PlayStation 4 sales help Sony post quarterly profit
Sony revealed encouraging quarterly results this morning, with year-on-year sales between April and June boosted primarily by the PlayStation 4's success. The company announced a Q1 net profit of 26.8 billion yen (around $265 million), up no less than 757 percent from the last year's figures. Sales also rose 5.8 percent to 1.8 trillion yen ($17.92 billion), with the PS4 helping the company's gaming division post a 95.7 percent year-on-year rise in revenue.
While Sony retained an expected net loss of 50 billion yen ($486 million) for the fiscal year ending March 2015, the company's gaming division raised its sales forecasts in light of the PS4's "strong performance." The division now expects to post operating profit of 25 billion yen ($243 million), up 25 percent from projections. Sony attributed the revision to reduced costs in producing PS4 hardware, with the console already selling at a profit beforehand.
Sony didn't reveal updated sales figures for the system, which launched in November 2013 and as of April 2014 sold 7 million units worldwide. However, the company did note total PS4 and PS3 shipments of 3.5 million between April and June. That's comparable to the previous quarter's figure of 3.7 million, suggesting PS4 sales are continuing at similar pace.
The company's portable, meanwhile, continues to struggle. Sony revealed PSP, Vita and Vita TV shipments of 0.75 million across the quarter - that figure can primarily be attributed to Vita systems since the PSP is all but discontinued worldwide. Tellingly, there's once again no mention of the Vita in Sony's own earnings report.
While today's figures are positive, Sony remains knee-deep in a transitional period that has seen it sell off its Vaio brand, reform its TV business and begin a wave of layoffs that will see 5,000 employees in total lose their jobs. The restructuring costs are the primary reason for Sony's projected fiscal net loss, which the company said remained unchanged due to downward revisions in other divisions, including the company's declining mobile segment.
[Image: Sony]
