“The decrease in sales on a constant currency basis was primarily due to a decrease in unit sales of PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PSP hardware, partially offset by increased PS3 software unit sales compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

While year-on-year sales were up by 5.1 percent ¥155.7 billion, the decreasing value of the Yen as a currency puts this at a 14 percent decrease instead. “This year-on-year decline was primarily due to the impact of of a strategic price reduction for the PlayStation Vita and the unfavourable impact of foreign exchange rates, partially off-set by the above mentioned increase in software unit sales.”

There has been a significant impact on Sony’s income thanks to the PlayStation 4′s costs, which include R&D, marketing and production, thought Sony didn’t mention any figures. “In the Game segment, operating loss significantly increased year-on-year primarily due to an increase in research and development expenses related to the upcoming introduction of the PlayStation 4 and the impact of a strategic price reduction for the PS Vita.”

Game division sales are up 2.8 percent at ¥273.6 billion and Sony is looking to reduce its net profit forecast through a reduction in operations across other divisions including Sony Pictures. This projected profit, which used to be ¥50 billion, has gone down by 40 percent to ¥30 billion.

Given that Sony has had to revamp the PlayStation Network, market several next-gen exclusives, tie up with developers for exclusive content and just outright sell the PlayStation 4, it’s understandable that there would be losses. What will the figures look like after the PS4 launches on November 15th in North America and November 29th in Europe? We’ll find out in the coming months.

Critically acclaimed Far Cry 3 has sold more than 6 million copies since its release in December 2012. The title has performed beyond Ubisoft’s initial expectations, both digital sales and retail purchases.

Chief executive Yves Guillemot has also stated that the Far Cry 3’s ’90s-drenched spin-off, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon has become the “fastest selling downloadable title in Ubisoft history”

Assassin’s Creed III continues to sell very well and has finally hit the 12.5 million mark. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be coming out later this year on October 31st in North America and November 1st in Europe for Next-Generation platforms, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Wii U.

Ubisoft’s next big-title is Watch Dogs, which will be released in time for PlayStation 4’s launch and on November 19th for the US and 22nd for Europe.

According to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, the company is excited to launch Grand Theft Auto V later this year and that they’re getting ready to transition to new-generation of consoles as the PlayStation 4 and the unannounced Xbox get ready to launch this Holiday season. This is what he had to say regarding Take-Two’s financial success, future franchises and the launch of Grand Theft Auto 5:

“Our industry appears poised to enter an exciting growth period driven by the upcoming launches of the next-generation consoles, as well as the increasing popularity of emerging mobile and online platforms,” said Zelnick during the financial call.

“Fiscal 2014 promises to be one of our best years ever, highlighted by the upcoming launch of Grand Theft Auto V in September.”

He continued, “We also have a extraordinary pipeline of titles in development for next-generation platforms, including groundbreaking new intellectual property and releases from our proven franchises.”

“Take-Two delivered strong revenue growth and solid non-GAAP earnings for fiscal year 2013, driven by robust demand for our groundbreaking new releases, iconic catalog titles and expanding portfolio of digitally delivered offerings,” said Zelnick in the earnings report.

“Looking ahead, we have an extensive pipeline of next-generation and emerging platform titles in development, including both new intellectual property and releases from our proven franchises. As a result, our current outlook is to be profitable on a non-GAAP basis in fiscal 2015 and for the foreseeable future,” he added.

Grand Theft Auto V will be launching later this year on September 17th for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with a follow-up of a rumored PC version few months later. Are you excited for Grand Theft Auto V? Let us know in the comments below and check back on GamingBolt for our review and future updates.

EA has stated today that SimCity has sold more than 1.6 million copies since its launch in March. Meanwhile, the game had an atrocious launch due to massive server issues that forced players to go offline and making the game basically unplayable for long periods of time. However, even though SimCity didn’t have that much of a successful launch EA said that these sales are tracking “ahead of forecasts”.

The company also stated that almost half of the sales were purchased digitally.

EA Labels president Frank Gibeau has stated earlier today that the company has “learned [its] lesson” following the game’s troubled launch, with the firm promising to be better prepared for future major launches.

EA and Maxis have also announced that The Sims 4 is already in development for PC and Mac and that the game will be playable offline, as opposed to SimCity. The Sims 4 is slated to come out sometime next year.

Are you still playing SimCity and looking forward to The Sims 4? Lets us know in the comments below.

Check back on GamingBolt for more news regarding EA franchises.

During the financial resutls briefing Satoru Iwata defended Nintendo’s poor performance and why game are getting delayed by going explaining the Wii U’s release schedule to invenstors.

Iwata was asked if the game delays occured because of poor manage, Iwata replied: “It is a fact that Wii U currently has lost momentum owing to longer-than-expected intervals between software releases.”

“We were faced with the alternatives of taking time to refine our products or launching them without too many intervals, and after careful consideration, we selected the first option because we believe that from a mid-and-long term perspective it is more important to improve customer satisfaction with each game. Development always bears many uncertainties and a delay in release is not necessarily a consequence of insufficient management of development teams.”

Satoru Iwata, however, did admit that the Wii U’s launch titles were taking up more resources than Nintendo expected.  “The reason for the delayed release of our first-party titles was the fact that completing the games released at the same time as the launch of Wii U required more development resources than expected, so some staff members from development teams working on other titles had to help complete them,” he said. “In short, the development teams of Pikmin 3 and other future games were understaffed during that period.”

He then continued talking about how important it is to expand the range of developers creating games for Wii U, especially on eShop.

“The number of developers who can use versatile web technologies such as HTML5 and JavaScript is probably more than 100 times larger than that of the current software developers for dedicated gaming machines. We would like them to create software for our console.”

“The other thing we announced was that developers can now use Unity, a cross-platform video game engine, for Wii U development, and we have started offering it to the developers,” he added. “There are over a million Unity developers, including many in developing countries where the business of dedicated gaming machines is not prosperous. We would like to create opportunities for these developers to have their games available for Wii U.”

What do you think of Nintendo’s future and recent performance? Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments below. Stay tuned on GamingBolt for more Nintendo news and future announcements.