14 DAY TRIAL // Sony isn't going through its greatest financial period, as the recession is taking its toll on the Japanese electronics company. Despite the fact that it has employed some drastic layoffs at the beginning of the year, it seems that those weren't enough, and, as the company has experienced its first losses in sales after quite some time, new measures will be taken, as reported a few weeks ago.
Seeing how a headcount reduction was also promised to the gaming division, in charge of the PlayStation consoles, a lot of critics were worried that less money would be directed there and that the PS3 would suffer considerably, as it hadn't experienced the great sales that Japanese executives were expecting.
But it seems things are still alright for the PS3 as, despite being taken by both the Nintendo Wii and its Arch rival the Xbox 360, the target number of units sold will be met this year. So says Sony executive vice president and chief financial officer, Nobuyuki Oneda, who has talked with Edge about the fact that although sales are declining, compared to the same period last year, the big black Japanese console will be alright.
“In terms of units, it is true that PS3, as compared to last year, is slightly worse, but on a full-year basis we believe we are on track to sell the 10 million units that I said at the beginning of the year,” said Oneda. “Relatively speaking, compared to the growth of other platforms, we are behind, but it's not the case that we are not meeting the target.”
Oneda also tackled the PSP, and now, despite it seeing a drop in sales, it will also meet its target, which has seen a decrease in the initial estimation made by the company, from 16 to 15 million units. “We thought 16 million would be rather difficult,” said the Sony executive, after seeing the holiday sales of the PSP.
As a conclusion, despite a lot of ugly rumors that have appeared, Sony is still confident in the PlayStation brand and will keep supporting it in the future. Maybe this is what will take the company out of the financial problems it has been experiencing.