PlayStation swings to profits, thanks to strong PS4 performance

Sony saw a notable rise in profits during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, as the company's PlayStation business swung from losses to income. Sony's game business saw revenues nearly double year-over-year, thanks mainly to the continuing success of the PlayStation 4 console, and network services revenues that accompanied that success. In fact, Sony now believes that its PlayStation business is going to yield better results this year than previously expected, thanks to the strong performance of the PS4, and falling production costs for the hardware. During this quarter, Sony sold 3.5 million PS4s and PS3s combined, and 750,000 PSPs, PS Vitas and PS Vita TVs combined. 85 million games were sold for PlayStation platforms during that time. For the quarter ended June 30, 2014, Sony's PlayStation business recorded revenues of 257.5 billion yen ($2.5 billion), up 95.7 percent year-over-year, and operating income of 4.3 billion yen ($41.8 million), a swing from operating losses of 16.4 billion yen ($159.5 million) year-over-year. Overall, Sony recorded revenues of 1.8 trillion yen ($17.5 billion), up 5.8 percent year-over-year, and profits of 26.8 billion yen ($260.7 million), up 757.3 percent year-over-year.