Sony Posts $198 Million Net Loss in Q2

Sony has released its earnings for the second quarter, and while it’s still posting losses, its losses aren’t as huge as they have been. So that’s good news, right?

Engadget breaks the situation down: this quarter, Sony posted a net loss of $198 million, a reduction from last quarter’s $312 million loss. But Sony is a multi-division company with its hands in many different aspects of electronics, and the one that matters for us—gaming—is doing just fine. The post notes that Sony’s gaming, music, and pictures divisions all posted profits.

On the flipside, its mobile and home entertainment divisions still posted losses, with the net result being a gigantic company that’s pulling in tons of revenue as even more money flows out the door. It’s true that their losses aren’t as severe as they were last quarter, or even last year (when the company lost $5.7 billion), but they’re still a long way off from reclaiming profitability. Not a great time to be a Sony shareholder, I’m guessing.

This holiday season will likely mark the final one featuring the PlayStation 3 as its star product, since conventional wisdom puts the next iteration of the console for a 2013 holiday release. By all rights, Sony should be pushing the Vita hard, but without much in the way of top-tier software (Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation being one of the few exceptions), that’s probably not going to happen as much as it ought to.

In the end, to my non-business-school educated eyes, Sony seems like the kind of company that’s too big for its own good. It would probably benefit from cutting expensive money-losers and focusing on divisions that are consistently profitable. I know it’s been doing that, but perhaps not enough for long-lasting prosperity.

Then again, what the hell do I know? Everything sucks right now. It’s impossible to say for sure how Sony can start turning profits again while the yen is much stronger than the dollar, and with so many other competing electronics producers out there. Let’s wait and see what this holiday brings…

Via Engadget