PS4 Pushes Sony's Earnings in the Positive: 4.2 Million PS4 Sales, 9.7 Million Software; +64.6%Total

Sony just posted its financial results for the quarter ended on December 31st, 2013 and contrary to what many expected they are in the black, thanks to the PS4

[BigFnHooters]

Sony's dominance of the console market is staggering.

A Playstation console has been the top selling console in the world going all the way back to 1994 - with the sole exception is the three years or so that the Wii craze was in full force.

With Nintendo stumbling with the Wii U and Microsoft crashing and burning it looks like Sony will have a lock on this gen and stretch their worldwide dominance for another seven years.

Microsoft won't have the luxury of the RRoD and all the absurd Xbox 360 hardware problems that led Xbox fans to buy four, five, or more duplicate consoles and massively inflate Microsoft's installed base numbers by tens of millions.

With the massive sales Sony is racking up with the PS4 the hardcore Xbox fanboy who makes up the fake sales numbers on his vgchartz site must be absolutely appoplectic.

Edit:

The final PS2 title was just finished recently - some fourteen years after the console was released. The PS3 has only been on the market for seven years. Sony will continue to sell PS3s for at least another five to six years and by the end of its life the PS3 will easily cross the 100 million worldwide installed base mark and probably get up into the 110 or so range.

That means that Sony will be 3/3 with 100+ million selling consoles. And almost certainly 4/4 with the PS4.

[thereapersson]

In one fell swoop, Sony cleaned house whilst all their competitors are doing the complete opposite. It's like Bizarro world when compared to last generation.

edit:

The reality is the Wii U is floundering about in the marketplace, and Microsoft nearly killed their chances with the Xbox One's DRM scheme before they changed their tone. Microsoft also has the most expensive system this time around, which is another 180. Sony has brought themselves back above water with the PS4 already, whilst last gen saw them just approaching breaking even by the end of things with the PS3.

[Vegamyster]

If you're looking at all hardware sold then Sony & Nintendo are pretty much selling about the same. The PS4 & 3DS are doing great while the Wii-U & Vita are currently in a similar predicament.

[Theyellowflash30]

I think you guys are forgetting Sony has a handheld market that is not doing so well at moment. You're quick to out the Wii U, but not the PS Vita, instead segmenting it into a "console" thing, yet the story is about Sony's Gaming division as whole.

Just be fair in your analysis. The 3DS outsold the PS4, just as long as Nintendo can pick up their business in the Wii U side of things, they will be find.

[ufo8mycat]

yellowflash - 3DS outselling PS4. We are talking about 2 TOTALLY different devices.
3DS is not a CONSOLE.

[Vegamyster]

@ufo8mycat

I agree they are different devices but they are both "consoles"

Video Game Console - Handheld Game Console

[kickerz]

Well done sony

[Volkama]

Even more impressive when you consider the launch window was previously a costly and difficult period, where these companies eat hard times for the sake of establishing a foothold for their latest and greatest.

The industry has changed a lot since the last console releases...

[Akuma07]

Yeah but Nintendo don't actually make much money from 3DS sales.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

@Hooters Then how do you explain Xbox console still selling well even after the PROD jazz?

*Prepares to get booed and disagreed for bring up a LOGICAL point.

Any

Congrats to Sony btw its only gonna get better from here.

[RiPPn]

Pretty simple really, you use your consoles sold through numbers to show publishers how far in the lead you are over the competition. This gives you the ability to secure exclusives far cheaper as well as exclusive content, and even sway Sony exclusives on to your platform. The best example of the last point is GTA going multiplatform, and on top of that getting the timed exclusive DLC. Couple that with Sony dropping the ball on the PS3..

It would be interesting to see how that generation played out without the RROD fabricated sale through and had Sony 180'd on the PS3 as fast as Microsoft did with the Xbox One.

[pompombrum]

Xbox is selling well probably due to their smart move of focusing on XBL. On my friends list alone around 75% of all people I see online are on Xbox One. They done a great job leading the way for online gaming on consoles and reaping the benefits of that at least. It's also probably the only reason why I will be picking up an Xbox One before the PS4 too.. simply because the gaming communities I'm a part of are more focused on the Xbox brand.

[SilentNegotiator]

I love how people with bad angry fanboy points caps words like "TRUTH" and "LOGICAL" and state that they're going to get disagrees to feel "right" when the inevitable happens.

His point was that Xbox 360 had inflated sales due to broken hardware (it didn't always have 3 year warranty and plenty of people fell out of the warranty before theirs broke. Not to mention the people that ran out and bought an updated system every time MS promised that they totally got it right THAT time). Lo and behold, The Xbox One isn't selling as well as PS4 (then again, PS3 sold at a faster rate than the 360 anyway).

[Dmagic]

for some people xbox is the only option ive got tons of friends who just bought one out of desperation for a next gen console people who had not planed on buying it for a year or so.

[dcbronco]

People still forget, and I'm sure Sony wishes they would keep this in mind, that these are companies looking to make a profit. And both are making a profit on gaming. MS hasn't done a 180. They are still making a significant profit on gaming. If you believe they aren't, take off your fanboy hate and use a little common sense.

Just like Sony sees PSN+ as a major source for profit, Live has been that for years. and Live has far more paying customers. 360 has been sold at a profit for years. And MS has made $10 on almost every game sold on their consoles. So MS hasn't done a 180. They are still doing what they have been doing for the last five years. Making a lot of money on gaming. Do your own thinking and stop listening to analyst trying to cheap your parents out of their retirement money.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Your avatar :(

[cyclindk]

"Appoplectic...

a - p - o - p - l - e - c - t - i - c .. apoplectic."

