Sony's game division saw profits of $564 million in Q3 2010, up 134.9 percent, thanks in part to "significant cost reductions of PlayStation 3 hardware", predicting 15 million PS3 sales in FY2011.
Sony's Network Products and Services division, which houses PlayStation, saw profits of ¥45.7 billion ($564 million) for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 ended December 31, up 135 percent on the prior year. Revenue took a hit, down 6.4 percent to ¥566.6 billion ($7 billion) compared to ¥605.5 billion ($7.4 billion) in 2009. The manufacturer noted that this drop "was mainly due to a decrease in sales in the game business resulting primarily from unfavorable foreign exchange rates." Regarding the increased profits for the third quarter, Sony cited "significant cost reductions of PlayStation 3 hardware and higher unit sales of PS3 software" as a notable factor. Sony expects PS3 to sell 15 million units in the current fiscal year, versus 13 million in 2009. PlayStation Portable is expected to sell 8 million units compared to 9.9 million last year, while the PlayStation 2 is expected to drop from 7.3 million to 6 million. Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai said back in December than he expected the company to turn over a profit of nearly double this fiscal year. He also predicted that Sony would continue to see growth in its games division, with expected PSN sales of $300 billion yen (about $3.6 billion) in fiscal 2012. These figures are a stark contrast to Sony's operating losses of ¥30 billion ($338 million) for its gaming division just two years prior. Total company revenues for fiscal 2010 were down 1.4 percent to ¥2.2 trillion ($27.2 billion), while profits were down 8.6 percent for the quarter to ¥72.08 billion ($882.9 million).
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