Sony sells 4.9M PS3s in fiscal Q3; game division yields profit

So long, woods! A New York Times and Reuters report has laid out Sony's financial fortunes for its third fiscal quarter (which corresponds to the fourth quarter on your calendar), noting a 25% rise in net income to 200.2 billion yen ($1.9 billion) for the entire company. In the same period, the Japanese electronics manufacturer saw its games business turn a profit thanks to lowered production costs and aggressive PlayStation 3 price cuts.

Though Sony has lowered its 11 million sales goal to 9.5 million for the fiscal year ending in March, the company managed to sell 4.9 million PlayStation 3 consoles from October to December of 2007. The PlayStation Portable's performance has proved more satisfactory, as its sales goal has been raised from 10 million to 13 million.

Appending this news to Nintendo's continued domination, the Xbox's recent profitability and the game industry's monster year leads us to believe that there's a line of laughing executives forming in the bank right this minute.

[Via Engadget]