Sony’s Game Biz Thrives While Company Takes A Big Hit

Thanks to improved PS3 sales, Sony’s games biz reported a profit on their first fiscal quarter, with sales up 16.8 percent over last year. Net sales for the devision were ¥5.4 billion ($US 51 million), whereas the company lost ¥29.2 billion ($US 273 million) in the same period last year.

But it’s not all good news. Overall, Sony saw its profits plummet about 47 percent in the quarter, failing to meet analyst estimates and down close to 40 percent over last year. It also lowered its forecast for next year, due to concerns about the mobile phone business for the company as a whole.

While sales of PSP and PS2 hardware declined, PS3 sales were up. The PS3 sold 1.56 million units, compared with .86 million in the same period last year. The big gain, though, was in individual platform software. Hit the jump to see details of how it all breaks down.

PS3 software sales saw a stunning increase from 4.7 million units in last year’s first quarter to 22.8 million units this time around. PSP games are also selling healthily, up 1.59 million to 3.72 million year-over-year.

Worldwide hardware unit sales (increase/decrease year-on-year):
PS2: 1.51 million units (a decrease of 1.15 million units)
PSP: 3.72 million units (an increase of 1.59 million units)
PS3: 1.56 million units (an increase of 0.86 million units)

Worldwide software unit sales (increase/decrease year-on-year):
PS2: 19.3 million units (a decrease of 11.8 million units)
PSP: 11.8 million units (an increase of 2.0 million units)
PS3: 22.8 million units (an increase of 18.1 million units)

Sony said, however, that its total software sales were down due to the decline in PS2 software sales.