Kutaragi: PlayStation 3 To Sell 100 Million

As part of a sometimes contentious Sony shareholder meeting in Japan, executive Ken Kutaragi has indicated that the company intends to sell as many as 100 million PS3 consoles over the next several years. Kutaragi made the comments, reported by AFX News, as chairman Howard Stringer addressed the shareholder meeting in an attempt to dispel fears at his first annual meeting as CEO. According to a report on the Mainichi Daily News site in Japan, Stringer addressed the assembled shareholders by noting: "Now in its 60th year, Sony has entered a period of re-emergence." However, the Mainichi article notes that Sony shareholders are still nervous over increased costs in the run-up to the PS3's launch, and the recent buffeting that Sony's shares have seen on the Tokyo stock exchange, as seen in this extract: "Sony shares have lost nearly half their value over the last five years. On Thursday, the stock rose 3.6 percent to 4,940 yen. One shareholder, who identified herself only by her surname Kasahara, said she bought Sony shares at 14,000 yen. "I bought shares in mighty Sony," she said, stressing her unhappiness about their plunge. "What are you going to do about this?" she asked, drawing laughs from the crowd."" In the most recent company results, for the period ended March 31st, Sony as a whole showed a ¥66.5 billion ($578.7m) loss, more than the ¥56.5 billion ($491.7m) loss at the same time last year, even though the company's game division, which produces the PS2, PSP, and software for the two machines, still showed a profit. However, the company also indicated that it expects its game division to post a loss of around ¥100 billion ($870.6m) for that year, hit by start-up costs for the PlayStation 3 which the company is assumed to be initially selling at a loss.