Sony’s Q3 Results
Games business the star performer!
Published: 10:00, 03/02/2011 by Greg [Watchful].
17Sony have just released their consolidated financial results for the period from October 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. Though their operating income fell, which they attribute to “unfavourable foreign exchange” rates (i.e., a strong Yen or weak Dollar and Euro) their Networked Products and Services (NPS) segment significantly increased its operating income due to the contribution of Sony’s game business.
Their overall operating income fell 5.9% to ¥137.5 billion (£1.041bn, $1.698bn) compared to the same period in 2009. Most of Sony’s business segments recorded a fall in operating income, particularly their Consumer, Professional and Devices segment which saw a fall of 47.2% to ¥26.8bn (£203m, $331m). That segment which is where the sale and manufacture of all your Sony non-gaming gadgets live was impacted primarily by the fall in price of LCD TVs despite unit sales increasing.
In contrast the NPS segment, the drawer of Sony’s filing cabinet that contains all things PlayStation, saw a massive 134.9% rise in operating income to ¥45.7bn (£346m, $564m) despite a 6.4% fall in the value of sales caused by the aforementioned exchange rates. In Sony’s own words:
The game business benefited from significant cost reductions of PlayStation®3 (“PS3”) hardware and higher unit sales of PS3 software, which favorably impacted the change in segment operating results…
Hopefully Sony’s analyst conference call later today will hint at how much more cost they have managed to take out of the PS3 and we will take a listen and let you know anything interesting that we hear. Of course the numbers you would like to know right now are unit sales figures for PlayStation hardware and software and we do not like to disappoint.
Source: Sony (PDF)
Exchange rates: ¥81 = $1 (Sony Q3 report), ¥132 = £1 (BBC, 2011-02-03, ¥132.8/£1 rounded down)
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03/02/2011 at 10:57
Member since: Feb 2009
Nice table, some interesting reading, especially the increases in like for like. Amazing how many psp and ps2s are still selling. Would love to see ms table next to it for comparison.
03/02/2011 at 11:06
Member since: Oct 2008
If we haven’t already covered MS and Nintendo’s recent figures I’ll do a comparison over the weekend.
03/02/2011 at 11:30
Member since: Feb 2009
That’d be really nice. If you could draw up a quarter by quarter comparison table I’d love to see it
03/02/2011 at 11:35
Member since: Oct 2008
I’ll hunt around and see what data is available.
03/02/2011 at 14:01
Member since: Aug 2009
Cheers watchful, it something I’m keen in seeing too.
03/02/2011 at 11:59
Member since: Aug 2010
Ps2 still selling Bloody hell!
03/02/2011 at 12:50
Member since: Dec 2009
Still a belter of a machine the PS2. Especially if you cant sleep, turn your ps2 on and dont put a game in and you are away!
03/02/2011 at 13:37
Member since: Jan 2011
Oh man, I love everything about the fat PS2. The front lights, subtle fan noise, the intro-logo when you turn it on. Reminds me of better times when an ‘ok’ game didn’t receive 9s and 10s across the board. They don’t make them like they used to (games AND consoles ;) ).
03/02/2011 at 13:47
Member since: Mar 2009
It’s only just been released in countries like Brazil. Although they do having a thriving pirated games market, it likely makes up a large chunk of the sales.
03/02/2011 at 13:55
Member since: Jul 2009
Cheers, Watchful. Great top-level data which gives us a good appreciation of how their doing. Fingers crossed for an even better year this year (plus everyone else pulling their socks up a bit and rivalling the NPS division). :-)
03/02/2011 at 14:03
Member since: Aug 2009
I’m wondering how the games devision will do this year with the release of the PSP2, obviuosly their costs are going to go up but will revenue?
03/02/2011 at 14:16
Member since: Forever
Revenue’s might go up but profits go down as a result of the rising costs.
What tends to happen is it will be replacing profitable sales with (temporarily) unprofitable ones, like when the PS3 replaced sales of the PS2.
03/02/2011 at 15:49
Member since: Aug 2009
5 mill PS2 … wow!
03/02/2011 at 16:40
Member since: Oct 2010
Sony are a huge co-operation so something like the PlayStation (or network products & services department) sticking out with such high earnings can only be a great thing for PlayStation 3 owners everywhere. More investors will (I assume) invest into the department, meaning better quality products and services for users.
03/02/2011 at 20:18
Member since: Feb 2009
Still cannot believe the sale of Playstation2 consoles. Lol.
03/02/2011 at 21:37
Member since: Jan 1970
Sony will have just about passed the 50m mark by now (the 47.9m was end of December), and it should therefore put Microsoft into last place in the console wars. (perhaps not quite in to-date sales numbers, Microsoft are about 2.5m ahead), but in ACTIVE console, Sony are easily in the lead, as many of Microsoft’s numbers are made up of replacements of broken consoles.
03/02/2011 at 21:45
Member since: Feb 2011
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