Sony slumps
Slow sales of PlayStation 2 partly to blame
Sony shocked investors today by reporting group operating profits of just £17m for the three months ended June 30th, 90% down compared to this time last year and far below market expectations. This doesn't include the effects of a costly recall of faulty Sony mobile phones by Japanese telecoms company NTT DoCoMo and KDDI either, and shares in the company have dropped as much as 5%.
Analysts suggested that slow sales of the PlayStation 2 were contributing to the poor figures, with the company's gaming division losing around £18m, an improvement on the previous year but still not reaching break-even. Meanwhile there are questions over whether Sony can reach its target of selling 20 million PlayStation 2 consoles by the end of March 2002, although the growing number of quality games for the machine after a poor start last year should help, with titles like Metal Gear Solid 2 and Gran Turismo 3 likely to drive sales and help Sony withstand the onslaught from Microsoft and Nintendo later in the year.