Sony Expects PlayStation 3 Profitability in 2010

Sony Group shared its second quarter (7/1 to 9/30) earnings report today. While sales and income were down, Impress Watch reports on some potentially good news from the company's games division.

At a briefing today, Sony Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda said of PlayStation 3 costs, "At present, the difference between sales and materials cost has been reduced to between 10 and 20%. Within the year, it could be in the single digits. We'll be able to reach profitability at some point in the next term."

Thanks to the release of the new slimline model, sales of the PlayStation 3 hardware jumped to 3.2 million units, an increase of 800,000 units over the same period last year.

Sony's other hardware saw decreases. PSP fell by 200,000 units to 3 million. PlayStation 2 fell by 600,000 units to 1.9 million.

Sony's games business saw an overall 27% decline in sales to ¥197 billion. As reason for the drop, the company cited the yen's appreciation, the decline in PS2 hardware sales, and a decline in PS2 software sales as well.

Operating losses for the games division increased by ¥6 billion to ¥41 billion for the term.