A Playstation 3 title has to sell at least half a million copies to make a profit, the president of Namco told Bloomberg.

President Takeo Takasu went on to say that graphics for PS3 games cost about 1 billion yen to create, or more than double what it costs to create graphics for Wii titles.

``We have to sell at least 500,000 copies per title worldwide to make a profit on PlayStation 3 games,'' said Takasu. He said titles for the new Sony console are ``selling well.''

The story goes on to quote a bunch of analysts saying that game developers might be hesitant to start making games for a console that is so expensive to develop for if it is having shipment issues. Brian Crecente

Namco Bandai's Takasu Says PS3 Game Titles Must Sell 500,000

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — Namco Bandai Holdings Inc., Japan's second-biggest maker of video-game software, must sell at least half a million copies of a game for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 console to make money on the title, said President Takeo Takasu.

Graphics for the high-definition games cost about 1 billion yen ($8.6 million) to create, more than double that for Nintendo Co.'s Wii titles, Takasu said in a Tokyo interview Nov. 28.

``We have to sell at least 500,000 copies per title worldwide to make a profit on PlayStation 3 games,'' said Takasu. He said titles for the new Sony console are ``selling well.''

Shortages of the PlayStation 3 may also make it more difficult for software makers to sell enough games. Tokyo-based Sony halved shipment targets for the console this year and delayed the European release amid a dearth for some parts. The company may have missed its goal of shipping 400,000 consoles in the U.S. earlier this month, according to analysts including Jeetil Patel at Deutsche Bank Securities in San Francisco.

``Game makers may hesitate to make games for a console if its shipment is being delayed,'' said Yuuki Sakurai, who helps manage $6.02 billion at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Tokyo. ``Some game makers may wait until a console becomes popular because of increasing production costs.''

Tokyo-based Namco Bandai expects games for the consoles introduced this month by Sony and Nintendo and a year ago by Microsoft Corp. to account for 10 percent of software sales, or 3.15 million units, this fiscal year ending March 31, Takasu said. The company sold about 26,000 titles for Microsoft's Xbox 360 last year, when it was introduced.

Namco Bandai developed two titles, the ``Ridge Racer'' car racing series and the latest ``Gundam'' shooting game, for Sony's PlayStation 3's Japan debut on Nov. 11, and will introduce four titles for Nintendo's Wii this weekend. The Wii offers a motion- sensor controller without high-definition graphics.

Shares of Namco Bandai fell 0.3 percent to 1,734 yen as of 1 p.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

At last month's NYC presser on the Wii, Nintendo announced that all first-party Wii games would be the slightly high $50. Maybe EB Games didn't get the memo, because they're listing a slew of first-party Wii games for $60.

While the latest Legend of Zelda rings in at $50, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, Project H.A.M.M.E.R., Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Wii Sports, Wii Sports Airplane, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Duck Hunt (yeah, I don't think that;s a game either), Wii Music and Necro-Nesia all show a price of $60. I suppose this could be a typo, a whole lotta typos, but it does make me a bit nervous.

The thing is, prices are never determined by the cost associated with creating a thing, it's always about supply and demand and we know Wii demand has been going through the roof lately. I'll buzz Nintendo about this for an official word. Brian Crecente

Retuers is reporting that the Wii is going to be profitable from day one, meaning that, unlike their competitors, Nintendo won't be losing money on their tiny new console.

"We will make a profit on the entire Wii proposition out of the box — hardware and software," Reggie Fils-Aime told Reuters in an interview.

"That really is a very different philosophy versus our competitors. We are a company that competes only in the interactive entertainment space so we have to make a profit on every thing we do."

Of course that also means they could have sold it for less too. Brian Crecente
Nintendo says Wii to be profitable right away [Reuters]

Yup, it's a lot of money... but perspective can also be gained by comparing it to the average income of a Spanish family, where a PS3 is likely to cost up to 35% of the monthly household income.

That's just one of the facts cited in DFC Intelligence's latest 600 page report of the interactive entertainment industry. Overall, they see the PS3 as coming in last in installed base in the next-gen console wars unless Sony changes their strategy. Gamasutra slogged through the whole thing so you don't have to, so jump to the link below to have a look at the pertinent highlights. Florian Eckhardt

PS3 to Slow Industry Growth [Gamasutra]

Kotaku learned two weeks about that the mark-up for a 360 is about 5 percent, but no one outside of Microsoft really has a clue what marketing, shipping and, most importantly, development costs. I have an idea, maybe all these analysts should just stop guessing.

Xbox 360 Pricing Strategy [Mercury News]