Sony Gaming Business Revenues Drop As PS3 Sales Decline

Sony has posted its financial results for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, noting a drop in revenue in its gaming business. The company reported fiscal Q1 revenues from game hardware, software and online services of $1.5 billion, an 11.9 percent decline from the same period a year prior. Revenues were down in the games business as unit sales of Sony's flagship PlayStation 3 console declined to 1.8 million for the quarter, compared to 2.4 million units for the comparable quarter a year ago. The company expects the total number of PlayStation 3 units sold this fiscal year to be 15 million, up from 14.3 million last year. The PSP sold 1.8 million units during fiscal Q1, up from 1.2 million last year, and is expected to sell 6 million in total this fiscal year, compared to last year's 8 million sold. The PlayStation 2 sold 1.4 million units during the quarter, down slightly from 1.6 million units year-on-year, and is forecast to sell 4 million units this year, down from 6.4 million year-on-year. Moving to software sales, the PlayStation 3 saw games sales increase, while PSP and PS2 both declined. PS3 software sales were 26.1 million for the first quarter, compared to 24.8 million in the previous fiscal year. PSP game sales were 6.6 million, down from 9.2 million, while PS2 software sales were 1.5 million, down from 3.4 million. All three consoles are projected to see approximately the same number of software units sales compared to the last fiscal year, at 210 million units sold across all platforms this year. The consumer products and services division, which houses Sony Computer Entertainment, TV, audio and other businesses, saw revenues of $9 billion, down 18 percent year-on-year. Overall, the company as a whole saw quarterly revenue decline to $18.5 billion, a decrease of 10 percent from $21.4 billion in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. Sony also posted a total loss of $191 million, compared to profits of $330 million in the first quarter of the last fiscal year. The company attributed declines to the catastrophic earthquake that occurred earlier this year. The company has now lowered its financial forecast for rest of the fiscal year, down to $771.78 million from the $1 billion profit estimate it gave in May.