Sony's Networked Products and Services division has reported an operating profit of ¥45.7 billion ($564m / £348m) for the third quarter ended December 31, off the back of higher sales of PlayStation software and cost reductions on PS3 hardware.
Sales decreased slightly by 6.4 per cent year-on-year to ¥566.6 billion ($6.995m / £4.318m) for the three months.
During the quarter Sony sold 6.3 million PlayStation 3 units worldwide - slightly down on the 6.5 million it sold in the comparable quarter - bringing financial year to date numbers to 15 million. Sales this year have already outpaced the last full financial year sales of 13 million.
There were 3.6 million PlayStation Portable units sold during the three months, down from 4.2 the previous year, bringing financial year to date numbers to 8 million. PlayStation 2 hardware sales were 2.1 million, the same as Q3 2009.
PlayStation 3 game sales were up significantly by 10 million units, from 47.6 million to 57.6 million, while PSP software also rose to 16.5 million, from 15 million last year. PS2 game sales fell from 11.2 million units to 5.3 million.
Overall the Sony corporation reported a net profit of ¥72.3 billion ($885.7 m), down due to the strong yen and poor margins on televisions. Sales were down 1.7 per cent to ¥1.98 trillion.

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