PS2, PSP shipment targets boosted as SCE reports heavy losses

Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that it is raising its full-year shipment targets for both the PS2 and the PSP - but the news came as the division posted massive losses, contributing heavily to an overall loss for Sony Corp.

The firm now expects to sell 13 million units apiece of the PSP and the PS2 by the end of the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31st, up a million units each from its previous projections.

The games division posted a loss of 5.9 billion Yen (43.3 million Euro) for the quarter ended June 30th, more than doubling the loss it posted in the same quarter last year, and making up a significant proportion of Sony's overall 7.3 billion Yen (53.6 million Euro) loss.

However, SCE's losses paled in comparison to those of the firm's electronics division, which topped 36.3 billion Yen (266.6 million Euro) during the quarter.

The loss came despite a massive increase in software sales, which were up by 64 per cent year on year, and a major rise in shipments of PS2 hardware - where rising shipments in the USA and Europe outweighed a drop in Japan to bring overall shipments to 3.53 million units.

The drop, therefore, can be attributed largely to increased R&D costs on the PlayStation 3, the development of which is accelerating greatly at present - although Sony also fingers higher "selling, administrative and marketing expenses" as a key factor.