[Fishermenofwar]

Your avatar is hot..Licks nipples...

[rayzorn]

man i hate you.

i missed his avatar. so after reading your post i figured it was some hottie. so i scrolled up to look at it. boy was i wronge.

lmao

[DiRtY]

Well that is one way to look at things and I expected N4G to use this kind of news.

If you want a more objective way I would not put my trust in "dualshockers".

Here is a Bloomberg article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/ne...

hard facts:

- Sony forecasts another 1.1 billion USD loss for the FY.

- 5.000 jobs cut

- There will be no Sony Vaio in the future. Money is needed after they received the junk rating.

- Stock price fell 4.5% after the financial report

But yeah, it is all good at N4G!

[Stedron]

Get lost!!! Your system is not selling so you talk software sales, software sales are down you bring up this garbage? Whats next???

[GW212]

You literally have no idea what you're talking about. Literally none. Let me help you understand, I'll preface this all by saying I am a Wall Street professional.

The loss is related to the restructuring. That's what happens when you restructure a business, it costs money. The job cut is related to the divestiture/restructuring as well.

Vaio operates at a loss. This is a good thing that they are divesting the division.

The stock downturn is what it is. Higher profit and growth going forward will turn that around. Most analysts, if you actually did your homework, view this as a positive.

Lastly, just to really crush your BS, you didn't read the entire article, did you?

"The company also reported third-quarter earnings today, with net income of 27 billion yen in the three months ended Dec. 31 amid sales of the new PlayStation 4 console and a smaller loss in the unit that makes smartphones."

I'll leave you with that. I know you have basic reading comprehension skills so I probably don't need to explain that.

[DiRtY]

hahaha what company are you working for?

Sure it is good news to restructure your company and sure it costs money to do so, I never said anything different. The point I made was that Sony HAS to do this, so it is not as bright and shiny as N4G tries to spin this.

This news and headline sound like Sony knocked it out of the park, but they clearly did not.

And if you really worked at the Wall Street, you would have noticed that the Nasdaq is much more bullish than the European markets - stock price rose 1.78%.

[SilentNegotiator]

Here you go, since you didn't READ the article:

"Not everything is positive, though: the earnings forecast for the whole fiscal year is unchanged to 75.9 billion dollars in sales, but the operating income has been sliced from 1.676 billion dollars to 788.6 million mostly due to restructuring charges and the reform of the PC and TV businesses, bringing the predicted net income in the red by 1.084 billion dollars"

HERP DE DERP DUALSHOCR SO BIASED N4G MORE LIKE N4SONY

[joeorc]

@DiRtY

So cutting off toxic assets, and downsizing is now also bad when the community of Hedge funds is screaming bloody murder that Sony need to do something or else were going to make it that much more difficult to get lending?

Hey what else is new there sparky..LMAO

Look Sony Down sizing , and cutting more toxic assets are better than loosing their entire company, not to mention Since playstation is a LLC there is no public buy in..let me repeat that, there is no freaking Public buy in!

How many times do we have to keep saying this !

You and other's keep trying to point out the Dire situation Sony is in, so when Sony is down sizing it somehow means they are still in a dire situation?

They are in "junk status" the credit rating companies can keep manipulating straight the market for hedge funds all they like. The Reality is In 40 straitght d@mn years no japanese company the size of Sony has had a Hostile take over by a non Japanese owned and opp Hedge fund or private ownership or large company from the west be able to succeed in a bid to do so.

So this freaking Pipe dream many on here such as your self, keep trying to paint the doom and gloom picture may want to do some extra..extra research on "merger and acquisitions in japan" because you will find out what im saying to be quite true.

As a matter of fact many such billion $$$ Hedge funds or such investor's with such deep pockets have gave up outright and quite over such bid's

Japan is not like it is in the west trying to run through and treat it like such is not going to get you anywhere.

again:

"And if you really worked at the Wall Street, you would have noticed that the Nasdaq is much more bullish than the European markets - stock price rose 1.78%."

D@n Lobe is finding that out 1st hand.

Again Working on Wall Street and moving into or i should say trying to move into the japanese market is not the same thing!

you and other's again keeps saying its effects Playstation, well first of all yes it can effect playstation on how much $$$ investment by Sony to give to SCE LLC. that is no doubt, but Sony Computer Entertainment is already a "subsidiarity"

OF Sony as a whole, so the fact that Sony is investing more money into SCE means little to whats happening to playstation because, the very fact that SCE is by itself anyway, and turned a profit, means that its at freaking Profit and is not a public buy into anyway. which means Sony downsizing the company will further decrease Sony's investment, but SCE will still have the profits they have to run SCE!

The dream of a outside company buying playstation is pretty much dead in the water with the current board and CEO making cost cutting moves such as they did is making it that much more difficult for that to happen and at the rate Kaz and the board are doing such this issue about a hedge fund swooping in and breaking up Sony is pretty much dead ; people get over it.

[Yep]

Sony just fired almost all of Nintendo and biased sites like dualshockers just ignore it "because it's not gaming related".

And then what happens when Sony has to sell PlayStation to Apple because of their other divisions? We're just going to ignore that too because it's not gaming related?

[SilentNegotiator]

@Acesonnall

Sony firing a bunch of people not related to their game division isn't game news. The Sony Corporation actually being profitable the last quarter thanks to the PS4, the number of hardware sold, and the number of software sold...that's a LITTLE bit more of gaming news.

"And then what happens when Sony has to sell PlayStation to Apple because of their other divisions?"

What sense does it make that they would sell one of their most profitable divisions?

[scott182]

Why so bitter that Sony is on a roll? Yes they have struggled, but it is complicated for such a huge conglomerate, they will be fine. Stop seeing everything in 720p.

