Sony Hoping for PS3 Profit This Year; PS3 Holiday Sales Top 1.2M, PS2 and PSP Exceed 1.3M

Over 1.2 million PlayStation 3s were sold in North America between November 23 and December 31, 2007, Sony Computer Entertainment has revealed.

The company also reported similar sales of the PSP and PlayStation 2 during that timeframe: the PSP moved more than 1.4 million units, while the PS2 sold in excess of 1.3 million.

Given the hardware sales of the PS3 and the ever-falling production costs, the company hopes that the system will become profitable in the next fiscal year.

"We want to get to the positive side of the equation as quickly as possible," SCE CEO Kaz Hirai told Reuters. "[Profitability] is not a definite commitment, but that is what I would like to try to shoot for."

Though Sony's gaming division has posted profit in the past, the high cost of the PS3 had a strong effect on its bottom line. Competitor Microsoft, meanwhile, expects its Xbox division to post its first-ever profit in the 2008 fiscal year.