Sony: We'll Reach PlayStation 2 Goals by March
The Industry Standard
Thursday , October 26 06:32 p.m.
TOKYO -- A month after disappointing untold numbers of fans in the U.S., Sony said Thursday that it would meet its worldwide shipment target of 10 million units of PlayStation 2, the much-anticipated broadband-enabled game console, for the fiscal year that ends in March 2001.
The announcement came on the day the popular multimedia game console officially launches in the U.S. Sony Computer Entertainment America, or SCEA, a division of the Japanese electronics giant, originally expected to ship 1 million units at launch, but said in late September that it could only supply half that number by Oct. 26.
''We want to explain what caused PlayStation2's production delay,'' said Teruhisa Tokunaka, Sony's executive deputy VP and CFO at a Tokyo press conference, as the company released its quarterly earnings. He explained that a malfunction in some production equipment in Sony's Nagasaki factory caused a significant delay, over and above the parts shortage that has also disrupted the supply. To rectify the situation, the company said it would keep using an older production line at a different Japanese factory. That factory can produce roughly 400,000 units per month.
''The launch phase is very critical,'' said Tokunaka. ''Not only from the customers' perspective, but for software makers, the total unit supply is very important for the new PlayStation2 format. Strategically, we think we must meet the 10 million figure this year, regardless of the cost that might incur.'' Sony also announced that its second-quarter profits fell 57 percent, because of the startup costs involved in developing PlayStation 2. The company said the shipment of software for the new system also hurt profits. The company said that the cost of developing PlayStation 2 would result in an operating loss in the games division for the fiscal year that ends March 2001.
The game division's sales fell 17 percent, and its operating losses approached $27.5 million in the last three months. It posted an operating income of roughly $263.3 million during the same period last year. The electronics division posted an operating income of about $707.4 million, up from $310.4 million a year ago. |
