PlayStation business swings to $435m profit

First year that the PlayStation business was profitable? Bet Sony wish they didn't have to announce it so soon after the PSN hack and while the sotre is still down.

Posted:A year ago

But surely isn't that when you want to announce it? Like 'We've been kicked down but we're not down and out'?

Posted:A year ago

Crisis management. Well, done but it is a bit too obvious for me...

Posted:A year ago

Well, hopefully they invest a big chunk to improve the PSN security.

Posted:A year ago

All the CoD heads that sold thier PS3 after the the psn failure buying it back. Meh.

Posted:A year ago

First year of profitability? After the system was hacked and sony nearly lost their minds fighting it? Gorsh. These things just don't follow logic do they? the 2 systems that were hacked prior were both doing well in revenue. The ps3 gets hacked they post profits?

@Sebastian Lindig

They'll do that, and do their best to lock down the ps4 security so its just as hard or harder to hack. Of course when their system is locked down tight again many ppl won't find it as attractive as the ps3 is now.

Posted:A year ago

To be honest this is bad news. Sony loses 170m to a security breach and makes 435m in the next quarter. Well, seeing as they haven't made profit since the PS3 came out I think they'll quickly forget what happens.

Posted:A year ago

I wish they would have kept their games division separate. Now these figures are all mixed in with their laptop, PC and portable media players sales and profits....not just Playstation. Playstation could still have a loss and yet the division as a whole could posts profits on the other products and we'd never know. Or the other way around.

Posted:A year ago

@ Jimmy

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/26/sony-p...

Posted:A year ago

Josiah, those are production unit sales. I'm talking about the actual financial data. Revenue and profits of just the games division, not the full Networked Products and Services Division.

Posted:A year ago

All those staff cuts at Sony Computer Entertainment a few months back were too late to affect this, weren't they? A few good friends of mine lost their jobs in that mess. So the SCE group appears to be taking the pain for the other divisions' failures.

Posted:A year ago

William, if the cuts were prior to April 1st, then they applied.

Posted:A year ago

Hmm, they were, but not by much. Which would suggest there wasn't a great deal of effect on this FY, certainly not $435m worth.

Posted:A year ago

Certainly not to that degree. Just checked the news wires and I'm only seeing cuts on march 31st meaning they wouldn't have any impact anyway since their pay would carry over for a week or two into the next FY. Did they do any other major cuts earlier in the year than that?

Posted:A year ago

These numbers still concern me. The PS3 is close to the "peak" of its life (most of the big titles are now out, with sequels), the PSP is waning and the PS2 slowly dying off (although hardware sales surprisingly strong?).

But with 220m in software sales (between $5-$10 profit per unit), almost 30m hardware sales (profit of $50-$100 per unit) - the "profit" from these sales is in the vicinity of $2.5bn - $4bn. To only post a profit of $400m, shows just how much they are spending on R&D & dev.

Also, total hardware sales are down on last year - with a decrease in the more profitable hardware, only partially offset by increased PS3 sales. I would guess most of the profit has come from the decreased production cost of the PS3: a drop of $25 per unit, would equate to almost $400m for the FY.

Posted:A year ago