Sony CEO Kaz Hirai has expressed hope the PlayStation 3 will become profitable for his company in its next fiscal year, based on the falling cost of parts used in the console’s manufacture.
Hirai, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, said, “We want to get to the positive side of the equation as quickly as possible. The next fiscal year starts in April and if we can try to achieve that in the next fiscal year that would be a great thing. We are going through the budgets right now. That (profitability) is not a definite commitment, but that is what I would like to try to shoot for.”
“Component costs are coming down, and the number of components… we are seeing a reduction,” he continued. “The 40 gigabyte PlayStation 3 obviously has fewer components, and uses less power, which means that components required to dissipate heat, for example, can be smaller, so there is some cost reduction there.”
Sony recently announced it had sold 1.2 million PlayStation 3 consoles in North America over the holiday season, a figure which Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton said “ended the year in a very strong position and clearly indicates more positive momentum going into 2008.”
