After a weak sale of their handhelds, Sony is now depending on their PlayStation 3 game consoles to make money for its game unit in the year to March. The company is worried because they were depending on the sale of handhelds to return the company to profitability.
Sony’s new CEO Kazuo Hirai has said that growing sales in games, digital cameras, smartphones and tablets, along with new businesses such as medical equipment, will help the consumer electronics company return to profit as it draws back from money-losing TVs.
“I think we will be profitable this year,” Andrew House, the executive in charge of Sony’s gaming unit told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Tokyo Game Show on Thursday. “We have a growing installed base, growing connectivity of the PS3.”
He did not comment when asked if his division will be able to enhance on the 29 billion yen ($371 million) operating profit posted in the year ended March 31. The company recently cut its forecast for sales of Vita and PSP handheld consoles from 16 million to 12 million.
The game unit of the electronics maker is maintaining its target of an 80 billion yen operating profit on sales of 1 trillion yen in the year to March 2015. This is the target that will determine the success of the new CEO.
Sony has already slashed its earnings outlook since April after Hirai joined the company. At the same time, the company lowered its first quarter annual operating profit prediction from 180 billion yen to 130 billion yen.