PS3 Losses Could Double Initial Forecast

Operating losses in Sony's video game unit for the year ending March 2008 could potentially exceed 100 billion yen ($876 million) -- twice as much as the 50 billion yen ($438 million) originally projected, a Sony spokeswoman told Reuters. In its recently-announced financial results, Sony posted an operating loss of 96.7 billion yen ($841 million) due to the cost of PS3 hardware, even though sales of the console had reached 1.31 million units. Despite these losses, the company's second-quarter financial results showed rebounding profits of 73.7 billion yen ($645 million) on the success of its TVs, PCs and cameras. According to the report, Sony's electronics operations are beating target expectations for the same period, and the spokeswoman said that profits from the company's LCD TV business will help buttress the electronics division's profit margin to 5 percent in the year ending March 2008.