Sony PlayStation 4 Sales Top 40 Million
26 May 2016 - 1:40PM
Dow Jones News
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 takashi.mochizuki@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 26, 2016 08:25 ET (12:25 GMT)
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