Sony CEO: PlayStation profitability is top priority

by Ross Miller { Jun 20th 2008 at 9:00AM }

Sony's CEO Sir Howard Stringer told shareholders today that the company's top priority is to "to restore profitability in our television and game businesses," reports Bloomberg. The games division saw a profit during the last holiday season, and Sony expects PlayStation HQ to report an annual profit for the fiscal year ending March 2009, as well as at least 10 million in PS3 unit sales.

While PS2 sales are in slow decline, Sony said lower production costs and AAA titles (like this one, and this one, too) will help boost the division.

Tags: howard-stringer, sce, sony

Related From Joystiq

Take Two sells Jack of All Games
7 days ago
Sony's Koller calls 'motion control, 3D gaming, PSN' focal points of 2010
12 days ago
Sony still loses about $40 on every PS3 Slim sold
17 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

velocitySTRIKE @ Jun 20th 2008 9:16AM

Great header pic. If it were am animated gif I'd probably be sending money to Joystiq right now.

superaktieboy @ Jun 20th 2008 11:58AM

exactly what i thought lol.. its quite cool xD

PojoMofo @ Jun 20th 2008 9:17AM

Is he saying 10 million units in NA by March 2009?? I though I saw somewhere LTD was around 14 million worldwide

dark_inchworm @ Jun 20th 2008 9:56AM

Wikipedia says 12.81 million worldwide, VGChartz says 13.58 million.

Whichever one's right, well... who knows what he means?

Vcize @ Jun 20th 2008 10:56AM

Yeah I don't get it. They're already over 10m worldwide, and nowhere close to 10m in NA alone, so what is he referring to?

Hyams @ Jun 20th 2008 10:58AM

He probably means 10 million units for the fiscal year, not since launch.

SoulBlade @ Jun 20th 2008 9:33AM

Obviously... any gamer who thinks the companies work for them is clearly kidding themselves. Sucks, but what can you do.

BlackFreefall @ Jun 20th 2008 9:44AM

And here I thought their top prority is getting more games to be released on the PS3.

baby sea tuna @ Jun 20th 2008 10:13AM

I didn't. Go to your local Best Buy and compare the PS3 shelf to the Blu-Ray shelves and tell me where their focus is.

PojoMofo @ Jun 20th 2008 10:20AM

bst, that really doesnt make your point, its not like Sony published every single BR disc out there. BR won the format war, so its the only HD disc being developed now. If PS3 were the only HD console, that PS3 shelf would be mighty full.

baby sea tuna @ Jun 20th 2008 11:31AM

So...you're saying that if it didn't have any competition, the PS3 would be making more money?

Holy shit, Econ 101 FTW!

Maverick Saturn @ Jun 20th 2008 12:06PM

Doubt it, PS3 would have crashed the gaming market, at those original prices, and no doubt they would have been even MORE expensive being the only console in town.

juju187 @ Jun 20th 2008 9:46AM

i'd say sony already blew their load with metal gear..
i dont see any thing this holiday that moves systems for sony.

PojoMofo @ Jun 20th 2008 10:16AM

PS3 fall line-up is leaps and bounds better than 360's

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jun 20th 2008 10:41AM

"PS3 fall line-up is leaps and bounds better than 360's"

Aren't opinions fun?!!

Hyams @ Jun 20th 2008 10:54AM

LBP and Resistance 2 both look rather nifty. :)

Vcize @ Jun 20th 2008 10:58AM

PS3's fall lineup is in now way leaps and bounds better than the 360's as far as most people are concerned (obviously the select few will feel differently).

However, to say they have nothing left is absurd. Both the PS3 and 360 have incredibly appealing fall/holiday lineups this year, and my wallet shudders in fear of it.

dark_inchworm @ Jun 20th 2008 11:07AM

Just STFU about the lineups, guys. Wait for the next WWE and Spongebob releases so we can see which system performs better... only then will we know the victor.

deaftly @ Jun 20th 2008 11:19AM

Pojo you is crazy son, Resistance 2 and Gears2 are prob the big fall games for each system, Gears is looking MUCH more badass.

Saria the Cat @ Jun 20th 2008 11:29AM

Lolz at Vegeta and inch_worm. @juju187: I think the PS3 having (more) games would sell more PS3s, which would make more profits, too.

Maverick Saturn @ Jun 20th 2008 12:10PM

Dunno, if I didn't have a PS3 already, I personally would have hopped out and bought one by now still, the games I see coming out look interesting to me :)

Either way, I'm lucky, while you loosers moan about which game is better and proclaim your game the champion, I'll be playing both Gears 2 and Resistance 2 with a big smile on my face, and when I get fed up of the sore loosers online who can't take getting pwned, I'll just switch to the other console and play that game.

