Even as Sony announced losses of $ 1.26 billion for the financial year, they have revealed they expect even more losses in the upcoming financial year.
To be more specific, they have projected a loss of $ 487 million for FY 2015. This is due to the accumulation of costs associated with letting go of their PC business (including lower than expected sales of PCs the past few months they owned the division), the plan to also spin off TVs into a subsidiary, and plans for further restructuring. Things are going to get worse before they get better.
In terms of gaming, Sony is optimistic about future PS4 sales, but those PS4s were themselves associated with the loss. For a console’s first year or two, the consoles incur losses associated with launching the product, and manufacturing losses will go down after that.
Aside from this, there was the lower than expected sales of the Vita, the higher than expected dropoff of PS3 console sales, and, just for this year, the one off retirement of Sony Online Entertainment’s older MMOs.
The company’s gaming division can still point to higher PS4 and software sales, but let’s face facts: even in the best case scenario, the best possible success of Sony’s gaming division won’t be enough to change the loss they will report next year. Sony has simply dipped their toes in too many other businesses that aren’t working out to make this possible.
Once you accept that, then you can be realistically optimistic of the coming year, as we know Playstation will hang on, with a steady gameplan and the PS4’s momentum to their advantage. We all look forward to seeing what Sony has planned for all gamers in the coming year.