[jacksjus]

That's a very good point you made about how the RROD lead to additional sells due to replacement. That's exactly what happened to me.

[Why o why]

It happened to loads if people..... not me personally but every single mate I knew who purchased launch 360s. The disparity this gen will further prove this.

[hollabox]

Wow, good thing the gaming divison is doing well, but Sony overall as a whole is not looking too good. They need to sell their Movie studios, and TV production units while cutting 5000 jobs. The company has a bad credit rating, they will need to lean on the PS4 to stay afloat, but the PS4 might not be enough to feed the whole company if other units/branches can't be sold.

http://www.bloomberg.com/ne...

[mediate-this]

If sony sells their movie divisions its game over, thats power they lose. Sony needs to stop acquiring businesses,the gaming division is good, them as a whole is junk

[SilentNegotiator]

They need to kill off their TV/PC divisions or make drastic changes to them.

[hollabox]

@SilentNegotiator

I would hate to see Sony TV division go, pretty good quality dating back to my 2nd HDTV the massive 36 FD Trinitron WEGA. What I'm afraid might happen if Sony continues to lose money, more and more divisions will either be sold or have massive layoffs. Besides TVs I think Sony makes the most reasonably priced AV receivers with good performance. I'm currently using Sony STR 835 and DN 840 for my PC and living rooms connected using Polk speakers and BIC subwoofers.

[joeorc]

@hollabox

"Wow, good thing the gaming divison is doing well, but Sony overall as a whole is not looking too good. They need to sell their Movie studios, and TV production units while cutting 5000 jobs. The company has a bad credit rating, they will need to lean on the PS4 to stay afloat, but the PS4 might not be enough to feed the whole company if other units/branches can't be sold. "

No..No..No, look you do know Sony owns its own Bank! right?

the fact of the matter is SCE LLC is a

"subsidiarity company"

that means, that they do not lean on playstation!
its already a company all unto itself by itself, that is 100% no public buy in.

they are not going to sell any part of Sony Computer Entertainment, that includes movies, Music. Kaz and the board of directors already informed the investors what the three pillars of Sony are, none that is with a very big No! for sale. down size toxic assets does not include movies and music and smartphone's.

but TV section is not part of the three Pillars along with PC's

[mediate-this]

Can you prove that microsoft sokd tens of millions new 360's because of the rrod fiasco??

[RiPPn]

Nobody can prove it because Microsoft won't release official numbers.. I wonder why that is?!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

"A second source cited that, at one time, there was just a 32% yield of one of the test production runs. 68 of every 100 test units were found to be defective."

Revisions helped lower this number down to 1 in every 6, but it wasn't until the redesign in 2010 that RROD was completely fixed.

http://www.ign.com/articles...

So Microsoft hit 40 million in 2010 according to that IGN article. If we take the best reported failure rate of 1 and 6 we get at the very minimum 6.6 million defective consoles. However if the 68% number is accurate especially for the first run units this number could be far greater. There are other factors to like when Microsoft acknowledged the issue and started repairing them so this didn't gain them new console sales.

[HomerJDog]

that's about the only thing Sony is selling. there was a post like 1hr ago but of course got deleted cuz it's negative Sony news, saying how many millions Sony lost. Sony as a company ain't doing that great

[Jihaad_cpt]

Maybe it's because it's not related to games?

[WilDRangeRrfc]

I agree with a lot of things you say and just to make this clear I owned PS1,2 X360 and day 1 PS4 which I pre ordered after E3.Some of the stuff you say is BS and I have to call you out
1. There's no chance of PS3 making 100 million that's garbage,sales are slowing all the time and PS4 is going to be bought instead
2. last gen was even between PS3 and 360 some say MS are slightly ahead some say Sony,but the facts are mixed in favour of both no real way to tell,you google one site 360 is infront,you google another PS3 etc
3. Yes 360 had a year head start and rrod defo added some sales but not many,and NOBODY had to buy 5 or 6 what are you talking about,I had 2 over whole last gen and only paid for one MS picked up my faulty 360 and replaced it within one week free of charge and that was when it was 3 1/2 years old and way out of warrenty,I know for a fact this was commonplace so cut the BS and think before you speak
4. Xbox took massive strides last gen and took massive market share from PS made way more money so Xbox easily won last gen if you look at original Xbox to 360 massive success,then PS2 to PS3 massive failure
5. I expect X1 to lose and lose badly to PS4 as its garbage and PS4 is boss and new PS2 peace out;)

[InTheZoneAC]

But I like being slapped and abandoned halfway through the console life so I can't support Sony...

[WiiUsauce]

that's why they just posted a loss of 1.1 billion dollars and are loosing money with every PS4 sold. lol Sony delusional fanboys.

[dedicatedtogamers]

Quite impressive, especially when you consider that Sony's other divisions aren't doing so hot. Can the "sure, Sony's great, but they're finances are terrible" meme finally die now?

[KakashiHotake]

Actually Sony's mobile division is doing a lot better than people think. Those waterproof Xperia Z' s are pretty sleek. What's hurting Sony is the PC, TV, and Sony pictures divisions. But games and mobile is what's keeping them on the ground.

[The Great Melon]

I actually wanted an Xperia when my contract was up last year, but Sony phones seem to be rarely offered with carriers in the US.

[XiSasukeUchiha]

PS4 is saving the company from bankruptcy people can we all agree with that!

[asmith2306]

As well as their gaming department it is great to hear they will be pumping more into their imaging department as well. Sony makes a sweet, sweet camera but they have the same problem as the gaming department did with PS3. Just a tad to pricey for some (even though specs are insane) and marketing is pretty shallow. I would like to see Sony give priority to gaming, film, imaging and mobile. PC/laptop market is a waste of time these days. Ask Dell.

