PlayStation may be selling like water in a desert (well, PlayStation 4, at least. The Vita is selling like.. well, nothing, since it’s not selling at all), but there was still a troubling discrepancy in Sony’s financial report yesterday- the forecasted operating income increase for the PlayStation division was just ¥5 billion, lower than the ¥90 billion increase in forecast for full fiscal year sales.
In an analyst meeting that Sony held today, Chief Financial Officer Kenichiro Yoshida explained exactly why this was the case- the first reason according to him was currency. More than other parts of Sony, the PlayStation division is affected by fluctuations in currency exchange rates, and the appreciation of dollar seems to have done it in in that regard.
Next up was the sale of Sony Online Entertainment, which will cause a loss for this period, except a sale is made for money, so I’m not seeing it, but okay, I don’t run a company and these guys do, so I’ll defer to them.
The final reason is apparently Sony’s recent move away from its own Music Unlimited service to PlayStation Music, which is being handled by Spotify- because the money isn’t going to them anymore, due to it not being their service (or well, all of it isn’t, anyway), they will be losing that revenue too.
In addition to all of this, there are the standard restructuring costs in the division.
Alright. Right now, they are in a good place, so they can afford to take these small hits, let’s hope they build up from here.