Sony Games Division Sees 26% Sales Jump

Officials from Sony have announced details of the company’s full year financial results, for the period ending March 31st, 2008. During this time the company as a whole saw revenues increase by 6.9 percent on the previous year to ¥8.87 trillion ($84.4bn), with profits nearly tripling from ¥126.3 billion ($1.20bn) to ¥369.4 billion ($3.51bn). The strong results were primarily attributed to the group’s electronics segment, where there was a 8.9 percent increase in sales of products such as Bravia LCD televisions, Vaio PCs and Cyber-shot digital cameras. The video game segment saw an increase in sales of 26.3 percent to ¥1.28 trillion ($12.2bn), primarily because of an increase in PlayStation 3 sales. There was also a significant lessening of losses for the game segment thanks to PlayStation 3 hardware cost reductions and increased software sales. As such, losses decreased from ¥232.3 billion ($2.21bn) a year prior to a loss of ¥124.5 billion ($1.18bn). Yearly worldwide hardware unit sales for the PlayStation 3 saw an increase of 5.63 million units on the previous year to 9.24 million. PSP sales rose by 4.36 million units to 13.89 million and PlayStation 2 sales decreased by 0.98 million units to 13.73 million. Beginning from June 30th, 2007 Sony’s hardware and software figures account for recorded sales, not production shipments. Yearly worldwide software sales were 57.9 million units for the PlayStation 3, up 44.6 million on the previous year. PSP software sales rose by 0.8 million to 55.5 million units, while PlayStation 2 software sales decreased by 39.5 million units to 154.0 million. The company’s outlook for the current financial year includes a one percent sales increase but a 22 percent reduction in profits, accounting for the one-off increase this year from property sales and the flotation of the group’s financial services segment – as well as the continued strength of the yen against the dollar. Game segment sales are expected to decline, as the company’s PlayStation 2 business continues to shrink. Despite this, operating income is expected to be positive, as profitability continues to increase due to hardware cost reductions and an enlarged line-up of titles for the PlayStation 3.