[Bundi]

One great quarter does not = financial woes are gone. In fact they have forcast a billion dollar loss for the fiscal year. So :/

[Sayai jin]

Congrats to Sony! Their gaming division is doing extremely well. Who are we kidding, who ever doubted they wouldn't. PS has always been a shining star of the company.

@Dedicated -You will continue to hear that Sony as a whole is not doing well, because it is true. Their gaming division is huge in the gaming industry, but a small cog in the Sony machine. They need their other markets to do well...

[No_Limit]

For being Anti-Sony for so long due to the fact that they really dropped the balls on some of their previous products. Somehow, I bout a PS4 on launch and just bought a Xperia Z1s phone and have to say these are great products all the way. Good for Sony

[AceBlazer13]

If Sony can continue doing what they're doing they may just climb back to the top , although samsung is gonna be a tough SOB to overcome.

[jgrigs09]

And apple.... Seriously...

[norman123]

No, if Sony continues doing what they are doing AS A WHOLE, they will go bankrupt.

They lost money as a whole company in 2013. that is why sony is planning for layoff. People keep forgetting that Sony gaming division is a drop in a bucket. Time to get your gaming head out.

[Crossbones]

The Japan launch at the end of the month is only going to increase it even more.

[KakashiHotake]

Yeah Sony planned things out perfectly. The Japan launch is what's really going to get the ball rolling for 2014, especially once more games are announced.

[X1PS4WiiU]

Sony Forcasts an anual loss of $1.1billion(110billion yen)

http://www.bloomberg.com/ne...

To everyone who disagrees, state why.

Otherwise, why disagree with the facts?

[Abriael]

That's the forecast for the whole year, and it's not due to games. This quarter is positive.

People are rightfully disagreeing with you because you're being a negative nancy cherry picking the only negative (and mostly unrelated) part of the news.

[X1PS4WiiU]

We have to look at the big picture. Sony lost a lot of money, and they have been for a while. This can ultimately affect their gaming devision. Even if the playstation brand sells great, theres still other devisions of sony that are bleeding money.

[Abriael]

No. This is a place to speak about games. We can leave the "big picture" to investors.

[Theyellowflash30]

Abriael don't talk about being a negative Nancy dude. You post troll bait and negative article all the time.

[stragomccloud]

Actually this can greatly affect games. Sony can't seem to stop hemorrhaging money. At least they are finally making a step in the right direction by going with relatively cheap but efficient hardware that can be sold for a profit.

[Abriael]

@Theyellowflash30: Nope. I post balanced articles. When things are negative, they just are. In this case, they aren't.

[Theyellowflash30]

@Abriael

Yeah like when you misquoted Iwata about not marketing to kids enough when the Nikkei ALWAYS jacks up Iwata's quotes.... You could have just waited till the investor meeting with official translations. I don't think that's "balanced" Especially since Iwata's words are always twisted by the media.

[Abriael]

@Theyellowflash30: actually you seem unaware of the fact that I correctly quoted Iwata. The goon that wrote an article to pander for hits saying it was misquoted used google translator, and he's the one that misquoted.

I speak Japanese, and the translation was checked with three native speakers. More native speakers and professional translator confirmed it on Neogaf, and Japanese gamers commenting on the story on Japanese sites did it according to the meaning I correctly translated. Maybe they mistranslated as well? Lol.

You really shouldn't believe some dude that uses google translator to say that someone else "misquoted." My translation was correct, and you may want to accept that.

Mind you, there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to market more to kids. It doesn't in any way mean marketing less to adults. Nintendo can't afford to loose too much of it's youngest userbase to smartphones, so it's entirely justified and actually to be encouraged for them to act to counter that.

And lol at Nikkei "jacking" iwata's words. Aside from the fact that you don't even know what you're talking about, as it was the Asahi Shinbun, we have absolutely no reason not to believe one of the most relevant and reputable newspapers in Japan.

Sorry if that offends the Nintendo defense force that doesn't even know what's good for the company they root for.

[KillrateOmega]

@Theyellowflash30

"Abriael don't talk about being a negative Nancy dude. You post troll bait and negative article all the time."

I've been on this site for over a year and in my experience, Abriael has been pretty fair both in terms of article and comment posts. He's a respectable guy.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

That positive news is outweighed by their total losses, though.
Sony isn't JUST video games. Their other divisions, and the losses from said other divisions, have an impact on the company as a whole, which their gaming division is a part of.
It's not cherry-picking, it's taking in the whole story and exposing that this news is only half the story for the sake of placating the fanboys.

This can and will eventually hurt Sony's ability to continue supporting their gaming division if they don't cut off, or fix, whatever is making their profits tank.

[HappyWithOneBubble]

I disagree cause this has nothing to do with the article.

[dedicatedtogamers]

Yeah, because they're finally cutting off the incredibly wasteful VAIO brand and cutting back on premium TVs (an area where they've been getting beat by Samsung and Vizio for half a decade).

But this article is about the Playstation brand and how - despite the other failing divisions - Sony still posted a profit.

[MasterCornholio]

Mobile doing much better than before which is good as well.

[KakashiHotake]

I agree with the point your getting at, but in this business the only way to make money is by spending it. They have to take risks or else the bleeding will never stop until their dead. I'll be the 1st to admit they made some dumb decisions in the last few year, but clearly 2013 was a restructuring year, and finally in the last quarter they saw a profit even if at the expense of taking a loss. I like Sony's new direction and while I'm unsure about Sony pictures, there's fierce competition with TV, and the PC market is doing poorly in general, their games and mobile divisions are looking up. I think their strategy is to build revenue streams off what's working which is games and mobile, such as PS Now and their new TV streaming service they are working on. Not to mention Sony is trying to unite the divisions into one Sony so all of their products and services can benefit from one another. That can only be great news for all the divisions. I also think it helps that Sony just sold it's PC business which wasn't doing good anyway.

