According to PlayStation executive, “a PlayStation Plus subscription and one launch game” is all Sony needs to turn a profit on the PS4.

It’s a natural reality that launch systems for a next-gen console end up causing system manufacturers to lose profit. Expectedly, these manufacturers look to recover from those losses by selling the system’s software and services, whilst the company looks at gradually bringing down manufacturing costs so that they will in turn attain profit exclusively from the hardware.

Masayasu Ito, Senior Vice President of PlayStation, claimed that a PS Plus subscription and launch game (roughly equating to £80, or $80) would be enough to pull each system sale back to profitability. His comments were paraphrased by Eurogamer but not quoted. Ito said Sony expects to make a general profit from the average user’s initial purchase(s).

In August, PlayStation Chief Executive Andrew House stated that PS4 “will not generate anything like the losses we did for the PlayStation 3“. Masaru Kato, the firm’s Chief Financial Officer, also claimed “the amount of investment [in PS4] is much, much smaller” than PS3.

Cost estimates suggested that PS3 models made a loss of anywhere between $240 and $300, depending on model. Ken Kutaragi, the visionary who built the first three PlayStations, left the company soon after the PS3’s release.

Speaking to assorted press this week at the Tokyo Game Show, Sony executives have also outlined cloud gaming plans, stating that a large number of PS3 games will be available to play on PS4 via the cloud gaming network Gaikai in the future.

Sony also confirmed it has opted to drop High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection restrictions on the PS4. Players will now be allowed to capture gameplay directly through HDMI. They have also claimed that the PlayStation Eye camera can be updated to allow for Kinect-like system navigation on PS4.

If you plan on supporting Sony’s upcoming console and plan on picking it up around launch, which two (or more) games will you be picking up to stimulate the company’s financial recovery? Personally I’m feeling lured into DriveClub (I just absolutely admire the name) and Killzone absolutely. Yourselves?