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Sony Has Shipped Nearly 30 Million PlayStation 4 Consoles
Sony has announced its second quarter earnings for the current fiscal year. The company is reporting slightly decreased sales for the first half of the year, but operating income and profits are solidly in the black. This marks a significant turnaround for the corporation.
PlayStation 4 continues to perform well, with 4 million units shipped in the recent quarter. This is up from 3.3 million in the same period last year. As expected, PlayStation 3 software sales are down, but not enough to slow the PS4s solid performance. To date, 29.3 million consoles have been shipped worldwide.
The expected operating income from the game division has been lifted from ¥60 billion to ¥80 billion (an increase of $166 million). Sony’s game division continues to drive financial performance, though imaging products and home entertainment have also had their forecasts elevated for the current fiscal year.
Sony posted sales of ¥1.897 trillion ($15.7 billion) in the quarter down .5 percent from last year. Profits were comfortably in the black at ¥33.6 billion ($278.9 million), up from a loss of ¥136 billion ($1.1 billion) in the same quarter last year.
The half-year mark shows Sony operating income at ¥184.9 billion ($1.5 billion), compared to loss of ¥15.8 billion ($131 million) at the halfway point last year. Profits are ¥116 billion ($962.8 million) versus a significant shortfall at the six-month mark in the previous fiscal year of ¥109.2 billion ($906.4 million).
Our Take
At this point last year, the PlayStation 4 was largely carrying Sony by itself. Now, more divisions are starting to recover and the company seems to be on the right track to eat away at its years of shortfalls.
With nearly 30 million PS4s in the retail channel (and a large percentage of those in homes), Sony’s biggest concern now is keeping the exclusives coming. This holiday needs to be the last with such a dry spell.
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