[KillrateOmega]

Just wanted to be that guy, huh?

Anyways, you have to spend money to make money.

[LeCreuset]

Because you're trolling with an off topic post.

[MrBrookwood09]

Why are people still saying that Sony sold 4.2 million Ps4's? Sony report that number on December 28th lol That was almost 2 months ago. Im sure they have sold well over 5 million by now.

[PS4isKing_82]

Exactly. Plus it's been in the top of amazon's best sellers list till yesterday when stock ran out while xbone stays burried in the 20, 30's spots.I wouldnt be shocked if Sony sold 8 mil ps4s by April after the huge Japan launch. I also read yesterday that Sony is reportedly in talks to sell off it's flagging pc business for somewhere between $300 - $400mil. So basically Sony is killing it lately.

[jackanderson1985]

probably something to do with the report dealing with the end of Q2 (think it's Q2) and that being 31 December 2013.... Also january is typically a bad month for consoles... no new releases and what not... i'd say they're pushing 4.8mil maybe close to 5 but i doubt it's well over 5 mil

[IG-88]

because that is the only number that they have stated and once Sony updates that people will use the new number.

[Sci0n]

4.2 mill within 3 months is insane! it still hasn't released in japan yet neither. I also still have friends looking to find some in stock in the US.

[Abriael]

it's within 6 weeks. Remember that the results are until January 31st. So a month and a half.

[Insomnia_84]

One month and a half actually. 4.2 million by the end of December, should be over 5 million by now and almost 6 by the end of the month. Maybe a bit mlre than six with the release in Japan.

[Majin-vegeta]

Good going Sony.

[WitWolfy]

Good! They deserve it.

[X1PS4WiiU]

You guys are living in lala land if you only pay attention to this article. Sony is cutting 5,000 jobs, thats a lot. The company as a whole needs to make some big changes, so the playstation brand can stay afloat, in the long run.

The playstation brand is a branch on the sony tree, and these big loses are hacking at the trunk, and if it keeps up, the whole tree may fall.

[Abriael]

And none of those jobs is being cut in the gaming division. It sucks for those affected, but the gaming division is doing great, and if you didn't notice this is a place to discuss games.

PS: you conveniently forgot to mention that they're spinning off the negative divisions, so your argument about "the whole three" instantly falls flat.

[phoenix_dusk]

Your analogy is incorrect. Sony is like a tree that came from their electronics mainly their TVs, walkman, radios. Sony sprouted seeds. The owner planted it. Out of it came the playstation brands, PCs, entertainment business, smartphones etc. They are the new trees that came from Sony's old business. They aren't just some branches.

Sony is killing the trees(PC) that are taking the nourishment out of the other trees in their lot that are bearing more fruit. The TV division however is being moved to another place on its own but is still a part of the Sony family.

[Cryptcuzz]

I like your analogy. I'd say that is a well said comment, if I'd ever seen one.

I'm glad Sony is turning things around financially. They truly deserve it and have provided great games on the PS3 despite their not so great financial status before.

With how they have handled the PS4 so far. I wish they continue the way they have managed the company and consumers as of late and the provide us with more awesome games to enjoy.

With all the great games they have provided, such as The Last of Us, Uncharted, Journey etc. On the PS3 when their financial status was not so great, imagine the amount of games and quality of games they would be able to produce with bigger budgets on the PS4.

Whichever tree or branches Sony decides to relocate or sell, I certainly hope the tree of PlayStation only gets bigger and healthier as time goes on.

[Jdoki]

@X1PS4WiiU

I don't agree with your tree analogy. It's not like that for any big company with multiple business divisions.

A better analogy is that Sony is the owner of an orchard, and each tree is a division of the business.

What Sony are doing is assessing which are the trees that will grow; which can be saved by removing some branches (cutting costs) or made to grow better with some extra attention; and which need to be cut down.

At the moment the gaming division is one of the strongest trees, but the Vita branch is kinda weak. The mobile market is doing well and can grow with some nurturing. The TV tree might need cutting back severely before it blooms again, and the PC division probably needs to be chopped.

One rotten tree is not going to take down the entire orchard!

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Give it a rest. You are trying so very hard for no reason.

[SnotyTheRocket]

I heard Sony might sell their rights to Spiderman.

[LeCreuset]

Give the trolling a rest.

Those big losses aren't axes hacking away at the tree. They're other branches, which Sony can chop off if need be. Will the tree be as big without those branches? Nope, but it will survive and be a healthier tree with the potential to regrow what it lost.

You have no idea what you are talking about. The Playstation brand will stay afloat, even if Sony went under. Right now, and over the past four generations, Playstation is the brand to have in the gaming market. That's not just going to vanish, even if the parent company went under. That's not how business works. Look at Atlus. So please, stop trolling already.

[norman123]

Other divisions had been carrying/helping the gaming division in early PS3 with huge loses.

with junk bond status,it is harder for sony to borrow alot of money to invest in new IP or R&D for future PS.

being a fanboy will bury your head in the sand

[joeorc]

"The playstation brand is a branch on the sony tree, and these big loses are hacking at the trunk, and if it keeps up, the whole tree may fall."

Again, SCE Playstation part of the company is a whole owned

"subsidiarity company"

thus the "trunk" as you say , is not completely correct, if anything the other parts get sold off and Sony stays around as an entertainment company only. thats the point again Playstation SCE, is a LLC. there is no public buy in!

