The financial results for the last fiscal year are in, and Sony didn't do so hot. But they're planning a big 2008, and that has been reinforced by another recent announcement: the electronics giant aims to ship 11 million PS3s worldwide this year.
From the system's launch last November through March, Sony had shipped 5.5 million units, which is actually more than initially expected by critics, but below Sony's expectations. The production problems surrounding the Blu-Ray laser diode caused supply to be extremely low for both the Japanese and U.S. launches, but they managed to ship a reasonable amount to Europe for the system's release in March. Not surprisingly, Sony is saying the huge losses incurred by its game division will "narrow" this year now that the start-up costs are done and over with.
"Although it seems to be difficult to fully turn around the performance at the game division in the current fiscal year, increased sales of the PS3 should help narrow losses here notably," chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda said.
Sony hopes to increase sales of the PS3 worldwide, although Oneda acknowledged Nintendo snagging a lot of Sony's market share, especially in Japan. With these 11 million consoles scheduled for the year, that should help a great deal when the big-name titles hit the shelves. All they need now is those system-sellers to arrive…and the sooner the better.