Sony's stock had its biggest decline in 3 years as PlayStation profits slow

Sony’s stock price decreased by 8.1 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today, a single business day after the company released its third-quarter earnings report and charted slowing gains in its video games business. That decrease marks the largest fall in price Sony’s stock has seen since September 2015.

As Bloomberg points out, there are other factors that likely contributed to the declining share price (like Sony’s struggling Xperia smartphone business), but that slowing momentum in the company’s PlayStation arm has analysts apprehensive of the company’s near future.

Sony’s latest financial report clocked operating income in its games business at 73.1 billion yen (~$665.4 million) for the three month period ending December 31, 2018, a 14 percent decrease from last year’s holiday quarter. The quarter saw a strong showing from software sales, something that helped offset slowing sales of PlayStation 4 hardware. But, coming off a year with a strong software lineup, 2019 doesn’t have nearly as many heavy-hitters planned for release that could help compensate for those declining hardware sales. 

Analysts cited by Bloomberg note that they're keeping a watchful eye on Sony as they assess any risk that might come along with a slowing games business, while some are anticipating the launch of the next PlayStation console during the next fiscal year and any costs that might come with that endeavor.