Sony and Nintendo Fall On Hard Times

Two announcements were made by Sony and Nintendo on Thursday that show that the recession is hitting even the biggest game companies. Sony reported an overall revenue drop of 48.6%, to $1.16 billion during the quarter. Unit sales of the PS3 also dropped to 1.1 million, from 1.6 million for the same quarter a year ago. PSP sales dropped nearly in half, from 3.7 million to 1.3 million from last year, and the PS2 sold 1.6 million units. First-party software sales also took a hit, reaching 14.8 million units sold, compared to 22.8 million units last year. PSP software took a huge hit, declining to 8.3 million from 19.3 million. Nintendo has also been hit hard. Profits for Nintendo dropped 60.6% to $442.9 million, while sales dropped 40%, to $2.65 billion. Hardware sales were down to 2.23 million units during the quarter worldwide, compared with 5.17 million units last year. The DS took a much lesser hit than its counterpart the PSP, going down to 5.97 million units during the quarter as opposed to 6.94 units last year. There are different reasons that each company gives for their decline. Nintendo blames the depreciation of the Yen compared to the US Dollar, and reduced numbers of “blockbuster titles that briskly drove hardware sales” compared to last year. Last year saw the launch of Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit , and Super Smash Bros. Brawl released just prior, all of which were commercial hits. Sony, meanwhile, blames for its decline lower software sales and lower PSP hardware sales, along with poor performance of Sony Vaio PCs, which are within the same area as gaming. It is speculated, in light of Sony’s heavy drop of the PSP sales that the mobile gaming platform may be done for if things don’t improve. At the moment, once thing is certain: Nintendo seems to be much better off with their DS platform than Sony is with the PSP.