PS3 hardware sales down year-on-year

Sony sold 1.8m PS3 consoles in the quarter ending June 30th 2011. That’s around 600,000 fewer units than it sold in the same quarter last year.

It’s a disappointing result for a machine that has shown such momentum in the last two years and looks set for a fantastic 2011, what with a great first party line-up in the works and a price cut being prepped for an announcement at Gamescom.

Sony is still hopeful of an annual increase in hardware sales. It forecasts 15m units for the current financial year, up from 14.3m last year.

PS3 software sales did show a rise, though, up from 24.8m units last year to 26.1m units in the last quarter.

PSP hardware sales actually climbed year-on-year from 1.2m to 1.8m. PS2 sales fell from 1.6m to 1.4m.

Overall operating profits for Sony’s Consumer Products and Services division fell from 28.5bn to just 1.7bn, though falling LCD TV and camcorder sales were named as the main offenders. Sales fell 13 per cent.

Overall Sony numbers for the quarter saw a net loss of 15.5bn. In the same quarter last year a profit of 25.7bn was reported.