This really does not effect SCE in a direct manner, its mainly how much $$$ that Sony can invest into SCE outside out of the Money SCE has itself.

The SCE is ran by itself anyway. So as for being able to scrape up the money by SCE by itself. Sony has its own Bank any way!

Sony trimming down effects the $$$ of extra investment capital to give to SCE from Sony that would be not included the capital that SCE generates by itself.

[madworld]

GUYS---BREAKING NEWS---

now Sony sells the PC Department(VAIO PC)to Japan Industrial Partners so I hope things are going to be better for the company....

[stragomccloud]

Hopefully, they start becoming a profitable company again. I'd hate to see the PlayStation go away. Though, more likely it would end up being sold off to another company. ...that's a horrible thought. Now I'm going to have nightmares.

[kewlkat007]

I doubt your looking at the BIG picture..

[stragomccloud]

Obviously they have enough assets to keep things going. They need to get back in the black though. Sony is suffering from having overextended themselves.

[4ShotKing]

I think this should be reported on, this doesn't sound like good news to me:
http://www.bloomberg.com/ne...

[Abriael]

Whatever is included there that isn't included in this article is not gaming related.

There's no bad news for the gaming division at all.

[4ShotKing]

It was gaming related when it was about Nintendo's financial troubles... 1.1 billion loss for Sony is terrible news and really puts Sony overall in a bad situation.

[LeCreuset]

@4ShotKing

What markets are Nintendo in, besides gaming?

[MultiConsoleGamer]

"Sony Forecasts $1.1 Billion Loss as Hirai’s Revival Falters"

This is gaming related because it has to do with the health of a company that makes three of the world's most well known gaming products.

However today's report was just a quarterly financial report. This projected loss won't happen until April when they release yearly financials. But its safe to say that Kaz Hirai has failed to revive this company despite his heroic, Herculean efforts. No member of the electronics industry has worked harder in the past decade and I salute his valiant efforts.

[Abriael]

The projected loss is included here anyway, hence it's not just unrelated to gaming, but also duplicate.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

How do you fail a work in progress? Was there a time limit given to him?

[ElementX]

There were articles posted on N4G about Sony buying the plant that produced DRAM chips for Nintendo, that wasn't gaming related either because Sony wanted to make more CMOS sensors for mobiles.

[ElementX]

Replied to wrong post

[KwietStorm_BLM]

So you didn't know that Nintendo is a gaming corporation?

[ElementX]

The sale of a factory isn't gaming news. The factory made chips used in the device, but it wasn't "gaming" news.

[LeCreuset]

@ElementX

"The factory made chips used in the gaming system."

FIFY

[ElementX]

The article was Sony focused and they're using the factory to produce more CMOS sensors which are used for their mobile division. Yes the DRAM was used in the Wii U however there are many companies producing system components and Nintendo simply had a contract with Renesas Electronics at that plant. It's not as though Nintendo owned the plant. There isn't any word yet if Sony will manufacture the DRAM or not, if they did, then I would consider that gaming news because it's a plant owned by Sony making Nintendo components. Even then it's sketchy in my opinion because it would still be only for a component. I mean, you don't read articles about which companies produce the plastic console shells or LEDs

[joeorc]

"“There’s no prospect of its TV business being profitable,” said Makoto Kikuchi, the Tokyo-based chief executive officer for Myojo Asset Management Co. “Sony’s strengths are content such as games and movies. It cannot increase profit without moving its focus from TV production to content.”"

No this is good new's, it means that soon most of the TV production Assets, to be sold off. Take the cost Hurt upfront IE: cost's in restructuring, but go to black with much lower overhead down the line. this will lower expending more $$$ for Toxic Assets that are cutting into profits. Playstation investment has been increased, not cut...

This really will not have a drastic effect on playstation, only the size and operation expenses of Sony not playstation part because playstation part is a LLC.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

This is a spin piece.

Their profit was minuscule and it has little to do with the PS4. Profits mostly came from "the favorable impact of foreign exchange rates." Fanboys are also quoting operating profits over net profits in an attempt to fluff up the numbers.

The company also just spun off their TV division and killed their PC division. That's a disaster and there's no sugar coating the situation. They're also going to cut another 5,000 jobs.

The good news is the PS4 is a well deserved, massive success. Unfortunately they are consolidating PS3/PS4 numbers. So we will never know exactly how much they sold. It's another "top selling" situation. It seems very odd and quite suspicious to want to hide your total numbers.

[phoenix_dusk]

They already revealed the sales for 2013.

4.2 million sold through not shipped.

I don't get why you're trying to spin off a a positive article.

Sony is trimming off the excess fat. That is all. 5000/150,000 jobs is sad but that is business. It's better than cutting 150K jobs trying to save their PC business when the whole market is shifting to smartphones.

Edit: You did not respond to what I said though. 4.2 million sold through. I see you trying to avoid things.

At this rate Playstation will live on as long as there are games willing to buy games. Less investements on PC and TV hemorrhaging money for Sony, better prospects for Playstation.

I don't know where you mad at.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

This is not "cutting the fat." The company has fired thousands of employees, every year, for the past decade.

Sony is a pioneer in television production. They have made some of the best products in the business. To see them exit the field is utterly heartbreaking. They were true innovators in both broadcast HD and home theater.

Killing the PC division is also a disaster. There isn't much left except for mobile, music, games and a movie studio.

[Jdoki]

@MultiConsoleGamer

You make it sound like bad news, but look what you said..

"There isn't much left except for mobile, music, games and a movie studio."

What are the huge growth markets right now? Mobile, gaming, and entertainment (Hollywood had a record breaking year for ROI). All the things you said Sony have left - sounds like they are doing a good job refocusing.

