Seven Days Of Sony Blowing It Hard (Day 1)

Since today was the official "launch" of the PS3, I've decided to kick off a seven-day extravaganza where I will be posting information I find from various sources around the Net supporting my claim that the PS3 is a big waste of money and that anyone who supports it is a fool. I put the word launch in quotes because with less than 200,000 units for sale, only a dozen games and very few (if any) accessories available at most locations, this was easily the most underwhelming system kick-off I've ever witnessed. Some have described it as "farcical" which sounds like an accurate claim. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the Xbox 360 but I swear I'm not trying to be petty here- I legitimately think Sony has made a boat-load of mistakes with their new system and I'm happy to exploit them for the sake of anyone who might be swayed by their surreal advertising and cheesy-as-hell "Spider-man" font. So without further delay, here are today's points of interest...

So after all that hubbub about high-definition and the superiority of the PS3 to all other consoles ever, it appears that Sony’s neglected to include high-definition support for the full range of available inputs. IGN reports that the PS3 is actually making high-definition games look worse on some displays; HDTVs that don’t support 1080p or 720p inputs will be downgraded to 480p…the same barely-better-than-480i resolution we’ve been seeing on DVDs and PS2 games (when using component cables) for years. (Meanwhile the Xbox 360 happily upscales 720p games to 1080i…hell, it’ll upscale just about anything.)

(info from IGN)

In an article detailing the overall parts cost for the PS3, iSupply reveals that Microsoft is no longer losing money on the Xbox 360. Last year, the company reported that Microsoft lost $126 dollars on every 360 sold. Due to a reduction in overall component costs, iSupply estimates that it now costs Microsoft $323.30 per Premium Xbox 360 manufactured. Thus, Microsoft actually earns $75.70 on each unit sold.

On the other end of the spectrum, Sony loses a lot of cash on each PS3. The high end PS3 costs $840.35 to build, losing Sony $241.35 per console. The cheaper PS3 actually costs nearly the same to produce, so Sony takes a hit of $306.85. According to the article, the primary pricing differences between the 360 and PS3 are the processors, and of course, Blu-ray. The PS3's motherboard and Blu-ray drive cost Sony $500, whereas the 360's motherboard and DVD drive cost Microsoft $200 -- down from $370 when the 360 launched. Naturally, Sony's costs will decline over time -- especially if Blu-ray is adopted.

(info from Joystiq)