We all know the PlayStation 4 is dominating on nearly all fronts. But what of its parent company? According to Sony’s recently adjusted financial forecasts, things are not going well aboard the mothership. To counter the success of PS4, you have to be performing very poorly.
Sony has essentially quadrupled the amount it expects to lose for the financial year, citing “the impairment of goodwill in the mobile communications segment” as the main reason for loss of profits. In other words, the Xperia bussiness is far worse off than even Sony itself expected, and though something clearly must be done, it’s too late to salvage profits for the current financial year.
The aforementioned “impairment” is a costly one, amounting to about 180 billion yen. To put that in perspective, back in July Sony expected to lose about 50 billion yen for the fiscal year. After these recent recalulations, that number has ballooned to 230 billion yen. Yikes.
Regardless of PlayStation 4‘s success, the brand still needs a functioning Sony if it wants to survive long term. Notably, this is the sixth downward trend under CEO Kaz Hirai’s leadership, who took the job in 2012 under the premise that he’d turn things around.
Sony says it has a plan for Xperia, but I’m skeptical. How about putting the phones on more than one US carrier to start? I love T-Mobile, but they’re only the fourth largest. Not quite enough sales to turn around a mega corporation.