Cut price PS4’s slash Sony earnings
Sony’s PlayStation 4 games console may have been flying off the shelves, with 47m devices now having shipped, but this has failed to do much for the electronic giants bottom line as second quarter revenues and profits decline.
Over the three months to 30 September Sony’s videogame division earned $3.17bn, an 11% decline year-on-year, whilst operating profits fell by an even more precipitous 20% to $188m.
This is being attributed to disadvantageous exchange rates in addition to a series of price cuts to the PlayStation 4 – although this has been offset to some extent by growing software revenues.
Sony shipped 3.9 million consoles over the quarter, a decline of 100,000 compared to the same period last year, but all eyes will now be on the crucial Christmas sales period to assess the impact of the recently launched PSVR accessory, for which Sony has high hopes, and PlayStation 4 Pro which launches later in the month.
Sony's relative success in this generation of console sales is being attributed to its focus on gamers in its marketing, handing it the edge over Microsoft's XBox One.
Overall Sony earned $16.7bn in the second quarter, a 10.8% year-on-year decline whilst net profit collapsed 85% year-on-year to just $43.8m.