It’s no secret that Sony have been going through a financially turbulent period recently. In some ways this seems self-explanatory, while in others it remains perplexing to anyone other than an economist. The PS3 seems to be as strong as ever, with the new Super Slim model boosting sales, while it’s a little less surprising that the underwhelming Xperia smartphone range are burning a hole in the company’s pockets.
While it’s a little optimistic to say that things are really looking up for Sony, their earnings report for the quarter suggests that things at least aren’t looking quite so bleak as they were in the last year. While the Japanese electronics giant reported a $198m loss on $20.5m revenue this quarter, it’s nonetheless an improvement on the $312m loss last quarter and the $350m hit taken at the same time last year.
Contributing factors to the improvement are considerably smaller restructuring costs. Sony has sold off several areas of its company, including its chemical business and display businesses. These moves are part of CEO Kazuo Hirai’s desire to focus the company on its core businesses of gaming, imaging and mobile devices.
Despite the company’s frugality seemingly starting to pay off, things haven’t looked to good for Sony on the gaming front, as their sales fell by 16% to $1.9bn in the last year. Hopefully, with the imminent release of highly-touted family-friendly titles such as PS All Stars Battle Royale and LittleBigPlanet Kart Racing, things will pick up for them soon.
[via: The Verge]
