Sony Now Expects Narrower Losses As Game Business Turns Corner

Sony said Monday that it will report narrower net losses than the company recently forecast, as the company’s game business continues to turn the corner. For the fiscal year ended March 31, Sony now expects a net loss of ¥41 billion ($440.33 million), lower than the ¥70 billion ($751.79 million) loss projected on February 4. That's compared to a net loss of ¥98.9 billion ($1.06 billion) for the previous year. Sony said that its Networked Products and Services segment, which includes PlayStation and Vaio, helped slim the losses. The company cited “improved performance within the game business and Vaio PCs as a result of better than anticipated reductions in both operating expenses and manufacturing cost.” Sony consistently updates its hardware and manufacturing processes in the PlayStation business by upgrading consoles with lower cost components. Last year, Sony released the “slim” version of the PS3, which costs less to produce. Sony also said an improved Japanese stock market and “better than expected” performance from its Sony Ericsson division and LCD TVs helped narrow losses. The company also will report ¥7.2 trillion ($77.29 billion) in revenues, slightly less than forecast in February, and 7 percent lower than the actual results of the previous fiscal year. Sony additionally said that it now expects a ¥32 billion ($343 million) operating profit -- its previous forecast warned of a ¥30 billion ($321.6 million) operating loss. Operating loss the previous year hit ¥227.8 billion ($2.45 billion). In November of 2009, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said the company's restructuring was ahead of schedule after a 12 percent overall headcount reduction and billions in reduced costs. At the time, the exec said that Sony aimed to make the Networked Products and Services division profitable by March 2011. Sony said that it will report the full results of the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010 on May 13.