It's a bit pedantic of me to say this, but if your cost of goods is $381, and the retail price is $399, you are losing money. There is the retailers cut, distribution, marketing, R&D etc. They were losing money to invest in the platform.

The article says the PS3 cost of goods was $800 per unit at launch, but it is worth remembering that the PS3 was an investment in two strategic initiatives for Sony. One was the PS3 standard, that they would earn future software royalties on. The other, and at the time maybe more important, was the BluRay standard.