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Sony has confirmed plans to reduce the headcount at its Games division and implement “restructuring measures”.
The move comes after it revised its forecast for the financial year 2008, which ends on March 31, 2009, painting a bleak picture for the PlayStation brand.
In the Game segment, operating income (loss) is expected to be lower by approximately ¥30 billion (USD 337 million / EUR 258 million). Of this, approximately ¥15 billion is due to the impact of the appreciation of the yen and approximately ¥15 billion is due to “lower-than-expected sales”.
Sony’s revised game console forecast estimates sales of 10 million PS3 units worldwide by the end of its 2008 financial year (no change from its previous forecast), 15 million PSPs (down from a forecast of 16) and 8 million PS2s (down from a forecast of 9).
Sony forecasts 250 million software sales for the financial year.
Yesterday NPD data revealed that Sony’s LittleBigPlanet had sold 611,000 units in the US, helped largely by a strong December which saw sales of 255,000 units. PS3 FPS Resistance 2 is also hovering around the same total, with 598,000 units shifted (Nov 385k, Dec 213k). Metal Gear Solid 4, released back in June, sold 775,000 units on its debut month and has now gone on to sell 1.076 million units.
As part of its restructuring and cost reduction initiatives, which aim to reduce losses by a whopping ¥250 billion for the financial year 2009, Sony announced that its pictures, music and game businesses will see a “headcount reduction and other restructuring measures”. It is not clear at this time what this means, exactly, for the PlayStation brand.
Additionally, as part of “non-restructuring cost-reduction measures”, Sony plans to implement “significant reduction in marketing, logistics and other general expenses”.
Earlier in the month SCEE boss David Reeves revealed that first and foremost Sony as a company must begin making money and only then can the company move forward with the PlayStation.
“The most important thing for us as a company in the very short term is for us to start making money,” said Reeves. “This is a pledge that was made last March and is something that we are still very much on target to achieve.”
What do you think Sony’s losses mean for PlayStation? Let us know in the comments section below.
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