Analyst: Sony Missing Sales Goal By 25%?

According to a new report by Japanese analyst group Nomura Securities, Sony will only reach 75 percent of its fiscal year sales target for PlayStation 3 consoles after a lower-than-expected U.S. holiday sales season for the next-gen console. Sony's estimated PlayStation 3 sales up to the end of March 2007 were cut from 6 million to 4.5 million by the group, with what Nomura called "poor sales" in North America through December as the leading factor cited for the drop, in the new analyst report translated by Marketwatch. Beyond this year, the group lowered its sales for the next fiscal year (ending March 2008) from 16 million to 10 million, and from 18 million to 11 million the year following (ending March 2009), likely reflecting a lack of confidence by Nomura in the product as a whole, rather than any shorter-term supply issues. Regarding official sales numbers, as part of its initial press conference at this year's CES Sony confirmed that the company shipped 1 million units of the PlayStation 3 through the end of 2006. However, last week's NPD sales report showed sales of 490,700 units for the period, with 687,300 units sold since its launch in November, a shortfall analysts have recently referred to as 'troubling.' Combined with Japanese sales of 470,000, according to Enterbrain figures cited by the Marketwatch report global sales have apparently fallen short of Sony's prior goal of 2 million consoles, though the CES keynote showed Sony continuing to promise 6 million consoles sold worldwide by the end of March 2007.