Sony Corp is winning the console wars for the first time in nearly a decade, a company official confirmed yesterday, offering a rare bright spot on the group’s otherwise troubled balance sheet.
Stellar sales of its PlayStation 4 (PS4) gave the Japanese electronic giant a huge leg up over rival Nintendo Co, which has dominated the console market for eight years.
Sony’s gaming unit, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), sold more than 18.7 million consoles worldwide in the business year to March 31, a company spokeswoman told reporters by telephone, against Nintendo’s official sales figure of 16.3 million units.
US rival Microsoft Corp trailed both with sales of 11.6 million units in the same 12-month period, despite a jump from the rollout of the popular Xbox One toward the end of last year, the Nikkei Shimbun said.
Sony sold more than 7 million PS4s worldwide as of early April, although the new machine was released in Japan only in February. It was launched in November last year in the US and Europe.
“We have informed investors that we will stay solid in our business as PS4 sales are on the verge of a further expansion,” spokeswoman Yoshiko Uchiyama said.
The PlayStation 4 and its predecessor made up more than 14.6 million of total console sales, with more than 4.1 million PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita handheld units also shipped, she said.
Sony expects to sell 20.5 million units in the current year to March next year — 17 million consoles and 3.5 million handheld units.
Sony last topped global game console sales in the year ended March 2006, but sales of the PS3 have since struggled against Nintendo’s Wii and DS series.
Overall sales of home video game hardware by Japanese makers have been depressed in recent years as they battle fierce competition from increasingly sophisticated smartphone-based games.
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