Sony Financials Solid, Gaming Not So Much

An article on Bloomberg relates the financials of Sony and within them, the plight of their game division. It was expected to lose money with the launch of the PlayStation 3 this year, but the struggles came out a bit worse than expected.

The game division, Sony's second-largest by revenue, lost 54.2 billion yen, compared with a profit of 67.8 billion yen a year earlier, because of price cuts for the PlayStation 3. Analysts predicted a loss of 50.9 billion yen.

After botching the PS3's debut with production delays and cutting the price to compete against cheaper players from Nintendo Co. and Microsoft Corp., Sony will probably lose a record 191.9 billion yen from games this fiscal year, compared with a profit a year ago, according to the Bloomberg survey.

``We hope the PlayStation 3 business will turn to a profit in the fiscal second-half next year as initial costs will decrease,'' Oneda said.

In the U.S. and Japan, Kyoto-based Nintendo's Wii is outselling the PlayStation 3 by about 2-to-1.

The full article is here.