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Technology News - updated 2:19 PM ET Feb 21
Wednesday February 21 12:20 PM ET
Sony Moves To Defend PlayStation
By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer
TOKYO (AP) - Sony Corp.'s video game unit promised more games and a connection with Japan's hit Net-linking cell phone service Wednesday to defend its PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) machine, a money-losing business that has dragged Sony profits.
Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi said his business will pick up soon when shipments start catching up with demand, especially in the United States and Europe, where the consoles are in short supply.
Sony is also banking on linking up with ``i-mode,'' the cell phone Web service from NTT DoCoMo (news - web sites), hoping to tap into the 19 million i-mode users in Japan.
A cord to link the i-mode phone to the game console allows users to browse i-mode sites - such as colorful graphics, restaurant guides and train schedules - as well as edit and read e-mail on a bigger TV screen linking with PlayStation. The cable will start selling March 29 for 3,500 yen ($30).
``This is a new form of communication entertainment,'' Kutaragi told reporters.
A parts shortage has crimped shipments of PlayStation 2, which went on sale in March in Japan and before Christmas in the United States.
Sony's video-game business - once the star of the Sony group - lost about 13 billion yen ($112 million) in the third quarter ending in December, largely on the cost of launching the new machine. Software sales remained flat.
But Masahiro Ono, analyst with UBS Warburg Dillon Read in Tokyo, was optimistic about the future for PlayStation 2.
``It's gotten over all the initial bumps of hardware production,'' Ono said. ``It's not likely to run into too many risks from now on.''
So far, Sony has sold 8.16 million PlayStation 2 machines - 4.4 million in Japan and 2.1 million in the United States. Kutaragi targeted 20 million worldwide sales for fiscal 2001.
Sony also promised to address the business' other problem - the lack of exciting games to enjoy on the super 128-bit machine.
``PS2 titles are going to be coming out at a fantastic pace,'' Kutaragi said.
In Japan, 370 additional game titles will come out for the fiscal year beginning in April. There are 188 games so far. Sony would not give figures for U.S. games.
Sony also plans to offer superfast links using optical fiber in Japan in alliance with game-software makers Sega Corp. and Namco at retail outlets and amusement parks starting this winter to lure game fans to Net-linking PlayStation 2 games.
Sony also announced Wednesday it will offer copyright protection and other networking technology to Japanese software companies and service providers as it begins to offer Net games in July.
Sony plans to start selling a hard-disk drive attachment for playing Net games on the PlayStation 2; the company has yet to set a price and sales plans in the United States are undecided.
Potential copyright problems have been a major reason why Sony has postponed offering Net links for PlayStation 2. |
