PS3 Sony reports $312M loss

[Slaine]

This is the combined Sony Division, but the Console Division doesnt read good either....

Sony has checked in with its quarterly sales report, which paints a moody picture of the company's Game division and business as a whole.

Sales in the Game segment sunk 14.5 per cent year-on-year, providing a loss of 3.5 billion yen (£28.69m). This time last year, that number was a positive 4.1 billion yen.

Sony blamed this on falling PS3 and PSP sales, which were only "partially" offset by sales of PlayStation Vita. Sony, however, chose not to reveal specific Vita sales, which were instead lumped together with sales of PSP - which still outsells Vita, weekly, in Japan.

Even combined, PSP and Vita sales were less (1.4 million) than what PSP managed alone during April-June last year (1.8 million).

This report was the first in which Sony lumped PS2 and PS3 sales together, as well. Combined, those two home consoles sold 2.8 million units - down from 3.2 million the year before.

Software sales dipped, too. Combined sales of PSP and Vita games were 5.8 million - that's less than PSP's sole total of 6.6 million for the same period last year.


"Sales are expected to be essentially flat and operating income is expected to decrease significantly year-on-year."

In home console land, 20.1 million PS3 and PS2 games were sold. But again, that was down on the year before, when 27.6 million games were shifted.

As a result, Sony's lowered Game expectations for the year head (ending March 2013). The division will see "essentially flat" year-on-year figures, Sony predicted, and operating income will "decrease significantly".

PSP and Vita will also sell less than Sony had previously expected. The forecast had been 16 million combined sales, but that's been revised down to 12 million.

Nevertheless, Sony's relatively stable Game performance will be the least of its worries.

Overall, Sony Corporation recorded a total loss of £200 million for the quarter - the majority of which was lost in the business' mobile and TV divisions.

Makes grim reading indeed. A loss of over £28M isnt good for Sony or our beloved hobby. Fingers crossed they dont diminish like Sega did. I worked for a company that was owned by RBS, a bank with a 300 year history. Who wouldve ever thought that 2 years ago they would be brought to their knees, yet here I am typing to you good people whilst on the dole.

 

[Slaine]

Sorry forgot to add, patent trolls. These people are the devil. Theres a company currently sueing the small time developer of Minecraft for an infringement of some patent. This company is famous for its law suits, in fact they dont make or manufacture anything, their sole occupation is the pursuit of patents and then frivilous law suits to follow. I know Sony have been stung by these patent trolls, as well as Microsoft, and there was a massive bit on IGN on how these companies that acquire patents and hang on to them with grim determination and are destroying innovation and more importantly jobs.

Dont get me wrong, I hate seeing legitimate peoples ideas be stolen and used, but this doesnt apply to this particular company.



Thank you, thank you.



I know, Ive set the world to rights and saved it yet again, but no thanks is required, really!!!

 

[Martok]

Is this just Sony though, or are Microsoft and Nintendo also suffering from reduced sales too? From what I recall reading over the last few weeks and months, this is indeed the case, so Sony is not alone.

As for games sales, it's time they try and inject some originality back into the games market. The yearly churning out of titles such as FIFA, Tiger Woods and CoD to name but some must put some people off buying games, fed up of always upgrading to the latest version or not seeing anything different and interesting to buy. Maybe they ought to look at reducing the price of games as they have done in the past, especially in these times of recession. I recall on both the PS1 and PS2 that games used to be £40 on release in the early days but during the life of the console new games then came out at £30. Here we are still paying £40 for new games. As for DLC, if they focused more on making top notch games with some free DLC then folk might be more likely to buy a few more new games.

 

[Slaine]

Yes they both are, last I read, although I think Microsoft are faring better because of the Live subs. Im sure I read somewhere that if it wasnt for the Live subs theyd be in a very bad place.

But your right. The cost of games is ridiculous. I know the cost of making them rivals a films budget, but dont get me started on the price of cinema tickets. No wonder that chinese girl at the bootfair does a roaring trade in DVDs. What bugs me the most is the cost of Vita games, theyre just far to high. Uncharted Golden Abyss is equal to its big brothers in terms of game size, but it does sting a bit to pay so much for mobile gaming. I think that and the recession will end up crippling the Vita, which is a shame as its a PS3 in your hand (play Unit 13 or Uncharted to be convinced). Also, again your right, theres no innovation. LBP, Modnation Racers, Wipeout etc etc. Theres no killer franchise on the console yet, though the much rumoured Medal of Honor and COD may change its fortunes. I stress the word MAY, as why buy the same game youve got on your console about 10 times?

 

[yinkin]

As gamers we can hardly cry out about originality, look at the biggest sellers, all sequels, in fact in this industry the surefire way to make money is to produce a sequel. I think the price of games is a hinderance and the attempts to stop the second hand market also play a role, if I cant trade a game in, then I cant buy a new game, or least buy as many The economy is in poor shape which means less money spent on non-essentials, so generally not a good time to be an electronics giant.

I think the biggest problem is that all those people lured to gaming by the Wii and kinect etc, are now moving onto other things, they were never core gamers and so they were never going to stick with gaming for the long haul, we could just be seeing the downside for the huge surge in interest in gaming there has been in recent years. I also wonder if the huge success of a few major titles especially in the online arena is killing off sales of software elsewhere. If I am playing BF3, Killzone 3 and uncharted to the exclusion of all else I am not buying and playing other stuff thats out there.

 

[Jkrohn1]

Isn't the loss going to be down to pay offs for works at zipper and such companies? Plus the R&D of new stuff like ps4 along with other stuff in development?

I'm a sucker for a good sequel, shame the last few haven't been good :-\

Offline gamers are just pirating games and as they get them for free rather then £40 I don't blame them (i not agreeing with theft, I just think some games are overpriced)

I still have games in there wrappers and some I have only played once this combined with the ps+ freebies seems to have stopped my spending. Although in the next few months there's a load of games I have pre ordered.

 

[ColSonders]

I honestly blame the decline of gaming on the publishers.

Forcing games companies to hit target dates when a game is still buggy, forcing the prices to remain high, the prices of downloadable version of the game in particular are on par with the RRP, which is almost always more than what you can buy the game for in a shop, which at least you can then sell on.

All the bullshit about trying to stop second hand games sales. Having some of the core game locked off so you need to pay more to unlock it via "DLC"

And then add all the non-worthwhile DLC that also tends to get released for a vast majority of games.

These are the things that are bringing the gaming market to it's knee's, consumers have had enough of the piss taking and are being a lot more careful about their purchases.

I used to average a new game every month and continue to play generally one or two core games for a longer period, in the past for me this has been Socom and Battlefield games, but I would regularly buy other games, complete them, have a bash online and then drop it a couple of weeks later when there's no interest in the online part.

Financially this is still viable to me, but there's fewer games coming out that are anything but boring sequels anyway, games I already know whether I will or won't like due to their predecessor, so that almost cuts out any impulse buying straight away, but the piss take of unfinished games and the constant DLC has basically made me stop buying games completely. I now stick to just those one or two core games and simply don't bother with the others, choosing to find other hobbies to sink my hard earned money on.

 

[HERMAN_JELMET]

+1