Well, I don't normally do this, but I had a hard time summarizing it myself, so here is an article on Sony's performance in the last quarter.

Today Sony Corporation disclosed its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2017, which is the period between April 1st and June 30th, 2017. The company also gave an update on PS4 shipments.

You can check the figures out in the table below, with income firmly in the black. Notably, all revenue and income figures for the whole company show a very substantial increase year-on-year.

The accompanying press release included detailed information on the whole company’s performance during the quarter.

“Sales and operating revenue (“Sales”) increased by 15.2% compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year (“year-on-year”) to 1,858.1 billion yen. This significant increase was primarily due to increases in Financial Services and Semiconductors segment sales. On a constant currency basis, sales increased 14%. For further details about the impact of foreign exchange rate fluctuations on sales and operating income (loss).

Operating income increased 101.4 billion yen year-on-year to 157.6 billion yen. This significant increase was mainly due to the improvements of operating results in the Semiconductors and Imaging Products & Solutions (“IP&S”) segments, partially offset by a decrease in operating income in the Game & Network Services (“G&NS”) segment.

Operating income in the current quarter included a 27.5 billion yen gain recorded in the Semiconductors segment resulting from the sale of the entire equity interest in Sony Electronics Huanan Co., Ltd. (“SEH”), a manufacturingsubsidiary in the camera module business. Additionally, 6.7 billion yen and 2.6 billion yen in insurance recoveries, mainly for opportunity losses related to the earthquakes in the Kumamoto region in 2016 (“the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes”), were recorded in the Semiconductors and the IP&S segments, respectively.

Operating income in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year included a 20.3 billion yen impairment charge against long-lived assets resulting from the termination of development and manufacturing of certain high-functionality camera modules for external sale, as well as net charges of 13.6 billion yen in expenses resulting from the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes, both in the Semiconductors segment. During the current quarter, restructuring charges, net, increased 0.7 billion yen year-on-year to 2.4 billion yen. This amount is recorded as an operating expense and is included in operating income.”

More importantly, we get an update on PS4 shipments. Sony Interactive Entertainment shipped 3.3 million units during the latest quarter (which is a slight drop year-on-year, from 3.5 million in the same quarter of the past fiscal year). This means that the total of shipped PS4 console by June 30th, 2017 is 63.3 million.

It’s worth mentioning that these are sell-in numbers to retailers. The latest sell-through numbers were at 60.4 million units sold to consumers before E3 2017.

Sony also provided a specific breakdown of the results of the Game & Network Services segment of the business, which includes PlayStation and PlayStation Network.

Revenue increased due to higher PS4 software sales, including digital ones, added to contribution from PlayStation VR (which had sold 1 million units by the beginning of June), partly offset by the semi-recent price cut for the console. Income decreased significantly due to the lack of any highly profitable first party game launched during the quarter.

To be more specific, during the same fiscal quarter in 2016, Sony released Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and the absence of such a heavy hitter this year determined the drop in revenue.

“Sales increased 5.4% year-on-year (a 4% increase on a constant currency basis) to 348.1 billion yen. This increase was primarily due to an increase in PlayStation 4 (“PS4”) software sales including sales through the network, as well as the contribution of PlayStation VR, partially offset by the impact of a price reduction for PS4 hardware which took place in September 2016.

Operating income decreased 26.3 billion yen year-on-year to 17.7 billion yen. This significant decrease was primarily due to the absence of the significant contribution of a highly profitable first-party software title released in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year, as well as the above-mentioned impact of a price reduction for PS4 hardware. During the current quarter, there was a 2.4 billion yen negative impact from foreign exchange rate fluctuations.”

Last, but not least, the press release includes the forecast for the current fiscal year – ending on March 31st, 2018 – for Sony Corporation as a whole and split by segment. Notably, Sony Interactive Entertainment predicts to ship 18 million units, which means that the company expects lifetime PS4 shipments to reach 78 million by the end of March.

While this remains unchanged from the previous forecast, Sony revised its prediction for the Game & Network segment for the full fiscal year upwards by 4.8% in sales and 10 billion yen in income, but this is mostly due to positive impact of foreign exchange rates.

If you want to compare these results with those of the previous quarter (between January 1st and March 31st, 2017), you can find our dedicated article here.

As a bonus for those interested in anime,  today we also learn that Sony Pictures Television Networks reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Funimation.

Source: http://www.dualshockers.com/63-3-million-ps4-sold-sony/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I wondered that too lol... gotta' say that I'm not really a fan of steelbook cases for games. Well, I am and I'm not... I am because I like the look of some of them, but I'm not because I prefer my games to be in standard cases, and have the steelbook as a collector's piece... Assassin's Creed Syndicate is the only game I've bought that's done it right for me, given me the game in a standard case, along with a second, steelbook case, which looks lovely, and they come together in a plain white box with the Assassin's logo on it :P Why can't all steelbook editions be like that?! 

Because Sega has said: Thanks to the Western fans for the loyal support of the last Yakuza games and it's a remake :) Yakuza Kiwami costs so little money everywhere (usa / europe) =)

Because Sega has said: Thanks to the Western fans for the loyal support of the last Yakuza game and it's a remake :) Yakuza Kiwami costs so little money everywhere (usa / europe) =)

When you say you can have two jobs, do you mean you can use skills from both while in battle? Because I imagine that'd be SUPER handy...