Sony Profits Plummet 94%

From GameDaily BIZ:

s was expected, Sony today announced weak results for the latest fiscal quarter ended September 30. Thanks to the company's worldwide laptop battery recall and heavy investments in the PlayStation 3, Sony's group net profit for the period was just 1.7 billion yen ($14.3 million) compared to 28.5 million yen for the same quarter one year ago.

The laptop battery situation apparently contributed significantly to Sony's sharp decline for the period. The company incurred a cost of 51 billion yen thanks to a recall of 9.6 million batteries for major laptop makers such as Dell, Apple, and Lenovo. The company did see an eight percent gain in sales, rising from 1.7 trillion yen to 1.85 trillion yen, although the battery recall largely offset this.

Sony's game division suffered a 43.5 billion yen operating loss thanks to costs associated with the upcoming launch of the PlayStation 3. During the same period in 2005, Sony had posted a profit of 8.2 million yen. Sales and operating revenue were down more than 20 percent for the quarter to 170.3 billion yen. Sony said that research and development, as well as marketing and manufacturing costs related to the PS3 seriously eroded the game division's profitability.

Ouch.

At this point, it's almost funny. Continually horrible news for Sony and the PS3, while Nintendo and the Wii constantly get virtually nothing but good press. Personally, I support the Big N, but now the upcoming console war almost seems like a joke.