Sony Q2 improves, but game business continues to slide

Sony saw its revenues increase and its losses reduced year-over-year last quarter, although its video game business still took a hit as PlayStation 3 and PS Vita sales continued to slide. Sony's Game business saw lower sales of both hardware and software compared to the same period last year. The PS3 and PS2 sold 3.5 million hardware units together, compared to 4.9 million year-over-year, while the PS Vita and PSP sold 1.6 million together, down from 1.7 million a year ago (note that the latter figure is solely PSP sales, as the PS Vita only launched earlier this year.) In comparison, PS3 and PS2 software sales totalled 41.4 million during this quarter, up compared to 40.2 million year-over-year, while PS Vita and PSP software sales were 8.7 million units, up from 8.2 million units last year (again, the latter is PSP only.) And the company has cut its forecast for handheld hardware sales again for this current fiscal year (ending June 2013), now expecting PSP and PS Vita to sell 10 million units. It previously slashed its forecast three months ago from 16 million portables to 12 million. Sony says that it was affected by the slowing of the global economy, and as such has revised its full year forecast as "key products are expected to be below our previous forecast." However, Sony managed to balance its business elsewhere. Thanks to streamlining in its Home Entertainment & Sound sector and the consolidation of Sony Mobile, revenues and income for the overall company improved year-over-year. For the quarter ended September 30, 2012, Sony's Game business recorded revenues of 148.2 billion yen ($1.9 billion), down from 176.0 billion yen ($2.2 billion) year-over-year, and operating income of 2.3 billion yen ($28.8 million), down from 3.0 billion yen ($37.5 million) year-over-year. Overall, Sony posted revenues of 1.6 trillion yen ($20.1 billion), up from 1.6 trillion yen ($19.7 billion) year-over-year, and losses of 15.5 billion yen ($193.8 million), improved compared to losses of 27.0 billion yen ($337.6 billion) year-over-year.