For the first time in five years, Sony managed to post a full-year profit. But it had nothing to do with video games.
For the year ending March 31, Sony posted a profit of 43 billion yen ($435.6 million), which is a good deal better than the 456 billion yen ($4.6 billion) loss the company suffered last year. Revenue was also up to 6.8 trillion yen ($72.3 billion), which marks a significant 4.7% rise.
However, the gaming division fell 12.2% year-over-year to 707.1 billion yen ($7.2 billion), due primarily to a decrease in PS3, PSP and Vita hardware and software sales. PlayStation operating income fell 27.6 billion yen to 1.7 billion yen ($17.2 million), also due to lower platform sales. Sales of PS3 and PS2 units came in at 16.5 million, down from 18 million the previous year, and software sales hit 153.9 million, down from 164.5 million. As for the portable market, Sony sold 7 million PSP and Vita units, which is up from the 6.8 million year-over-year, but software sales fell from 32.2 million to 28.8 million.
Sony's future projections include 10 million PS3 units in the coming year, but no projections for either the PS2 or the upcoming PS4. Expected PSP and Vita sales are expected to come in at 5 million. Sadly, it's pretty tough to sell a Vita these days.
