PlayStation business swings to $435m profit
PlayStation 3 units sales hit 14 million, games sales jump to 148 million for financial year
Sony's Networked Products and Services division, which includes the PlayStation business, recorded an operating profit of ¥35.6 billion ($435.3m / £266.9m) for the 2010 financial year, up from the ¥83.3 billion loss for the previous year.
The company highlighted improved software sales for the system, as well as reduced costs on PlayStation 3 hardware for the increase. Sales in the division only increased marginally to ¥1,572 billion ($19.2 bn / £11.7 bn).
During the year, Sony sold 14.3 million PlayStation 3 units compared to 13 million, 8 million PSPs compared to 9.9 million, and 6.4 million PlayStation 2 consoles, compared to 7.3 million for the 2009 financial year.
Software sales for the PlayStation 3 was up significantly from 115.6 million to 147.9 million, with PSP game sales also up from 44.4 million to 46.6 million. PlayStation 2 game sales dropped from 35.7 million units to 16.4 million.
As warned earlier in the week, the Sony Corporation as a whole made a significant loss during the full financial year of ¥256.9 billion ($3.14bn / £1.92bn) primarily due to deferred tax assets.
Sales were ¥7,181 billion ($87.7bn / £53.8bn) for the full financial year, a drop of 0.5 per cent compared to 2009, with operating income of ¥199.8 billion ($2.4bn / £1.4bn).
The company has warned that in the current fiscal year, it expects the cost of the PSN breach to hit approximately $170 million.