According to Next Generation, Sony loses about $200 USD on every sold Playstation 3, but the company’s Executive Vice President Nobuyuki Oneda said that the loss would hopefully be eliminated this fiscal year which ends March 2008.

Three parts in the Playstation 3 are responsible for the big loss, the Cell processor, the RSX graphics chip and the Blu-ray optical drive. It was already confirmed that Sony was working on transitioning the PS3’s chips from 90nm to 65nm which means that they’re making the chips smaller so they can make more from the same base material and thus lowering the price. The Cell processor would be the first to undergo this process, followed by the RSX graphics card. The Blu-ray optical drive will also get cheaper due to mass production of the laser diodes.

“The removal of the negative margin will be when all of these factors have come out. Maybe, marginally, we could achieve this during this year,” Oneda told a Citigroup Securities analyst during a Q&A session. Oneda still couldn’t specify exactly when this break-even point may happen.

“For the negative margin to go away, the big trigger would be the cost-down in the Cell and RSX semiconductors. They are the key, and also optical pick-up is another factor, significantly,” he said.

Oneda confirmed that Sony is working on transitioning the PS3’s chips from 90nm to 65nm, which would reduce costs significantly. He said the Cell would be the first PS3 chip to make the migration, followed by the RSX chip.

This news isn’t really surprising since it’s the typical life cycle for a console to be sold at a loss when it’s initially launched and then later starts breaking even or making profit. The Wii is an exception as it’s Nintendo’s policy not to sell consoles at a loss. Rumor goes that Microsoft is also already selling the console at a profit, but due to lots of consoles breaking down and their extended warranty program, they’re losing billions on the games division.