Tokyo (Japan) – Sony had a rough second calendar quarter (fiscal Q1 2008 for the company) with profits plunging nearly 48% to $326.9 million while sales inched up to $18.7 billion. However, the game segment showed improvement: The business unit posted a profit and Playstation 3 sales more than doubled over the second quarter of 2007.

Global PS3 sales came in at 1.56 million units, which is up 123% from the 700,000 units the company sold in the same quarter last year. Sony said that it had sold 14.4 million PS3 consoles by the end of June. For the complete fiscal year, Sony expects to sell about 10 million consoles, up from the 9.24 million units the company sold in fiscal 2007.

PS3 unit sales were ahead of the PS2, whose sales dropped by 43% from 2.66 million to 1.51 million units. The Playstation Portable was Sony’s best-selling game system with 3.72 million units, compared to 2.13 million units in Q2 2007. PS3 software sales more than quadrupled to 22.7 million units, while PS2 software sales fell from 31.1 million to 19.3 million units.

Revenue of Sony’s game unit increased from $1.8 billion to $2.12 billion and the Q1 2007 loss of $270 million was turned into a $49.9 million profit in Q1 2008.

Across its consumer electronics portfolio, the company saw sales of its Bravia LCD TVs increasing, but sales for compact digital cameras, compact video cameras and Vaio computers were declining. The weak dollar also had a negative impact on Sony’s bottom line, erasing $133.6 million of operating profit.

14.4 million???

Jul 29, 2008 11:31     

Is that units shipped or units sold? Last quarter they hadn't even sold 10 million world wide and if they only 1.56 million units in the qtr it doesn't add up to 14.4 million.
Action Jackson report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

And in other news

Jul 29, 2008 12:00     

The Xbox360 outsells the xbox. /end sarcasm Wolfgang is back!!!!
09 F9 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Metal Gear

Jul 29, 2008 12:11     

We can thank Metal Gear for this, I think the sales will drop down cold next month though. :)
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Collective YAWN

Jul 29, 2008 15:26     

Sales will drop after Sony's lack of a E3 press conference. There wasn't anything to get excited about. More people were upset that they got a PS3 when they announce FFXIII is coming to the 360 with 2 excusive titles from Square.
Headward report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

PS3 SuXX 360 RulZZZ

Jul 29, 2008 16:27     

Cry you PS3 owners and go back to living in mommy house, Microsoft RULED E3, Let the real men play their 360 with much better games. Ok, just kidding i love to start fanboy wars, they turn up soo funny...
360fanboy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -7

LOL

Jul 29, 2008 22:23     

omg i love the title of this article. it sounds like a accomplishment, but it really isn't. almost two years to outsell a console that has very few new games and is about 7 years old.
jonas report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Own both systems

Jul 30, 2008 10:31     

Would prefer buying games for a quiet system, than a rocket engine. Metal gear 4 rocks. FFXIII will feel more playstation natural for playstation. Probably look better too. The question is the loading times may differ.
Mr. Paco report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

great but,

Jul 30, 2008 18:11     

still have yet to mod my ps2 to play those fan-subbed games that i've downed. Man, i hate using a swap disk.
slerk report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0