PlayStation business swings to $85m profit
Improved hardware costs help counter lower sales; PS3 shifts 3.5m units in Q2, PSP hardware down 50%
Sony's Networked Product and Services division, which houses the PlayStation business, PC and other connected devices, swung to a ¥6.9 billion ($85.5m / £53.7m) operating profit for the second quarter of the financial year, compared to a ¥59 billion ($731m / £458m) loss for the same period last year.
However, sales in the game category specifically were down 12.9 per cent, to ¥171 billion ($2.1bn / £1.3bn), compared to ¥196 billion ($2.4bn) for the same quarter last year.
Unit sales of the PlayStation rose from 3.2 million to 3.5 million compared to the same period last year, but PSP units dropped 50 per cent from 3 million to 1.5 million.
The PlayStation 2 sold as many units as the PSP during the three months, down from 1.9 million last year.
PlayStation 3 software sales were up from 23.9 million to 35.3 million units, with PSP game sales down from 13 million to 11 million units. PlayStation 2 software sales dropped from 11.4 million to 5.6 million units.
Full year unit forecasts remain unchanged, with expected sales of 15 million PlayStation 3 units, 8 million PSP units and 6 million PlayStation 2 units, said Sony.
Significant reductions in hardware costs, higher sales for the PlayStation 3 console and the addition of the Move peripheral were singled out as improving sales and operating revenue for NPS, along with strong PC sales, overall showing a year-on-year increase of 5 per cent to ¥369.1 billion ($4.5bn / £2.8bn).
The entire Sony Corporation recorded a profit of ¥62.7 billion ($777.1m / £487.7m) for the period, a big improvement over the ¥26.3 billion loss for the same period last year. Operating income was ¥68.7 billion ($582.6m / £535.3m), up from a ¥32.6 billion loss ($404.6m / £254m).