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Sony's profits up thanks to digital cameras and video games

The PlayStation 3 had a bumpy start early in its life, but things are finally starting to smooth out for Sony. The Japanese electronics company posted a 6 percent rise in its quarterly operating profit, citing strong digital camera and video game sales. Overall, Sony Corp. said that its net income in Q3 rose 25 percent to $1.9 billion, with sales up 9.6 percent.

Hot sellers throughout the holidays were Cybershot digital cameras, Handycam camcorders and VAIO computers.

The Sony Computer Entertainment division finally turned a profit for the first time since the PS3 debut, thanks in large part to the reduction in manufacturing cost of the PlayStation 3. The drop in costs allowed Sony to cut the price of the console, further enticing new consumers to purchase the system.

Throughout the holiday quarter, Sony Computer Entertainment managed to sell an estimated 4.9 million PlayStation 3 console worldwide. Despite strong sales of the company’s latest console, Sony cut its sales PS3 target for fiscal year from 11 million to 9.5 million units.

Sales of PlayStation Portable, however, exceeded Sony’s expectations. The company is now revising its sales projection to 13 million from 10 million.

Sony steadily trimmed itself down for a return to its core business: consumer electronics. On April 1, the company plans to complete the transfer of its chip-making facilities to Toshiba, though Sony intends to remain involved in the production of the chips powering the PlayStation 3.

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Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By reader1 on 1/31/2008 4:14:31 PM , Rating: 2
RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By FITCamaro on 1/31/08, Rating: -1
RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By cmdrdredd on 1/31/08, Rating: 0
RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By FITCamaro on 1/31/2008 5:17:44 PM , Rating: 2
Yes because your small group of friends represents the trend around the world. I've got 6 friends who own 360s. Only one has had a problem.


RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By GreenyMP on 1/31/2008 6:20:33 PM , Rating: 5
I am so tired of the "My friend had a ... and he ...". With 10.4 million, 18 million, and 20 million of the consoles sold, your friend is insignificant. If you would like to make an argument about the 360 you could say "Of the 18 million, at least 6 million have gone back for repair." Google the sources yourself. If you want to make a real good argument you could say that, "After one year (and a little) the PS3 is turning a profit. After two years the 360 lost 1.8 billion."

I am not taking sides, I am just offering up some reasonable arguments, since yours was poor.


By weskurtz0081 on 1/31/2008 7:36:52 PM , Rating: 4
Well, as far as I know, the gaming division for MS has posted a profit for the last 2 quarters.

If you are talking about total profit/loss since console introduction, well then both companies are FAR in the red. The last time I checked the Sony financial reports, they lost upwards of 3 Billion since they introduced the PS3.


RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By FITCamaro on 1/31/08, Rating: -1
RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By bandstand124 on 2/1/08, Rating: 0
By theapparition on 2/1/2008 10:55:39 PM , Rating: 2
I believe the technique is called sarchasm


By theflux on 2/1/2008 12:54:23 PM , Rating: 2
Yes, Microsoft took a $1 Billion charge and admitted quality problems for something that isn't serious. Your anecdotal evidence proves the widespread reports are just internet lies.


By Slacker17 on 1/31/2008 5:56:35 PM , Rating: 4
You don't buy a new one. You send it back for repair and you get a replacement in return not a new one.


RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By DFranch on 1/31/2008 5:57:52 PM , Rating: 2
Why wouldn't they have sent it in to get fixed. Oh, your friends have $350 to burn must be nice. While I'm sure some people may have done this, I doubt a significant number of people bought a new 360 in favor of a free repair with free shipping both ways. Maybe a couple of percent tops.


By Aloonatic on 2/1/2008 4:45:30 AM , Rating: 3
A couple of percent is still a lot.

There are quite a few people who have voided their warranties through tinkering with the DVD drive firmware and such in the belief that their 360 was as reliable as their old xBox and have therefore had to buy new 360s.

*sits back and reads all the wonderfully theories based on a flimsy premise made up in the poster's own mind such as I think the PS3 can't make a profit etc etc etc*


RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By ViperROhb34 on 1/31/2008 8:11:57 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
It doesn't matter how many 360s sold total. Why? How many of those were replacements for a broken one?


Replacements don't count in numbers sold. Example: They sold 18.5 million total in 2 yrs, 3 million broke down and got fixed - They still sold 18.5 million

360 has the highest attachent rate for games (Seven per console)- Thats where the money is for MS, Nintendo (5 per console ), Sony ( 3 per console ) - not the console.


RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By dflynchimp on 1/31/2008 8:56:15 PM , Rating: 2
you forget that while Sony and MS are taking losses for each console sold (might be breaking even now I think), Nintendo made profits with each Wii sold from the very start.


By ViperROhb34 on 1/31/2008 9:10:00 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah... and ?

I never disputed that !

In fact Nintendo is now once again worth more then Sony - which is pathetic for Sony who has many other sources of income compared to Nintendo which sells handhelds and consoles.. Of course neither is near MS net worth....


By ViperROhb34 on 1/31/2008 9:15:09 PM , Rating: 2
But I would like to add it also shows that having more consoles out there as Nintendo does.. doesnt equate to most games per console.. as some Sony fans would argue that more consoles out there is more games sold, but games sold is not same as games per console.. Nintendo Wii has some big sellers like 360 ( as far as a games sales.. like millions per game ).. but to have people buying alot of different games per console says ( despite what Sony fans say ) that 360 owners have a choice of good games..


By bandstand124 on 2/1/2008 7:21:37 AM , Rating: 4
They haven't sold 18.5 million, they have shipped 17.7 million.

And for a game developer to calculate the likelihood of a particular system owners to buy a game it is:

(attach rate / months on market) * 12 = games sold per year

Even that isn't very effective.

If you do the numbers you will see that PS3 owners buy the same amount of games over the same time period as 360 owners (even more so in Europe where the PS3 hasn't been out a year).

(7 / 24) * 12 = 3.5 a year

(3 / 12) * 12 = 3 a year (JAPAN/USA)

(3 / 9) * 12 = 4 a year (EUROPE)

As you can see, nothing here to worry a game developer.

Higher installed base does give an advantage to the PS3 in Japan and Europe (very soon) and to the 360 in USA.


RE: Total PS3 sales: 10.49 million
By tallcool1 on 2/1/2008 9:25:22 AM , Rating: 2
From another news site:
quote:
During the time frame of October to December, the third quarter of Sony's fiscal year, Sony sold 4.9 million PS3 units and 5.76 million PSPs. It also sold 26 million PS3 games.

That gives the PS3 an attachment rate of 5.3 games (per console) based off this data.


By wallijonn on 2/1/2008 11:27:40 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
During the time frame of October to December, the third quarter of Sony's fiscal year, Sony sold 4.9 million PS3 units and 5.76 million PSPs. It also sold 26 million PS3 games.


quote:
That gives the PS3 an attachment rate