PlayStation 3 Nears 17 Million Units Sold Worldwide; Sony Profits Dip 90%, Gaming Up Over Last Year
During the second quarter of Sony's 2008 fiscal year, which ended on September 30, 2.43 million PS3s were sold, adding to the 14.41 million that had been sold as of June 30, 2008.
In all, Sony expects to sell 10 million PlayStation 3 units during this fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2009. To reach that goal, Sony will have to sell 6.01 million PS3s across the next two quarters, one of which covers the lucrative Christmas season.
Lifetime worldwide figures for the PlayStation 2 and PSP hardware are not available, as 2007 was the first fiscal year that Sony declared sales, not shipment numbers.
As of July 30, Nintendo's Wii had sold 29.6 million units worldwide. Microsoft has not provided worldwide sales figures on the Xbox 360 since March of this year, when the console was at 19 million worldwide.
In line with the lowered expectations, Sony's operating income for the quarter was down 90.1% over the last year's Q2 results--11 billion yen vs. 111.6 billion yen--though revenue was only down by 0.5%--2.07 trillion yen vs. 2.08 trillion yen.
However, Sony was quick to point out that its sales would actually be up 5%, and operating income would only be down 79%, were it not for the change in exchange rates.
Despite the bleak outlook, Sony's Game division is up over this time last year, bringing in 268.5 million yen--a 10.3% jump that would have been 15% if not for exchange rates.
Likewise, the Game division saw its operating losses reduced by almost 60%. While 39.5 billion yen was lost in Q2 FY08, Q2 FY07 saw a loss of 96.7 billion yen.
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gyokuro
replyi'm worried about sony. I think they will survive but they just arent doing well financially.
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Because hopefully in the long run this will be a good thing for Sony and consumers? Maybe it will help Sony shrink their swollen heads, better balance technology and the price tag, work out a more solid game lineup, and actually innovate?
Sony has been resting on their laurels too long for it not to start having a financial impact on them.
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Sony will do fine eventually, they always manage to turn things around. Right now they are just recovering from not having anything especially noteworthy in the channel that wasn't available elsewhere. Many folks have bought into the LBP hype machine and surely that will do well regardless of the actual gameplay. Resistance 2 seems to be well received, if mostly by fans of the first game. Motorstorm 2 looks like some good pick up and play action that should sell a million during the holidays.
This is what Sony has needed very badly for a long time, several big name games appealing to a wide range of gamers that will hopefully get folks out there to buy some games for the system, which is the only way they are making money right now. XMAS 08 is going to be very good to all the platforms and their customers so not much to worry about. Sure Sony is going to have to settle for 3rd place this generation but with the sheer volume of sales right now across the whole gaming spectrum, they should do just fine.-
I often read about Sony doing badly, yet their PS3 sales are not bad at all considering the year head start Microsoft had. So it's got more to do with games sales I suppose? Can someone point out why they are doing badly?
Also it strikes me as difficult to predict a "generation winner" since I think the next generation's platform launches are likely to be even further apart than they where last time.
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I totally agree with you. If MS sold 19 million units nearing the 3 year existance of the 360 and Sony has sold just 3 million short of that in nearly 2 years then I say Sony is doing comparativly well. But I think the games are where Sony is being impacted. It is unfortunate for Sony that the PS3 appears to be getting the shaft for development of games. Because otherwise I think it would be a bit better. I guess sometimes innovation can be a bad things.
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That's the problem right now. The more consoles Sony sells the more money they lose. Being the cheapest full featured BD player really hurt them. They are still hoping to turn some of the folks who only bought it for BD playback into gamers (LBP being their big ploy) but it's a slow process. They have some good exclusive titles out there now and with the right marketing they may very well end up being profitable next year.
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