PS3 price affects publishers
Gamasutra announces British publisher SCI, who has acquired Eidos Studios in 2005, has recorded a loss of $60.8 million in the fiscal year that ended on July 30 2007. Apparently the high price of Sony’s next generation console is partly to blame.
The main cause of this loss is the transition to the next generation consoles, it seems that it has affected the company in more than one way. The low price of the products intended for the older generation of entertainment systems, the low price of the old generation consoles themselves, which led to an exceptionally high price protection charges of $29.4 million.
Another cause for these negative results is considered to be PlayStation 3’s high retail price. The company stated: The board continues to believe in the long-term commercial success of PlayStation 3 but believes this may take more time than originally forecast by Sony. The board is of the opinion that the key driver to the acceleration of the installed base of PlayStation 3 will be a further hardware price cut.” Yeah, that’s kind of obvious.
Despite these disturbing results, SCI is optimistic about their future stating they have the strongest portfolio of products moving forward in the history of the company. I for one wish them all the best, I’d be sorry to see Eidos closed down.
