Sony reports falling PS3 and PSP sales

Sony Computer Entertainment has posted an operating loss and revenue decline for the first quarter of the current financial year, ending June 30 2009.

Sony's company-wide operating loss totaled an incredible 25.7 billion yen (£165.4m), compared with a 73.4 billion yen profit for the same quarter last year.

Net loss was 37.1 billion yen (£238.7), compared with last year's net profit of 35 billion yen. Overall Sony's revenues were down 19.2 per cent to 1.6 trillion yen (£10.25b).

Slow games and Vaio sales

Sony's networked products and services division, which houses Sony Computer Entertainment, reported overall sales down 37.4 per cent to 246.8 billion yen (£1.59b) and an operating loss of 39.7 billion yen (£254.2m), with Sony putting the figures down to a "decrease in sales in the game business and of VAIO PCs."

New Vaios and PSP

Sony will clearly be hoping that its new Vaio range – including the Vaio W netbook – and the new PSP Go! (and, perhaps that rumoured PS3 Slim?) will give both Vaio and PlayStation sales a much-needed shot in the arm this coming autumn and winter

SCE sold 1.1 million PS3 consoles from April through to June 2009, compared to 1.6 million in the same quarter last year. PSP sales were also down from 3.7 million to 1.3 million and PS2 sales were, somewhat ironically, up by 100,000 units to 1.6 million.

Quarterly PS3 software sales were down from 22.8 million units to 14.8 million, PSP game sales were down from 11.8 million to 8.3 million, with PS2 software sales falling from 19.3 million to 8.5 million.

Nintendo has also experienced a sharp fall in profits in the last financial quarter, reporting a whopping 66 per cent profit drop this very week.