iSuppli, an electronics supply chain, had their researchers perform an analysis on the PS3 to determine how much money Sony would lose for each PS3 manufactured. For the 20 GB retail PS3, priced at $499 US dollars, Sony will lose $306.85. For the 60 GB retail PS3, priced at $599 US dollars, Sony will lose $241.35. This means that the manufacturing cost of the 20 GB PS3, with all it’s included parts, is around $805.85 US dollars, and for the 60 GB PS3, $840.35. As iSuppli states,

“It’s common for video-game console makers to lose money on hardware, and make up for the loss via video game-title sales. Still, the size of Sony’s loss per unit is remarkable, even for the video-game console business.”

iSuppli also did a test similar to this for Microsoft and the Xbox 360, concluding that the $399 Xbox 360 was being sold for a $127 loss when it was first manufactured. A fourth quarter update in 2006 has changed those test results, now saying that the $399 Xbox 360 only costs $323.30 to manufacture.

Read (iSuppli.com)