Sony’s PlayStation Division Posts $48m Q1 Loss
More worrying finicial news coming out of Sony today, this time for the normally strong PlayStation division.
In Q1 2012 2.8 million PS3 and PS2 consoles were sold to retail, a drop of 400k compared to this time last year. The handheld side also saw a drop 400k, with combined PSP and Vita sales coming to 1.4 million down from 1.8 million.
Sony did not disclose Vita specific sales but with the PSP outselling its successor on a regular basis in Japan, it’s fair to say the Vita has fallen short of Sony’s expectations.
To compound things even further game sales also fell by 8 million units across all PlayStation devices, although this is an industry wide decline with software sales almost universally dropping in 2012.
A statement from Sony read:
Primarily due to the lowering of the annual unit sales forecast for portable hardware, sales are expected to be significantly lower than the May forecast.
Due to the decrease in sales and the impact of unfavourable exchange rates, operating income is expected to be significantly below the May forecast. Sales are expected to be essentially flat and operating income is expected to decrease significantly year-on-year.
Sony’s rumoured ultra slim PS3 model seemed all set to debut at Gamescom this month, however reports last week said Sony would hold the system back until current PS3 stock had decreased.
