Nintendo, Sony Hit By Weak Economy

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Japanese electronic firms Sony and Nintendo today issued their latest financial results, with both companies seeing falling profits due to the current economic climate.

Nintendo posted a $2.37 billion profit for the first nine months of its fiscal year--an 8% drop over the same period last year--and lowered its net profit expectations for the year by 33.3%, citing "a large exchange loss due to the sharp appreciation of the yen."

Whereas the Wii and Nintendo DS maker previously expected to rake in $22.1 billion and post a net profit of $3.8 billion across the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, the company now predicts sales of $20.1 billion and a $2.5 billion profit.

PlayStation maker Sony, which already lowered its full-year projections from an estimated $2 billion profit to a $2.9 billion loss, saw a decrease in PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PSP hardware sales this quarter over that of last year.

PS2 sales were down 2.88 million to 2.51 million units, PSP sales were down 0.68m, to 5.08 million units, and the PS3 sold 4.46 million units, a decrease of 0.44m.

However, PlayStation 3 software sales grew to 40.8 million units, a 14.8m unit increase over Q3 2007, while PS2 software hit 29.7 million (a 31.2m drop) and software sales for PSP were down 2.8 million units, to 15.5m.

Overall, game division sales were down 32.2% for Sony, 18% of which was due to the stronger exchange rate of the yen against weaker foreign currencies. The division brought in a total of $4 billion, and contributed $4.5 million to Sony's operating income.

As a whole, Sony posted an operating loss of $200 million, but still managed to report a net profit of $115 million, down 94.8% over Q3 2007, due to restructuring changes.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • FTY legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
    reply
    January 29, 2009 12:17 PM

    "...saw a decrease in PlayStation 2, PlayStation 2 and PSP hardware sales..."

    Guess PlayStation 3 should be one of those PlayStation 2s.

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