14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has reported a significant increase in sales and income for the quarter ending December 31, with the PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system being its main driving force.
The Japanese corporation reported that revenues were up 6.5 percent, with its operating income coming up over 100 percent more than the same period last year.
Analysts credited favorable exchange rates for the increase, and cited Sony's Game & Network Services department as a good performer, bringing in revenues of close to $4.33 / €4.08 billion, up 16.8 percent year-on-year.
The games division reported the biggest increase out of any other business in the company, mainly due to the fact that a number of 6.4 million PS4 home consoles were sold in the period, a dramatic increase from the 4.5 million sold during the same period a year before, at launch.
In spite of the boon of PS4, Sony reported that overall, its hardware sales went down to just 7.5 million, a decrease since last year's 7.8 million, due to the poor performance of the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 gaming devices.
Sony also reported that its Vita and PS TV components business performed poorer than expected, especially the PlayStation TV side.
Sony is optimistic about the future
The corporation revised its projections for the future, stating that it expected a better full year sales performance from its Game & Network Services branch, with growing PS4 sales and a growth of PlayStation Network revenue.
The PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system managed to surpass the 20 million units sold mark earlier this month, while its main competitor, Microsoft's Xbox One entertainment device, is estimated at somewhere over 11 million units sold worldwide.
The latest official numbers from Microsoft date back to November 2014, when Phil Spencer mentioned that the company had shipped close to 10 million units all around the world. Taking into account the solid holiday season that the Xbox One had, it's safe to say the number has grown rather significantly.
