PS3 Sells 41.6 Million, PlayStation Division Profitable
With hundreds of millions being spent on the development of the PlayStation 3′s Cell processor, and even more on selling the console at a loss, the PlayStation division has been an extremely costly endeavour for Sony. The Japanese electronics company now sells the PS3 at a profit, and has announced strong software sales on both the PS3 and PSP, so it seems things are looking up for Sony. But while PS3 sales were up over the course of the year, PSP sales have dipped dramatically – eating into potential profits on that platform.
Sony’s Networked Product and Services division, which includes PlayStation, PC and other connected devices, had an operating profit of ¥6.9 billion/$85.5m/£53.7m for Q2, compared to a ¥59 billion/$731m/£458m loss for the same period last year. The game category of the division dropped in sales by 12.9 per cent, to ¥171 billion/$2.1bn/£1.3bn, compared to $2.4bn for the same quarter last year.
Sony Corporation as a whole recorded a profit of ¥62.7 billion/$777.1m/£487.7m for the period, compared to a ¥26.3 billion loss the same time last year.
To put Sony’s profits into perspective, Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, made up of Xbox, Zune and Windows Phone 7, has reported an operating profit of $382 million (£239m) for Q1, up by 46 per cent over the same period last year. Additionally, Halo Reach has generated revenues of $350 million since launch.
While PlayStation may not have been as profitable as the Xbox, sales of the PS3 topped the 360, with over 8.1 million PS3s sold in 2010 compared to Microsoft’s 5.8 million Xbox 360s. In Q2, PS3 sales rose from 3.2 million to 3.5 million compared to the same period last year,
The high sales of the console closed the worldwide sales gap between it and the Xbox 360, with the 360 having sold 44.5 million, and the PS3 41.6 million.
The PSP, on the other hand, dropped by half from 3 million to 1.5 million. The PS2 also sold 1.5 million units, down from 1.9 million last year.
PS3 software sales rose from 23.9 to 35.3 million units, while PSP game sales dropped from 13 to 11 million units. PS2 game sales also fell from 11.4 to 5.6 million units.
Sony’s sales forecasts were left unchanged, with predicted sales of 15 million PlayStation 3 units, 8 million PSP units and 6 million PlayStation 2 units.
15 Responses to “PS3 Sells 41.6 Million, PlayStation Division Profitable”
This is fantastic news. Within two years the PS3 will overtake the 360 which came out a year prior.
The important thing is not overtaking any system, it’s profiting, and keeping a healthy business for the good of the company and the whole industry (including all of us gamers too, of course). The big picture here is that Sony dug themselves into a hole because of their own ambitions with Blu-ray, and after so much struggle is finally paying off, and we as consumers are way better off with the advent of HD entertainment. I can’t imagine entertainment without High Definition now, and I couldn’t dream of a non-distant future without the benefits of a large-capacity HD format. So it’s true Sony was kinda greedy, but all the better for us. I always said, if you can’t take a major risk when you are on top of the world, then when? Sony sacrificed its dominant grasp of the videogame market for a lot more, and they haven’t done so terrible at the end of the story, the PlayStation brand still strong, they continue to innovate a lot, the original games keep coming out by the ton. It’s not like they abandoned ship like a well-known monopolist software giant did last generation when they got their asses handed to them.
Yet all we hear from most gaming sites is that “teh, Xbox sold more, drrrrrrr”
But they never give numbers or what region anymore. Gaming “journalists” who parrot the MS talking points remind me of MSNBC and the Democrat party.
FUD.
Watch FOX much? I’m not a witch, I’m just like you
Actually i don’ t watch TV new period. It’s funny you would bring up O’Donnell when i said nothing about her.
Typical.
I always thought microsoft was selling xbox’s at a loss but making it up in software sales
I’m loving those numbers!
But I’m curious – Jawknee1 has a point – everyone else says Xbox sold more, and has been leading. Where did you guys get the Xbox’s numbers? Are the apples to apples here?
The numbers are straight from Sony and Microsoft. The Xbox has sold more over its lifetime, and recently outsold the PS3 due to Halo’s release, but for the fiscal year 2010 up to september the PS3 has outsold the 360.
It is also important to note that these figures are for worldwide sales.
Good to know! Gives me ammo for the flame wars
This is incredible! I figured the 360 would outsell the ps3 this year due to the summer refresh (and Sony pushing almost all of it’s large releases to 2011) It seems like Move is really helping sell the ps3. I barely go to retail stores but last time I was in a Wal-Mart I saw tvs advertising move very often, lots of advertising on the glass game cases, 2 large cubes with move advertising on them, and a middle aged lady buying a Move 320gig ps3.
Things are looking good fellas.
@ Mr. Moss
“The high sales of the console closed the worldwide sales gap between it and the Xbox 360, with the 360 having sold 44.5 million, and the PS3 41.6 million.”
Correction:
Actually Major Nelson confirmed in his report that the Xbox 360 only sold 42 Million units.
I quote: ” We’ve just released some interesting Xbox data that I thought you might enjoy:
There are 42 million consoles sold in 35 countries.”
This is official report from Microsoft themselves.
check out in this link – http://majornelson.com/archive/2010/10/29/1-billion-entertainment-hours-spent-on-xbox-live-every-month.aspx
So its really Xbox 360 42 M versus PS3 41.6 M = 400,000 units sold gap!!!
PS3 is here to stay for the long run, yay!
We were going off MS’ investor figures, rather than Major Nelson’s, it turns out he was incorrect – Microsoft has now sold 45 million Xboxes.
I bought another one yesterday thought my old 80 gig needed a friend XD
It’s impressive that Sony closed the gap with Microsoft so quickly.
and just as I sell my PS3 slim… damnit
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