Sony reports revenues up

Sony Corporation has announced its financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2007, showing an overall revenue growth year-on-year of 12.3 per cent.

However, while the Corporation made an operating profit of JPY 90.5 billion (USD 787 million) during the quarter, up from a loss of JPY 20.8 billion (USD 182 million) last year, the games division's losses doubled in the same period.

Although revenues, largely down to the sales of the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable Slim and Lite, jumped 43 per cent to JPY 243 billion (USD 2.1 billion), last year's operating loss of JPT 43.5 billion (USD 381 million) more than doubled to JPY 96.7 billion (USD 841 million).

Sony attributed the loss primarily to "the strategic pricing of PS3 at points lower than its production cost and the increase in PS3-related inventory write-downs recorded during the current quarter compared to the same quarter of the previous year."

That inventory value now stands at JPY 248 billion (USD 2.2 billion), up 31 per cent on last year, and the result of the "build-up of finished goods inventory following the introduction of the PS3 platform in Japan, North America and Europe."

Additionally, while sales of the PlayStation 3 have now hit 1.31 million units globally during the last quarter, with PS3 software sales reaching 10.3 million units, sales of PlayStation 2 hardware is down four per cent year-on-year, with PS2 software unit sales falling by around a quarter.

The PSP is still going strong, with over half a million units sold this quarter than in the same period last year, although software sales for the handheld dropped by around five per cent in that time.