS2 is still selling like hotcakes, and its quire old now (though I still play mine quite a bit). Sony will break even this year, and next year they will make it all back and then some. Thats always been their stratagy, and will continue to be. Anybody know if X-Box is running positive numbers yet? I'm just wondering.

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@Caeden

Jun 30, 2008 14:31     

Yes the Xbox division of Microsoft is profitable(even with the $1.1 billion hit). Sony will not break even this year. They are estimated to lose about $1.0 billion on the PS3 this year. But you're right that they make the money later in the life of the console, when production costs drop. But most of the money is made in licensing(software, controllers, etc)
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all games for all systems

Dec 11, 2008 21:20     

ladies and gentlemen,how come you don`t make games for all systems?eexample/devil may cry 4,god of war 3,call of duty4,and 5/for ps3,or psp/but never p2/you make alot of other games also,but never ps2/ i don`t think alot of gamers like buying another game system so they can enjoy the next installment of the game series they are playing from part one,espicially on ps2 for example/talking about midnight club las angeles,and grand theft auto 4 ,all smackdown vs raw video games for ps2 for all systems/i believe all gamers feel the same as i do/ the reason you are looseing money on ps3,games not selling ps3 games,the prices need to be lowered so gamers can afford games and system/this might be your promblem/thank-you and god bless

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