PlayStation division losses widen

Sony has blamed "deterioration due to a decrease in PS2 hardware and software unit sales, and the impact of foreign exchange rates" and "a deterioration in Vaio PC and the game business profitability" for its Networked Products & Services Division showing a 24.2 percent drop in sales in the quarter ending September 30th compared to Q2 2008.

In monetary terms the division which includes the PlayStation brand saw sales down from 465.2 billion yen to 352.6 billion yen. The result being a loss of 58.8 billion yen compared to 40.6 billion yen for the same period of 2008.

PlayStation 3 hardware sales were 3.2 million for Q2 2009, up 800,000 compared to Q2 2008. However PSP sales were down from 3.2 million to 3 million and PlayStation 2 saw a real nosedive. The ageing console's sales dropped from 2.5 million to 1.9 million when we compare Q2 2009 to the previous year.

Despite the dip in PSP hardware, software sales actually grew - 12.9 million units compared to 11.8 for the previous year. PlayStation 3 software rose 23.9 million compared to 21.2 million. PlayStation 2 software is in terminal freefall though - 11.1 million units compared to 23.2 million in Q2 2008.