Hirai: PSN Sales Soar In Fiscal 2010, First Profit Expected Next Year

Sony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai said sales of content on the PlayStation Network download service nearly doubled in the latest fiscal year, and the company expects the service to finally turn a profit in fiscal 2011. Speaking to Reuters Japan (as translated by 1UP), Hirai said that PSN sales for fiscal 2010 (which runs through March 2011) are on track to be up nearly 100 percent from fiscal 2009's mark of 36 billion yen (about $434.3 million). Hirai said he expects the exponential growth to continue, leading to expected PSN sales of $300 billion yen (about $3.6 billion) in fiscal 2012. On the way to that mark, he said the service for PlayStation 3 and PSP, which includes downloadable movies and TV shows as well as video games and game add-ons, is expected to turn its first profit in fiscal 2011. Sony currently claims over 50 million registered users worldwide for its free PSN service. An October sales and leaderboard analysis by Gamasutra sister site GamerBytes suggests top-performing games on the service attracting anywhere from 100,000 to just over 400,000 paid players. Ad revenue from PSN-distributed videos has also increased in 2010, according to a MediaWeek report. Earlier this year, Sony launched PlayStation Plus, an optional PlayStation 3 service that lets user pay $50 a year for access to selected full game trials, PSN game downloads and custom avatars and themes.