Sony Game Division - Q1 Ending Jun 2008 - Profit Projections

[celine]

NJ5 said:

celine said:

"Game, although segment sales are expected to decrease due to the decrease of PS2 unit sales as the console entered its ninth year since launch, profitability of the segment is expected to improve significantly, and we expect to record a profit for the fiscal year versus ¥125 billion loss last fiscal year. The PSP strong performance in the March 2008 fiscal year is expected to continue and PS3 hardware costs are expected to be reduced, while the software lineup is expected to be enhanced." ( Talking about current fiscal year )

http://seekingalpha.com/article/77322-sony-corp-f4q07-qtr-end-03-31-08-earnings-call-transcript?page=4

 

 

Thanks.

That actually makes sense... Considering they made profit in the last holiday quarter, they're probably expecting to do the same this year (without price cuts)... If they start breaking even on PS3 hardware towards the end of the FY, that'd probably net them a slightly profitable fourth quarter too, and they'd erase the losses in the first half of the year.

 

I remember that Sony's CFO made that claim ( CFY profitability ) just after PS3 release.

It was made quite clear that Sony is aiming for profitability against marketshare for their game division this year:

Oneda:"[...] And your third question is the PS3 quantity this year. I mean, the '07 we sold about 9.260 million units and this year we are expecting about 10 million units. So the increase is not so bigger than probably you might expected; that is the following reasons. One is the fiscal year '07; the most important thing for Sony Group is to establish the platform for PS3.

The minimum, I mean, at least over 10 million units has to be sold to create a platform. So therefore fiscal '07 even though that our cost of the hardware is much higher than the price itself, we have to sell close to the 10 million sets in fiscal year '07, but this year, our strategy is that we should focus more Internet-related service operation to increase the... to increase the internet operation, to increase the software rather than drastically increase the quantity by adjusting the prices. If you consider the long life, long lasting lifetime of the PS3, this year we don't think it is a time to aggressively sell the hardware quantity this year. That's our strategy for this fiscal year."

 

One surprising fact ( for me ) about PS3 that I recently discover was that part of R&D cost of PS3 was absorbed by Sony Electronic Division. So itwasn't only PS2 and PSP that covered PS3 losses ...

I wonder how much really cost the whole PS3 project.