Sony has confirmed it posted a 158 billion yen (approx. GBP 1.3 billion) net loss during its third quarter financial year ended December 31, 2011.
The figure comes as a strike contrast to the same period last year, when the hardware manufacture recorded a profit of 72.3 billion yen (GBP 559 million).
Sales declined 17.4 per cent year-on-year to 1.82 trillion yen (GBP 15 billion), which Sony mainly attributed to “the impact of the floods in Thailand, deterioration in market conditions in developed countries, and unfavourable foreign exchange rates".
Elsewhere, the company’s Consumer Products and Services division – home to PlayStation, TV video, digital imaging, PC and mobile businesses – posted a quarterly operating loss of 85.7 billion yen (GBP 710.3), compared to 63.5 billion yen (GBP 526.3 million) in profit a year ago. Sales deflated 24.4 per cent to 996.5 billion yen (GBP 8.3 billion).
Said Sony: "Categories contributing to the deterioration in operating results… include LCD televisions, reflecting a decline in unit selling prices that exceeded cost and expense reductions, and the game business, reflecting higher marketing costs to promote network service platforms and lower sales of PlayStation 3 hardware due to a strategic price reduction."
PS3 sales for the quarter were up from 6.3 million to 6.5 million, though both PSP and PS2 fell to 2.4 million and 900,000, respectively.
Software wise Sony shifted 66.2 million PS3 games, improving on the previous year’s effort of 57.6 million. PSP moved 11.4 million units of software, down on last year’s 16.5 million, and 2.5 million PS2 games, down from 5.3 million the previous year.