Sony Playstation2 sales to top 10 million in July

TOKYO: Japanese giant Sony Corp. will see domestic sales of its flagship

product, the hit PlayStation 2 game console, hit 10 million by the end of July,

five months ahead of its predecessor, a newspaper said on Sunday.

Sales had been boosted by a series of discounts to the price amid flaring

competition from such new entrants as Microsoft Corp's much-vaunted Xbox as well

as a growing number of popular software titles, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.’s console debuted in March 2000 at a

suggested retail price of 39,800 yen ($332.9). The machine now retails for about

28,000 yen.

The soccer World Cup final, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan and ending

later on Sunday with the final between Brazil and Germany, had also helped

sales, the newspaper said. A soccer game released by Konami Corp had sold more

than one million copies in Japan alone, it said.

The initial PlayStation, launched in December 1994, reached sales of 19

million and took three years to reach the 10 million mark. The PlayStation 2 was

on schedule to get there five months faster, the newspaper said. In May, the

world's biggest maker of audio and video products, which relied on PlayStation 2

for the bulk of its operating profits in the business year to March 31, slashed

the US price of the PlayStation 2 by one-third to $199.

In Japan it made a smaller cut of 6.5 percent, while giving retailers a free

hand to discount. Sony says more cuts are in the pipeline. Microsoft cut the

price of its Xbox by 10,000 yen in May to 24,800 yen, while Nintendo Co lowered

the suggested retail price of its GameCube console from 25,000 yen to 19,800 yen

on June 3.

On July 19, Nintendo is due to release the latest software for its popular

Super Mario game series, a move expected to stimulate sales of the GameCube,

which has sold more than 1.6 million in Japan, the Nihon Keizai said. At the end

of last week, the Nihon Keizai said Sony Corp would likely post an operating

loss of 5.0 billion yen ($41.8 million) for its first quarter from March as it

battles depressed electronics sales worldwide.

That would be a smaller group operating loss than the previous quarter, but

would reverse a profit of three billion yen in the quarter a year ago due to

struggling sales in chip and computer-related products, the newspaper said.

Without offering specifics, Sony forecast in April an operating loss for the

quarter ending in June due to restructuring costs from its loss-making unit Aiwa

Co Ltd.

But it also forecast that consolidated operating profit would more than

double this year to 280 billion yen. The company expects 8.0 trillion yen in

group revenues for the year, while rival Hitachi Ltd., the goliath of Japanese

electronics makers, projects 8.1 trillion yen in sales along with a return to

profit.

(C) Reuters Limited.