Sony is evolving. They were always a top end brand for TV's and electronics and somehow lost their way and got spanked by Samsung etc. But I'd rather see them leave the TV business than try and compete with low end brands that are flooding the market.

PC sales have been declining for years.

Seems to me they are refocusing. You may be 'heartbroken' (really!?) they are exiting some of their core markets from years gone by - but times have changed, and it's good to see Sony changing with those times.

[LeCreuset]

@MultiConsoleGamer

Hey, they're also not leading the industry in portable music players anymore either. This is a gaming site. If you want to bemoan the exit of Sony from the television business, go on N4TV or whatever. I'm sure it matters there. This is N4G. We care about the gaming division. If they have to restructure by dropping some non-gaming divisions that's really irrelevant to gaming. In fact, such a move helps secure the future of the gaming division.

[Jdoki]

@LeCreuset

You may want to re-read your comment slowly and see where the contradiction lies.

I'll give you a hint... "If they have to restructure by dropping some non-gaming divisions that's really irrelevant to gaming. In fact, such a move helps secure the future of the gaming division."

[joeorc]

@MultiConsoleGamer

"Killing the PC division is also a disaster. There isn't much left except for mobile, music, games and a movie studio."

And Once again the TV sections and PC parts of Sony were not PART OF THE THREE PILLAR'S of the company! Kaz has talked about this since he took over since late 2008 to 2009.

Despite you and other's claim on this as being so bad, down sizing the company down to no PC or TV production is a smart and prudent process to do. something of which Kaz and the current Board are doing. This means the investors still get the money back and Sony's SCE LLC and its entertainment Arm still gather's resources for investors.

Hey Sony's market cap is this low, and guess what by cutting off large chunks of the company to keep the good parts healthy is better off than keep that 9 year loss toxic asset's like TV's bringing down the entire company as a whole.

[Abriael]

You seem mad because the gaming division is doing great, so you're spinning it off topic on stuff that is completely unrelated to games. Keep spinning fanboy :D

[MultiConsoleGamer]

Ah a personal attack. Always the last resort of a desperate person.

No company "evolves" by cutting divisions, projecting massive losses and firing thousands of emoloyees. This is especially true when said company was on we considered a leader in that particular field.

You will also notice that the only time I mentioned the gaming division was when I said the PS4 was a spectacular success. The only critical words I have spoken was regarding their tendency to group ps3 and ps4 hardware into one unit number. That's very odd and no other gaming company does that.

Perhaps its best you don't respond to this type of news? You can't seem to separate your personal loyalties / bias from a rational discussion of the gaming business at large.

End note, no matter what happens to Sony as a company the playstation brand will live on for many years.

EDIT: I also smell a lot of bait in this comment section. As we all know more comments = more heat and more attention for a particular article.

[Jdoki]

@MultiConsoleGamer

I agree with you that people are being a bit blinkered here and intentionally don't want to engage in discussion about the big picture of Sony's finances.

But you have made a couple of comments that seem uninformed and intentionally inflammatory.

Kaz has not failed. He is still in the process of restructuring.

Of course a company that is in a dire position will need to make massive changes to evolve. Sony was run like crap for years. Kaz is doing something about it, and unfortunately that means a frank evaluation of the workforce, costs and divisions.

PC sales have been declining for every manufacturer, but Sony have been clinging on to the 'we're higher quality, we're higher priced' mantra for too long and it has burned them. That division needs to go.

They had that same mantra in their TV division and electronics divisions. Sony are not going to compete with low end TV's, and they don't have the money right now to fight Samsung etc. So best thing to do is get rid of it.

They have traditionally worked in silos, to the extent that when they were trying to fight the iPod back in the day their software division had no access to the hardware guys building the devices - the result. A crap MP3 player, and terrible software.

There were no synergies between entertainment, hardware and software... So the PlayStation guys had nothing to do with the entertainment guys.

And so on.

When you get in to a silo'd situation, you're going to bloat and fail. And Sony have (with the exception of PlayStation) been in a poor shape for over 10 years. That can't be fixed overnight or even over 3 years or more.

You have a very poor understanding of how multi-national business work

[G20WLY]

^Multi, you've veered into companywide musings, and way off topic. N4G isn't for talk of companywide stocks or anything outside of news that affects gaming.

This news relates to Sony's gaming division hitting it's stride where in recent years it has struggled. It should be reported since it affects games/gamers.

As a 'multiconsolegamer'... shouldn't you be more supportive of this news rather than raining on the parade?

As for "I also smell a lot of bait in this comment section. As we all know more comments = more heat and more attention", yet you keep on chowing the 'bait' down like a hungry little fish, lol! ;P

[kenshiro100]

...

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE GAMING DIVISION.

Stop it, you're embarrassing yourself.

If their videogame division is doing well, then what does that have to do with anything?

[Zool 08]

What's remarkable about Sony is that even the PS3 despite the stumbling start it had at the beginning of it's life, it came from behind, beaten its competitors and is on it's way to selling over 100 million and will eventually overtake the Wii's lifetime sales.

As for the PS4 it's likely to achieve 100 million sales in 4 years thanks to the blistering start its had, 4.2 million at the end of 2013 is a testament to how strong the Playstation brand is(even the Vita is beginning to pick up sales, whether that trend continues remains to be seen) and it wont surprise me if the sales have gone past 5 million by now and it'll be frightening to see what the number of sales will be in their first 1/4.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

That's a lot of assuming.

[ironmonkey]

good to hear. moving forward they will start to gain profits and repair the damages. i believe 10 years from now sony wont be in the red anymore.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Well done and well deserved Sony.

