Sony PlayStation 4 Sales Top 40 Million

TOKYO—Sony Corp. said Thursday it has sold more than 40 million units of its flagship videogame console PlayStation 4, highlighting strong momentum at the company's fastest-growing unit.

Sony Interactive Entertainment, the Japanese group's videogame and network-services division, said the game console passed the milestone on Sunday. PlayStation 4 sales are outpacing all its predecessors, including the best-selling second-generation model.

Sony rolled out PlayStation 4 in November 2013, and the console's sales have surpassed its rivals, including Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox One and Nintendo Co.'s Wii U. Sony plans to ship another 20 million PlayStation 4 units during this fiscal year.

Sony's videogame business has become a core growth engine for the Japanese conglomerate, along with its domestic financial-services unit. For the current fiscal year that started in April, the unit is projected to contribute an operating profit of ¥ 135 billion ($1.22 billion), nearly half of the company's overall expected operating profit of ¥ 300 billion.

In addition to PlayStation 4, the unit also pockets revenue from lucrative network services, including online videogame subscription and cloud-based TV streaming services. Analysts say the unit's momentum is likely to accelerate with the planned October launch of the virtual-reality headset PlayStation VR.

Sony's financial chief Kenichiro Yoshida said this week that the company is on track to achieve its ¥ 500 billion operating-profit goal by the year ending in March 2018.

Write to Takashi Mochizuki at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 26, 2016 08:25 ET (12:25 GMT)

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