Sony: PSN hack to cost approximately $170m

Sony Corporation has warned that the PlayStation Network breach is to cost the company approximately ¥14 billion ($171.2m / £106.1m) by the end of the 2012 fiscal year.

The company was forced to close down its PSN online service last month after hackers compromised data of over 77 million user accounts. Later, Sony Online Entertainment's website was also hacked, bring the total number of breached gamer accounts to over 100 million.

"Based on information currently available to Sony, our current known costs associated with the unauthorised network access are estimated to be approximately 14 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012," the company told investors today.

Furthermore, Sony predicted a net loss for the entire 2011 financial year of ¥260 billion ($3.1 bn / £1.9bn) - compared to expectations in February that the company was on track to record a profit of ¥70 billion, blaming a write-off due to deferred tax assets.

For the full 2011 financial year Sony expects the Japanese earthquake and tsunami to wipe ¥17 billion from operating profits, and a further ¥150 billion from the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.

Despite that, Sony said it anticipates a return to profitability in the 2012 financial year.