Sony Expect 5-6 million PS3 Sales in First Few Months

Things really started heating up today in Tokyo when Sony threw down the next-gen console gauntlet right at the feet of MS, claiming the PS3 would sell far more than the Xbox 360 is set for in its first few gasping months of life.

Plus, the Sony suits addressed the critical bottom line, going so far as to claim the PS3 should be profitable ASAP. While turning a profit on this beast is a mighty challenge, there’s not exactly much to boast about in beating the 360. Time will tell who's left with blood on their hands.

— Sony expects its upcoming PlayStation 3 console to be out of the starting gate more quickly than Microsoft's Xbox 360, it said Thursday in Japan.

The company, which recently pushed back the launch of its console to November, said it expects sales during the first four to five months after launch to be about 6 million units. Microsoft, which launched the Xbox 360 in November last year, expects sales to hit between 4.5 million units and 5.5 million during about the first seven months.

Sony has spent about ¥50 billion (US$41 million) during the past year on development and launch preparations for the PlayStation 3, said Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's chief financial officer, at a Tokyo news conference to announce the company's full-year results.

After the introduction of the PS3 we will focus our efforts on expanding the platform as rapidly as possible, Oneda said. We will also attempt to lower the manufacturing costs by reducing the number of parts used in hardware and reducing the costs of the semiconductors and other key components. By so doing, we aim to bring the PS3 business to profitability at the earliest possible time.

During the fiscal year just ended, Sony shipped 16.2 million Playstation 2 consoles. The number is slightly higher than the previous year, but Sony expects this to fall rapidly during the current year as customers favor the soon-to-be-launched PlayStation 3. Sony said it predicts about 10 million Playstation 2 consoles will be sold this year.

The handheld PlayStation Portable device did well during the year, but again Sony expects sales in the current year to decline. The PSP, which was launched in Japan in late 2004, shipped 3 million units in its first few months on sale. In the following 12-month period shipments were 14.1 million units. In its current fiscal year, from March to April 2007, this is expected to drop to 12 million units.

Software shipments for all PlayStation consoles hit 267 million units, which is just below the previous year's total. Within this, PlayStation 2 software shipments dropped 12 percent, and PSP software shipments jumped more than 600 percent.