PS3 sales drop in first quarter, Corp losses hit $191m
Company still expects to sell 15m home consoles for full year; Earthquake takes toll on wider business
Sony Corporation has reported a net loss of ¥15.5 billion ($191 million) for the first quarter ended June 30, compared to a profit of ¥25.7 billion for the same period last year.
The company said sale and profits were down mainly due to the impact of the Japanese Earthquake in March this year, although operations affected by the disaster are recovering faster than expected.
Sales of the PlayStation 3 dropped to 1.8 million units for the first quarter, down from 2.4 million for the same period last year.
Sales of PlayStation 3 games were up to 26.1 million units, from 24.8 million last year. Despite the slump in hardware, Sony still expects to outsell last year's PS3 total for the full financial year, forecasting 15 million sales compared to 14.3 million. Software sales are expected to be static at around 148 million games.
Sales of the PlayStation Portable were up on last quarter, from 1.2 million to 1.8 million, while PlayStation 2 sales dropped from 1.6 million to 1.4 million.
Sony's Consumer Products & Services division, which now includes PlayStation products as well as TV, home audio and video, mobile products and digital imaging, reported operating profits of ¥1.7 billion ($21 million), down from ¥28.5 billion last year, primarily due to a decline in LCD TV and video cameras.
Sales in the division were down 13 per cent to ¥732.3 billion ($9 billion), due to low sales in the US and Europe and competition in the PC market. The company made no detailed comments on the PlayStation business.