Sony's game business revenue down 18%

PS3 and PSP hardware sales decline.

Sony has released its fiscal Q1 financial earnings, reporting a decline in sales and an 18 per cent fall in operating revenue in the game business.

Sales of the PS3 in the quarter ended June 30, 2009 were 1.1 million units, compared to 1.6 million in Q1 fiscal 2009. The PSP took a massive hit, sales down from 3.7 million units in Q1 2009 to only 1.3 million units in the recent quarter. The PlayStation 2 saw a 100,000 unit increase to 1.6 million units.

Despite the declines, Sony still maintains it will sell 13 million PS3s, 15 million PSPs and 5 million PS2s during the current financial year.

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Highest Rated Comment

CheekyLee

It's only us forum using gamers that even care about ultra-high-res textures, and billions of polygons per second. We represent about 5% MAXIMUM of the market. The other 95%? They just care about cheap and fun entertainment. They don't need it to be spectacularly pretty, they don't need it to be cutting edge and innovative. They just need it to fit inside their budget.

Hence, more PS2s sold than PS3s. Put it this way ; When non-gamers ask me wether they should get a Wii, PS3, or 360, I actually tell them to consider a PS2. It has so many great games, and such a variety of titles for all ages and tastes, and is the cheapest to boot. Every single one of us should have one.

Posted 12:15 on 30 July 2009

User Comments

El-Dev

What I find amusing is that nobody seems to care about Nintendos fall in sales performance. I mean they are the market leader.

Posted 07:52 on 31 July 2009

RAGE_OF_THORN

Times are too hard for anything right now. There really hasnt been any real releases this year as of yet. It will get a little better for now only but not much. I am telling you it will get worse in the long run, we are a financial disaster right now, and we will be lucky to be playing games at all soon, much less have food shelter and electricity the way things keep going with all the war and greed. It is easy to see where we are headed just read Revalation in the Bible, heck every single thing that is happening was foretold further back than the time of Christ. Its more than videogames folks, it is imminent world collapse. I say the human race will be lucky if we are still here in the next 20 years.

Posted 04:00 on 31 July 2009

CrustyJockStrap@ El-Dev

at the end of the day i was just countering his sugestion that it people who don't have a ps3 who want a price cut.

I know i paid over the odds for it but mine came from a catoloug not a shop so I was always going to pay more for it.

Posted 23:42 on 30 July 2009

JediKnight

PS2 is going for the 10 year console shelf life. Everyone is hurting so the numbers do not come as a surprise.

I want to see how the software sales go this Autumn/Holiday. Nintendo is offering next to nothing and 360 and PS3 have more solid lineups.

Posted 20:48 on 30 July 2009

El-Dev@ Mr_Ninjutsu

How'd you get it so cheap? Sounds like I got taken on as well.

Posted 19:57 on 30 July 2009

Mr_Ninjutsu

bought mine pretty much close on release date £444 with 3 games, 2 pads and a hdmi cable (wait doesnt it already come with one?) never regreted it since. Even though i have had 4 of em through brakedowns of my own fault.

Posted 19:19 on 30 July 2009

El-Dev@ CrustyJockStrap

You got taken on crusty, I got the console, an extra controller, 4 games, including one full price as it wasn't included in the bundle and an extended warranty for £570, though being the intelligent sort that I am I bought it through a business as a staff prize draw and claimed £100 vat back on it!

Posted 18:46 on 30 July 2009

CrustyJockStrap @ ghostdog25

@ghostdog25 Sony do need to cut the price to get the system more main stream.

And yes I paid £425 for the console on release thats not including a 2nd PAD, 3 games, blue tooth headset. and a HDMI cable which came to around £600 which at the time was arround $1000

Posted 17:31 on 30 July 2009

Rogue_Soul

Nah - Konami published MGS4. Killzone 2 would count for this year though.

Posted 17:16 on 30 July 2009

dudester

I think if I'm right your comparing sales for metal gear solid 4 against sales of killzone 2 for this year.

Posted 17:13 on 30 July 2009

Rogue_Soul

The article doesn't mention that Sony's *first party* game sales have taken a hefty hit in the past year too (down 35% from 22.8m to 14.8m).

Funny what a global recession does eh?

Although, I would like to know what first party games were released in Q1 2008 compared with Q1 2009 to put it into real context. I'll have a root around on Google later for this...

That said, I'd hate to be the guy who tells Sony shareholders this news, especially when Sony's nearest rival, Microsoft, are actually selling more this year than last, despite the 'economic climate'.

Posted 17:07 on 30 July 2009

El-Dev

Cheers dudester, I really should have worked that out but I'm extremely hungover today.

I personally don't see why people are paying the premium. Maybe there is not one exact reason but a combination. First there was a lack of games, completely rectified now. The price, the song and dance MS made about their console being £129.99(when really you can do very little with the arcade), the credit crunch, the amount of trash talking about it on the web, the fact that some don't want to change over from the PS2 yet(still over 40m who haven't taken the leap yet), the runaway success of the Wii at the start of it's lifespan(maybe a few Wii owners will start to move to 360s or PS3s now the games are drying up there).

Posted 16:54 on 30 July 2009

The_Ace_Of_Aids

credit crunch or no credit crunch the ps3 is still to expensive. in my personal opinion i just dont think the console has enough exclusives to warrant the price. why not buy a 360 for around half the price and play 80 % of the all games that are available multiplatform and play them on the cheaper 360. all im saying that if the ps3 was a much better console then why arent people paying the premium.

Posted 16:36 on 30 July 2009

Karlius

I have always said if the console retailed at £180 or less I would consider the purchase at it's current price point I won't. Wish it was that price.

Posted 15:33 on 30 July 2009

ghostdog25

Well I have both consoles PS3 AND 360. I think Sony will be ok. I also believe that the real reason everyone is raving and ranting about a "PRICE CUT"... is because deep down... they would like to have a PS3. It's as simple as that. If people didn't want one... they wouldn't complain about the price. I'm happy with my purchase. I got the 80gig PS3, 2 controllers, a game, and 5 Blu-Ray movies all for $499. NO REGRETS.

Posted 15:30 on 30 July 2009

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