Petrichor said:
So Infamous 2 has only sold 400k in the states? Excuse my ignorance, but assuming roughly equal sales in Europe, is there any way on earth that this game has been profitable? Surely games like Infamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2 and Killzone 3 can't be profitable ventures for Sony?
Probably Infamous sold more in Europe, there is more installed base, at least. Probably it will sell more after some price drops.
Also, a first party games are not only profitable because of the game revenue. They build brand, selling also some hardware units (not because a single game, but because a good set of exclusive games).
And, about the revenue, a first party game get more money than a third party one, because there is no "console cut". For each copy that Capcom sell on PS3, they get less benefits than the ones that Sony get for a first party game. Because Capcom has to pay Sony for each game sold.
So, even if a AAA needs, for example, to sell 1M to get benefits (as said someone from Soul Calibur), a first party maybe only need to sell 600K to get benefits, because his benefits for each copy sold are bigger.