PS3 Price Drop Leads To Sony Q2 Losses

Sony has posted financial results for the second quarter of the current fiscal year, noting a significant loss in profits for its Consumer Products & Services, which houses its PlayStation products. The company explained that the loss was down to a number of factors, including the deterioration in the cost of sales ratio as a result of the price reduction on the PlayStation 3 earlier this year. It also noted that a decline in sales of the video games business, as well as a decline in sales of LCD televisions and unfavorable foreign exchange rates, had led to the losses. However, during the quarter a total of 3.7 million PlayStation 3 units were sold, compared to 3.5 million for the same quarter in the previous fiscal year. The PSP also saw an increase in sales, up to 1.7 million units sold compared to 1.5 million year-on-year. PlayStation 2 sales unsurprisingly declined from 1.5 million to 1.2 million. In terms of software, PS3 sales were up to 37.4 million for the quarter, from 35.3 year-over-year. The PSP dropped down to 8.1 million from 11.0 million, and the PS2 declined from 2.8 million software sales to 5.6 million. For the quarter ended September 30, the Consumer Products & Services sector posted revenue of ¥779.7 billion ($10.1 billion), down 12.3 percent compared to ¥889.0 billion ($11.4 billion), and an operating loss of ¥34.6 billion ($449 million), compared to last year's ¥1.0 billion ($12.8 million) profit. Overall, the company recorded a decline in revenue for the quarter of 9.1 percent, down to ¥1.56 trillion ($20.5 billion) from ¥1.73 trillion ($22.2 billion) year-over year. Net loss was ¥27.0 billion ($350 million), compared to profits of ¥31.1 billion ($398.3 million) year-over-year. Sony also lowered guidance for annual losses to ¥90 billion ($1.6 billion) for the current fiscal year, compared to its original forecast of ¥60 billion ($768.5 million) profit from earlier this year.