4MyFriends @ Jun 20th 2008 12:20PM

Truth be told, Sony doesn't really have all that much left going for them this year in big name titles. The 3 biggest titles that the PS3 has are the following:

-A user creation generated platforming game that will probably not sell due to "kiddie" factor
-A sequel to a launch title that was only good, not great
-A sequel to one of the biggest disappointments of last gen for the PS2(this is ).

Sony's biggest problem here isn't that these aren't well established big name sellers(only one close to this is Resistance, and that sold mostly due to being the only worthwhile launch title), nor is it the fact there is a good chance they can still be delayed into 2009, it's the fact 2/3 of these titles are generic 1st person shooters in a crowded market, competing with bigger games this holiday season like Call of Duty 5 and Gears of War 2.

The fight for second place(because the Wii all but has 1st defaulted to them) will be fought with not games, but in price. Luckily for Microsoft they have the upper hand on Sony in this, not to mention can afford to lower the price. I estimate Microsoft will launch a 200 dollar sku this holiday season as a last ditch effort to stop the PS3's momentum it had all year.

Tim The Enchanter @ Jun 20th 2008 12:39PM

I'm not sure who has more games on the horizon, at least more system sellers on the horizon, seeing as other games like Star Wars the Force Unleashed looks great on both systems.

I don't see this as a competition of who sells the most systems, but as a competition that push both to be of better value to us. Because without that competition, neither company would even try.

Vcize @ Jun 20th 2008 1:50PM

"ither way, I'm lucky, while you loosers moan about which game is better and proclaim your game the champion, I'll be playing both Gears 2 and Resistance 2 with a big smile on my face"

You do realize that pretty much everyone you're responding to here in this string of replies also has both a PS3 and a 360, right?

dark_inchworm @ Jun 20th 2008 9:49AM

PROTIP: No more thumbpenis.

dark_inchworm @ Jun 20th 2008 9:54AM

PROTIP: No more thumbpenis.

dark_inchworm @ Jun 20th 2008 9:57AM

PROTIP: Commenting system continues to be wonky. Do something.

Hyams @ Jun 20th 2008 10:57AM

I thought the thump penis was nifty. The sexual humour worked well enough considering that the ad only appeared in Playboy.

Scott @ Jun 20th 2008 10:00AM

Make the friggin' 80gb PS3 more widely available and maybe you'd move some more consoles you idiots!!!

Sorry...I've lost my patience...

343 Guilty Fart @ Jun 20th 2008 12:37PM

I completely agree. At this point the moment I see an 80GB on the shelf with backwards compatibility I'm buying it.

megaStryke @ Jun 20th 2008 10:09AM

Well, after the mess that was the PS3 launch and the subsequent months, Sony's game division should be doing sexual favors in order to actually make some money again.

http://gamerinvestments.com/video-game-stocks/2008/05/30/playstation-2-may-have-won-last-generations-sales-battle-but-it-lost-the-console-war/

During the PS2 era (2000 up to the launch of the PS3), Sony made $3.046 billion. In the short year and few months of the PS3's life, Sony has lost about $3.192 billion. All the money made over all those years were blown away just like that.

megaStryke @ Jun 20th 2008 10:10AM

*was* blown away

Grammar trouble.

Korova of the highlands @ Jun 20th 2008 3:36PM

Wow, mega, those numbers are amazing.

Not just that it turns out Nintendo won the last generation as well, but that PS is barely breaking even and xbox is 7 bln in the hole. OMG!1 That's 7 years of stellar profits just to break even.

Considering that a large company's internal target for return on capital is 15%/yr, xbox will need to earn 1 bln/yr for the next 10 years or so.

Wow! Only a company that large can afford such large long term investments. I hope they dont at some point decide to just spin it off, at which point the whole division will RROD in a year.

Nice link.

el serpiente @ Jun 20th 2008 11:01AM

-END OF BOSS BATTLE-

codec rings...

DREBIN: Snake, you finally took out that beast. Good job. No one but you could have finished her. Time for another story.

SNAKE: Who was she Drebin?

DREBIN: Her life was a sad story. She was born in suburban America. One day, she bought the xbox 360 console. She had fun at first, but soon the console red ringed. She sent it back to microsoft, it came back and red-ringed again. This happened over and over again. Sitting in her rec room in her basement, she started to see the red rings everywhere. They popped out of her corn flakes, her prom date's face changed into a red ring during the last song, it haunted her dreams and her waking hours. She curled up in an xbox coffin and stayed there for 4 years, only drinking Halo 3 Mountain Dew through a hole in the box. Accidentally, she was put in the mail by a senile Uncle, and in a twist of fate, Liquid received her instead of the refurbished console he was expecting from microsoft. He saw the life consumed by pain and anger, and immediately made her a member of the B&B corps.

And thus, RAGING RED RING was born.

SNAKE: That's terrible.

DREBIN: You set her free snake, she no longer sees the red rings now. She can rest in peace.