Sony's Hirai eyes gaming profits as costs decline
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Sony Corp (6758.T) gaming chief Kaz  Hirai hopes to turn a profit on the PlayStation 3 console  business in the entertainment conglomerate's next fiscal year,  fueled in part by falling costs for the parts used to make the  device.
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The handheld game player's surprising pricing in Japan may indicate what the U.S. market can expect.
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TOKYO -- Price cuts for the PlayStation 3 video game console are among the factors Sony is studying as it seeks to break even in its money-losing gaming business next fiscal year, a company executive said Wednesday.
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Sony says hundreds of games will be released for the PlayStation 3 this year, which should improve the game console's weak sales.
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Sony Corp. said Friday it will lower the price of its much-anticipated PlayStation 3 video game console, heating up the competition in the next-generation gaming war against rivals Microsoft and Nintendo.
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TOKYO - Sony Corp. showed Tuesday a smaller book-size PlayStation 2 going on sale worldwide next month that will help the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant cut costs as video-game consoles continue to drop in price.
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Japanese game makers, faced with a shrinking local market and increasing competition from overseas rivals, are pinning hopes on mobile platforms such as handheld machines and cellphones to stir up demand.
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(InfoWorld) - Sony is confident it will hit shipment targets for its recently launched PlayStation 3 game console, its president said Thursday. Prior to theÂ launch of the PS3 in November, Sony said it would ship 2 million consoles this year in Japan and the U.S. and 6 million by the end of its financial year in March 2007. Those targets remain achievable and won't be changed, said Ryoji Chubachi, Sony president and chief executive officer of the electronics business, in a briefing with reporters at its Tokyo headquarters. "With the PS3 the bottleneck has been availability of blue lasers but now production of those has been launched in volume," he said. "We did take time preparing ourselves but as of today we have reached our target production rate. Based on projections for this year we will reach [the PS3 shipment targets]." The PlayStation 3 was launched in Japan on Nov. 11 and in North America, Hong Kong and Taiwan on Nov. 17. Around 81,639 PlayStation 3 consoles were sold over the launch weekend in Japan, according to market data from Media Create. Demand for the console vastly outstripped supply but sales have dropped each week since the launch due to scarcity, according to the figures. Media Create estimates 42,099 units were sold in the first full week of sales and then 32,622 units in the week from Nov. 20 to Nov. 27. For the following week, the latest for which data is available, sales were lower still at 31,436 units, the company estimated. The PlayStation 3 had been due to launch in Europe in November but the laser shortage meant Sony postponed the European launch until March 2007. That date remains unchanged, said Chubachi. The executive also said that Sony will keep looking at ways of reducing the manufacturing cost of the console so that it can turn a profit on the PS3 as quickly as possible. Traditionally, game console makers have sold their machines at cost or a loss and then relied on game software sales to make a profit. In the case of the PS3, production costs are high and losses run at between $240 and $305 per console sold, according to a parts breakdown by iSuppli Corp. One of the reasons the PS3 is relatively expensive is the Cell processor that sits at its heart.Â Developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM, the chip is one of the most powerful yet developed and last year Sony created a team to look at how to use the chip in applications other than gaming. Chubachi said the team remains focused on this task but he declined to detail when the Cell might find its way into a television or other consumer electronics product.
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Japan's disgraced Internet mogul Takafumi Horie, who boasted at the height of his fame that he would one day try to buy Sony, has had to settle for a smaller purchase -- Sony's PlayStation 3.
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TOKYO -- Sony Corp. Chairman Howard Stringer promised Thursday to shift the struggling electronics giant from recovery to growth and to make the PlayStation 3 a profit driver despite its bungled rollout. But investors at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Tokyo remained skeptical of an...
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Forget about a price cut for the PlayStation 3 in the near future. Sony's president Ryoji Chubachi said the company currently has no plans to reduce the price of the console in an interview with Reuters.
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A year ago, Sony was recovering. Now it is on the warpath, says its CEO.
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Sony CEO Howard Stringer admitted in an interview that the price of the PlayStation 3 needs to come down, but provided no estimate as to how much of a price drop consumers can expect.
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The Sony Corporation warned that sales and profit would probably fall short of its forecasts because of declining prices for DVD recorders and video cameras.
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Sony is planning to cut spending on development of semiconductors over the next few years, the company said Monday.
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The recent management changes in Sony Corp.'s video game division were needed to ensure the success of the new PlayStation 3 console, Sony President Ryoji Chubachi told a newspaper Friday.
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Sony Corp. Chairman Howard Stringer promised Thursday to shift the struggling electronics giant from recovery to growth and to boost game offerings for the PlayStation 3, calling the console a key profit driver despite its bungled rollout.