[kewlkat007]

I congrats sony with their games division good sales..but the company needs help.

You can't count on gaming for profits when or to save you as a whole.

If the company is not doing so well hopefully that division does not suffer in other ways. It doesn't look like it right now but hopefully no promises are made just to disappoint later because of finances.

[TristanPR77]

The Samurai is back!

Outstanding job Sony, well deserved.

[Bundi]

I use a Vaio laptop :/ news that they are selling them off is kinda not so great. Also just how many people work at Sony if they can afford to fire 5000 people a year?

How much of a profit were they expecting this quarter if they expected to make a $295 million profit for the year and now are staring down a 1.1 billion loss barrel?

[hello12]

I've just done some research into this to find out how profitable the PS4 and x box 1 are to Microsoft and Sony.

The numbers of consoles sold does matter but equally so does the profit got back from each console sold.

According to people who know better than us gamers.

Each x box 1 costs around 471 dollars to make leaving a profit of 29 dollars on each.

Each PS4 costs 381 dollars to make leaving a profit of 19 dollars.

Microsoft gains more profit from their console. So in reality Microsoft profit is higher than Sony's.

This is only the hardware.

[Jdoki]

Please enlighten us to this 'research' you've conducted that leads to this 'reality' you speak of.

Was it just a BOM comparison using off the shelf parts discounted by a rough figure to account for bulk buying?

Or did it factor in that MS outsources all of it's manufacturing, while Sony owns some of the factories it uses. Or how foreign currency conversions can have a massive impact on supply chain costs. Or how Sony can leverage economies of scale by using components from other manufacturing areas (such as the Blu-Ray drives). What about transportation costs, packaging.

Regardless of whether your figures are right or wrong, the fact that either console is profitable (or close to profitable) at this stage is impressive, but only tells part of the story. There's attach rates and software license costs that make a huge difference to profitability.

And what your comment has to do with the article and general conversation here is a bit of a mystery, or were you just looking to ignite a fanboy argument?

[ElementX]

You can't just cherry pick the good parts of a financial report and ignore the rest. Everybody disagreeing with the people stating that Sony is financially in trouble are ignoring the facts. Selling off divisions is never a good thing. 5,000 people losing their jobs isn't a good thing. Over $1b in the red isn't a good thing. They're laying off employees and buying a factory to make more mobile CMOS sensors however that bubble may burst eventually. Apple uses Sony cameras however there's no guarantee that companies will continue buying Sony CMOS sensors in the future.

People think SCE is the end all be all of Sony. One division making a profit doesn't matter if the rest of the divisions are losing money. I love my PS4 (KZ MP is awesome!) however as a whole, Sony isn't doing well.

[alb1899]

But SONY LOST 5 Billions with the ps3.....i don't know from where are the numbers some people put in here.

http://www.vg247.com/2013/0...

http://www.gamespot.com/art...

[mediate-this]

So theres 4.2 mill ps4s sold? So not 5 mil?

[Jdoki]

From actually reading the article it clearly states that 4.2million were sold by year end.

That was approx 6 weeks after the US launch... And it's been roughly another 6 weeks since that date with the console available in multiple territories.

Even if we dismiss the initial pre-order frenzy I don't think it's a stretch to think that Sony have shifted 800,000 units in the next 6 weeks - especially as comments Sony have made previously indicate they can make approx 500,000 units per week.

[MasterofMagnetism]

The PS4 may be selling well but Sony as a whole is losing money big time. Hope Sony can turn things around.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

So maybe the more appropriate response to the earning is: Congrats Sony game division, See you later Vaio and TV you are next. Sorry 5,000 of you lost your jobs, Sucks that the company posted a 1.1billion loss BUT Playstation is doing well and we are focusing on that. It's a long road ahead for Sony for sure but its not all doom and gloom nor is it all rosey. Hard work is still ahead for this turnaround.

[NeloAnjelo]

It's closer to 5 million sales now.

[danny818]

I think thry havent announced the new number because they want to add the japanese sales ontop of the new number. That way they can stick the middle finger to the competition

[fonger08]

So... no one going to mention that oh by the way Sony lost 1.03 billion dollars over their financial year? Applaud the playstation division, very nicely done, but Sony as whole as a long way to go.

[urwifeminder]

Was just on the news they are going to sack another 5,000 people world wide due to Vaio lap tops. .

[gpturbo81]

good! they need it.

[Corpser]

Only in n4g are there people that think (and only want to hear) Sony is doing well, in the real world Sony is forecasting a 1 billion dollar loss this year and cutting 5000 jobs, and their bonds are junk status , and kaz's credibility is in question

http://mobile.bloomberg.com...

[Petebloodyonion]

Was just reading my financial news (in french) regarding Sony taking drastic measures due to another bad fiscal year (110 billions Yens).
Sony plans to cut 5000 jobs so they can return to profitability. http://affaires.lapresse.ca...

But TKS to N4G I know now that my major national newspaper is probably in the wrong and plotting against Sony.

Tks N4G!

[Amigaengine]

I just want to know how much Cash Sony has on hand Vs Debt.

[fonger08]

It's not good. Their current Cash flow shows about 8 billion in cash and 38billion in current assests. Their debt is at 9 billion (long-term) and 45 billion in current liabilties. It's the biggest reason their debt caused them to be rated a "junk" status bond.

[Amigaengine]

ouch !

Thanks

[Amigaengine]

Wonder why the "gaming media" is not reporting on this ?

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

If their other divisions don't harm their gaming division, then that'll be a miracle, but as it stands, even the PS4 isn't saving Sony right now.
They need to fix what's wrong with their other divisions, or cut them off and become smaller to stick with the divisions that don't lose them money.