Sony Computer Entertainment revenues fall as PS2 sales slip

The latest financial results from Sony Corporation reveal that revenues in its videogames division dropped by 23 per cent year on year in the third quarter, with a slide in hardware sales only partially offset by improved software sales.

The division recorded revenues of 282.6 billion Yen (2.1 billion Euro) in the three months ended December 31st, while operating income fell by 36.8 per cent in the same period - down to 44.6 billion Yen (331 million Euro).

The decline was attributed to lower PS2 sales in all territories, which came about as a result of the severe hardware shortages which afflicted the markets in the months after the launch of the new slimline PS2.

However, the company's production shipments figure for the quarter was actually up over last year's, increasing by around 560,000 units to 7.39 million - with the problem presumably being that many of these units only shipped at the tail end of the quarter, and didn't get into retail in time for Christmas.

Software shipments, however, remained healthy, with 109 million units of PlayStation 2 software shipped during the three month period, an increase of five million units over the same period last year.

The financial report goes into little detail regarding the impact of PlayStation Portable on the firm's finances, but does confirm Ken Kutaragi's assertion that Sony beat its shipment target for the full year, albeit by a fine margin - the PSP shipment figure for 2004 stands at 0.51 million units, with 1.3 million units of software shipped.

In terms of the overall situation at Sony Corporation, the parent company recorded decreases in both revenues (down 7.5 per cent to 2.15 trillion Yen, or 16 billion Euro) and operating income (down 5.4 per cent to 138 billion Yen, or 1.03 billion Euro), with the decline being attributed largely to the videogames and electronics businesses.