Sony’s games division suffers £29m Q1 loss

Sony’s games division has posted a $45m (28.9m) operating loss for the quarter ending June 30th.

Sales decreased 14.5 per cent over the same quarter last year to $1.49bn (958million). The decrease was largely due to slowing sales of PS3 and PSP, although sales were ‘partially offset’ by PlayStation Vita.

PS3 and PS2 combined hardware sales were 2.8m for the quarter, a drop over the 3.2m sold during the same period the year before. Software sales for both consoles were 20.1m, which is down over the 27.6m posted in Q1 2011.

As for portable sales, Vita and PSP combined sales were 1.4m, a slight decline over the 1.8m the year previously. Software sales fell from 6.6m to 5.8m games sold.

Sony expects full year games sales to be flat, but anticipates a drop in income due to the challenge around exchange rates.

"Primarily due to the lowering of the annual unit sales forecast for portable hardware, sales are expected to be significantly lower than the May forecast," Sony said in a statement.

"Due to the decrease in sales and the impact of unfavourable exchange rates, operating income is expected to be significantly below the May forecast. Sales are expected to be essentially flat and operating income is expected to decrease significantly year-on-year."

For the entire corporation, Sony’s sales were up to $19.2bn (12.4bn), an increase of 1.4 per cent year-on-year. But that couldn’t disguise a whopping net loss of $314m (202m) loss for the quarter. Sony has lowered its income expectations for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2013, from 30bn yen to 20bn yen.