Sony Sells 6.4 Million PS4 Consoles in Latest Quarter

Sony has revealed it sold 6.4 million PlayStation 4 consoles during its third financial quarter, helping the company to a significant profit.

The company's financial results for the period between September 1 and December 31 last year reveal impressive sales for the Game and Network Services division with a huge 147 million PS4 games sold. In the same period last year, we saw 4.5 million PS4s and 128 million games sold.

As a result of the above-expected sales this time around, the division's sales were boosted up 16.8 percent year-on-year to ¥531.5 billion ($4.4 billion). As usual, favourable exchange rates and more money from PS Plus and PSN transactions helped hike that number up too.
PS3 console and games sales were down, however. 1.1 million consoles were sold in the quarter, and the PS Vita and Vita TV missed targets resulting in a ¥11.2 billion yen ($93 million) write-down. Despite handheld units shipped falling to 1.4 million, down from 2 million the previous year, predictions remain locked at 3.5 million.
All told, this means the Games and Network Services operating income rose 122 percent year-on-year to ¥27.6 billion ($228 million) with a full year forecast of ¥40 billion.
As for the wider company, Sony posted a quarterly profit, with revenues up to ¥2.55 trillion ($21 billion) and a net income of ¥89 billion ($736 million). The Games and Network Services division is certainly to thank for a chunk of that, though Sony smartphones enjoyed a boost in sales to contribute too.
On the other hand, the huge cost of leaving the PC business is still hurting, while there was a decrease in Sony Pictures sales that may or may not have to do with issues surrounding The Interview.
The full year forecast predicts a ¥170 billion loss. Though this is ¥60 billion improvement from last October, it seems the wider company isn't able to replicate PlayStation's success.