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Vincent Padois, head tutor at the Pierre and Marie Curie University who teaches robotics and is babysitting the Paris ICub, makes a demonstration with ICub robot, a ?hybrid embodied cognitive system for a humanoid robot" about 1 metre (3.2 feet) high, at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris September 4, 2009. Six versions of ICub exist in laboratories across Europe, where scientists are painstakingly tweaking its electronic brain to make it capable of learning, just like a human child and hoping it will learn how to adapt its behaviour to changing circumstances, offering new insights into the development of human consciousness. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

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    Sony's Hirai eyes PS3 profit as costs decline

    Franklin Paul
    LAS VEGAS
    Mon Jan 7, 2008 5:02am EST

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    Kaz Hirai arrives at a party held by Sony Computer Entertainment America celebrating the new Playstation 3 game console in Beverly Hills November 8, 2006. Hirai hopes to turn a profit on the PlayStation 3 console business in the entertainment conglomerate's next fiscal year, fueled in part by falling costs for the parts used to make the device. REUTERS/Fred Prouser

    LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Sony Corp (6758.T) gaming chief Kaz Hirai hopes to turn a profit on the PlayStation 3 console business in the entertainment conglomerate's next fiscal year, fuelled in part by falling costs for the parts used to make the device.

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    "We want to get to the positive side of the equation as quickly as possible," Hirai, who is chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, said late on Sunday on the sidelines of a news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

    "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."

    His comments came after Sony announced stellar holiday sales for the PS3. The company said on Sunday it sold 1.2 million PlayStation 3 video game consoles in North America over the period, two-thirds what it sold in the rest of the year.

    The Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment conglomerate currently loses money for each PS3 it sells.

    Sales of the PS3 have lagged those of Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Xbox 360 and Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS) Wii consoles due to what analysts say is its lofty price and a dearth of must-have games.

    Great games, which draw consumers to buy the console, matched with declining component prices will hopefully lead to profitability for the PS3 and the company's gaming division overall, Hirai said.

    "Component costs are coming down, and the number of components ... we are seeing a reduction," he said. "The 40 gigabyte PlayStation 3 obviously has fewer components (than more powerful models), and uses less power, which means that components required to dissipate heat, for example, can be smaller, so there is some cost reduction there."

    "So costs are coming down significantly," he added, noting that the decline is in line with what the company had expected.

    (For more from the Consumer Electronics Show, please visit the MediaFile blog: blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/)

    (Reporting by Franklin Paul; Editing by Quentin Bryar)
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