Any signs of the PlayStation 4 slowing down? No, the console is quite literally on fire around the globe, with the device smashing an old PlayStation 2 shipment record in the company's most recently completed quarter. According to Sony's latest financial report, the manufacturer shipped a whopping 9.7 million consoles during the period spanning 1st October to 31st December, which is an improvement on last year's 8.4 million units. It's also a significant increase on the firm's best ever quarter, when the PS2 shipped 8.8 million units in the second quarter of fiscal year 2003.
It keeps the PS4 on target to meet its forecasted 20 million units goal for the fiscal year as a whole, with a shipment of 2.9 million units required in the current quarter. Given how strong the console's lineup has been of late, we reckon that it should just about scrape that figure.
All in all, the game division is doing very well for Sony. It saw a 5.2 per cent increase in sales for the aforementioned third quarter, bringing its overall operating income up to ¥50 billion ($444 million). It was also the company's biggest profit driver during the recorded period. Other areas of the business – like Mobile Communications and Music – saw decent returns as well, though a gigantic non-cash loss attributed to Sony Pictures wiped out much of the profits.
This, which was signalled by the company ahead of today's financial report, is designed to revise "the future profitability projection for the pictures segment". It's basically a book balancing exercise that spans all the way back to the organisation's acquisition of Columbia Pictures back in 1989. The end result is that, despite a generally decent quarter, Sony's overall operating income was down 54 per cent year-over-year in the third quarter.
Still, we reckon it will be moderately happy with this report. Aside from the movie sector, pretty much all of the organisation's divisions pulled a profit, and while some did better than others, it wasn't too long ago that the firm was perpetually in the red. It seems to have worked its way through that rough patch, and if it can figure out how to right the ship of Sony Pictures, then it'll find itself in a pretty comfortable position.
Comments 15
I wish sony just sell its movie division and just focus in hardware, mobile and gaming.
@AlejandroMora The movie division seems to have good and bad years to be honest. It did really well in 2015 with Spectre, for example.
@get2sammyb yep, it really depends on the year. They're always trailing behind the giants like WB, Disney (Marvel, Star Wars) and Universal Pictures though.
I feel as though the entire Kingdom Hearts franchise being available on the PS4 makes this console so desirable right now (at least for me it does).
Stop making terrible movies. The last couple of years have been horrendous.
I think Sony movie division is hurting from not having a popular franchise currently in the works though sharing with marvel on Spiderman is a smart move.
The Wedding Ringer, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, Pixels just take a look at IMDB, full of titles that were either terrible or just financially crashed.
The PS4 will plateau and sadly the faster it sells the quicker the uptake will dry and the shorter its real sales life is for the hardware.
@BLP_Software People said that over a year ago, yet here we are.
There's no stopping this train
That is AMAZING considering the whole of the internet(and 99% of so called Gaming sites) tried to destroy the PlayStation brand last Gen. Well done SONY BEST Console by far this Gen
Reading comments related to this earlier on a different site..."the only reason ps4 has done so well is down to MS deliberately throwing away E3 a few years ago" and "sony asking MS to open doors for them" ....made me chuckle
Playstation 4 is smashing it!
@BLP_Software That's not going to happen. They'll be down to $199 this Christmas, and they're going to have the marketing rights to Call of Duty, Destiny 2, Star Wars Battlefront 2, and (if it doesn't get delayed) Red Dead Redemption 2.
This year will probably be even bigger for them.
@get2sammyb Yeah itll go down in price but Im not saying itll stagnated this year.
Everything will stop selling when everyone who wants one has one. Do you genuinely believe the PS4 will keep selling like this forever? If so, thats delusional. Even the PS2 stagnated once demand was finally hit. DS and Wii too.
Demand will eventually stop. Its a matter of whether it sells so fast its no longer in demand, or Sony does something new.
Remember Im not saying its happening this year. People seem to think I am.
Better question is, what do you do after PS4? What do you do once you hit a resolution like 8k which humans cant see beyond? Where does the industry as a whole go from here? If you say portability Ill laugh, because thats not going to work.
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