PS3 sales on the rise as Sony suffers overall losses

Kaz Hirai will have his work cut out for him when he becomes Sony's CEO and president in April. Sony announced its third quarter earnings today, revealing slumping sales and more than $1 billion in losses for the three months leading up to December 31, 2011. On the bright side, PlayStation 3 hardware and software sales are both trending upward.

According to the earnings report released today, 6.5 million PlayStation 3 units were sold in the publisher's third quarter, an increase of 2.8 million units on the previous quarter and an increase of 200,000 units compared to the same period last year.

In PS3 software sales, Sony recorded a total of 66.2 million units sold, an increase of 28.8 million units on the previous quarter and an increase of 8.6 million units compared to the same period last year.

However, Sony's other PlayStation business was largely in decline this quarter compared to the same time last year: PSP hardware sales fell from 3.6 million to 2.4 million, while software sales for the handheld fell from 16.5 million to 11.4 million copies sold. The PlayStation 2 continued its steady decline, with hardware sales down from 2.1 million to 900,000 and software sales slipping from 5.3 million to 2.5 million units shifted.

Sony's Consumer Products & Services division--which includes the PlayStation business as well as TVs, home audio, cameras, and personal electronics--suffered an operating loss of ¥85.7 billion (US$1.1 billion), compared to an operating loss of ¥63.5 billion yen (US$834.1 million) in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Year-over-year sales for the division were also down, sliding 24.4 percent to ¥996.5 billion yen (US$12.78 billion).

Companywide, Sony posted a decrease in sales of 17.4 percent year-on-year, arriving at a figures of ¥1,822.9 billion (US$23.38 billion). Sony attributed the loss primarily to the impact of the October 2011 Thailand floods, as well as a deterioration in market conditions in developed countries and "unfavorable" foreign exchange rates.

Across all divisions, Sony suffered a net loss of ¥91.7 billion (US$1.2 billion) for the quarter.