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Joystiq

Sony's PlayStation division sees sales increase, still operating at a loss

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jul 29th 2010 11:45AM

As analysts predicted, Sony finished the first quarter of its fiscal year (ending June 30, 2010) with a net income of ¥25.7 billion ($295M), a significant increase from the ¥37.1 billion ($426M) loss during the same quarter last year. Overall, sales were up 3.8 percent year-over-year to ¥1.7 trillion ($18.7B).

Compared to the same time last year, the division that houses the PlayStation brand is in a much better place, even though it still operates at a loss. While sales increased 32 percent this year to ¥326 billion ($3.7B), bumped up by PC and PlayStation 3 hardware and software, the division had an operating loss of ¥3.8 billion ($43 million) -- a vast improvement from the ¥36.7 billion ($422M) loss last year. The company expects hardware sales of the PS3 to continue increasing this year and software sales to remain flat.

Source: Sony

Tags: business, financials, fiscal, playstation, ps3, psp, q1, sony

Reader Comments (20)

Congrats to Sony and PS3, they truly deserve the sales. been owning the system since 2007 and never needed any other console. hopefully Sony will now bring a psp2 and plz with touch screen :D

@finalstar2007 I agree about PS3 being great, it had a rough start but now it can easily be someone's only console. It's exclusives are extremely good and the price is right. They need to improve PSN though, its behind. Having Netflix built-in will be nice. If they would start working on PS Blog Share's top requests I would use it a lot more... Can't wait for games like GT5 and LBP2 though.

@phinn Built-In Netflix should be coming before the end of this year.

Happy to see Sony finally increasing their sales by a good margin. I find it funny that the PS2 still beat out the PSP in the Hardware and Software department in a couple of the quarters of last year. Best console ever!

Wow, great improvement.

Great news for Sony. It's been a long journey w/ getting everything fixed for Sony. They have a strong holiday plan for gaming. GT5, LBP2, Kingdom Hearts for PSP and of course Move should bring a great amount of success and profit to them. Not to mention their tv and cpu sales will do great also.

In my opinion, they should start airing montage videos of GT5 by now. GT5 is gonna blow up, great marketing can go a long way. Sony should now this w/ their PS3 campaign.

The games business has actually be profitable for three quarters now.

The Network Products Segment recorded a loss, but if you listen to the whole investor webcast, you'll see they extract out the games unit's performance. They say it made a profit of 500m Yen - around $6m dollars.

Sony should have expected this, since they made an expensive media system that also doubled as a game system. I can't believe they actually thought people would work extra jobs (or hours) to buy one. Also, the majority of people I know that own PS3's only use them as Blu-ray players and don't buy games for them. I have never heard of anyone buying a 360 or Wii just to play movies.

@RobHoliday thats funny.....I dont know anyone that uses a PS3 just to play movies.....maybe I know more well rounded people than you>?

@RobHoliday

Stop trolling.

@RobHoliday

Oh hey guys is it 2006 again?

@RobHoliday

Well in my opinion if you owe PS3 and haven't bought any exclusive games for it and tried what all the hoopla is all about you are missing out.

Great for Sony, they are finally starting to make money, and with additional cost cutting measure that just came into effect after E3 they will be making even more $. I hope they introduce NEW SLIM configurations next month in Germany and I also heard that $349 bundle with Move and larger 320MB hard drive are coming too.

I am so pumped for new games and Move, its gonna be a blast.

I hate numbers sometimes.

Sony REALLY...I mean reallllly needs to update their PSN store with details about downloadable games. PSP, PS3, minis, everything. Most have

- No screenshots
- No video preview
- No expanded descriptions
- No tech details
- No demo

Only thing they have is:

- lo-res box shot (weee!)

Like most people, I head in there to grab something I've already read about and want, not to explore and make impulse purchases.

They would sell a LOT more games and much more impulse buys if they has preview content for each game. You have to go on-line and Google for all of these things.

Xbox Live at least has screenshots, tech details, trial demos, etc. And the hosts usually demo via video popular new downloadable games. They really PUSH the content on Xbox, it's never just a box shot and a paragraph.

I see some many PSP games that launch with one paragraph on "a truly epic RPG" and absolutely nothing else.

They have so much content on there...but it reads like a Wiki about games instead of an actual immersive store experience that shows and tells.

Really? But I guess you have the browser, you can check it there and then. So its not all bad.

But yeah the Xbox Live Dashboard is really a Marketplace in every sense of the word, and since you have the choice to bypass it all if you want to, I say that is a good thing.

@franklinmcmahon

No need for demos for the cheaper games. It's just not worth it... the dev should make a different game with that time.

But yeah, all games on there should have a video of the gameplay. That's just obvious and it's strange they don't have it.

I'm still waiting for PS2 games on PSN(Specifically KH). But, this most likely won't happen.

It's amazing how a corporation can create, gather, & nurture such a large amount of excellent studios. Kudos to them for actually having decent exclusive studios and IP. Hopefully this time next year they won't be operating at a loss.

Good Job Sony.

and guys please stop using the PS3 as a BluRay player argument ... nobody buys a PS3 for use as a BluRay player ... you can get a BR player below $150 at any given time now.

Its a nice bonus but not a console seller IMHO. Its still a PLAYstation.

@BoBsS

Bull.

A lot of people still get a PS3 because they really wanted a blu-ray player. They recognize that the PS3 is still among the very best blu ray players, has more future proof potential, and has a hard drive for movies and music and photos. Of course, they also know it has a browser, pandora, youtube, like many premium blu-ray players. And the games, for some of these people, is just frosting on the cake.

I'm the opposite. I don't care for most movies. But I know a lot of people who want a blu-ray player and decide to go ahead and get a PS3. And much of the profits Sony sees from this are not reflected in this division, of course.

Without a doubt, it is a console selling feature. Without a doubt. You can get an mp3 player for $5, and yet people buy ipods for this functionality.

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Breaking News

Sony's PlayStation division sees sales increase, still operating at a loss

Reader Comments (20)

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 11:47AM finalstar2007 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 12:35PM phinn said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 3:00PM TManifest said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 11:52AM Grey said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 11:58AM SpaceFox said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 12:02PM MLC said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 12:06PM Jakemoeo said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 12:12PM RobHoliday said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 12:35PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 12:54PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 1:11PM Vcize said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 2:05PM pickupdoctor said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 12:15PM InfinitiProject said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 2:56PM franklinmcmahon said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 3:16PM BlackedOut said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 4:34PM Dustin F said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 5:12PM CrowDieSlow said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 11:35PM delicatessen lama said

Posted: Jul 29th 2010 11:42PM BoBsS said

Posted: Jul 30th 2010 12:16AM Dustin F said

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