Sony Earnings Fall as Video Game Sales Suffer

Sony (SNE Quote) said Thursday that sluggish video game sales dragged down the company's earnings for the third quarter.

The electronics company said profit dropped sharply in the third fiscal quarter, citing lackluster video game sales, a loss at a subsidiary and an accounting adjustment. The losses offset strong results from the electronics business. Sony also said it will cut in half its estimate of profits for the full fiscal year, which ends in March.

Sony said net income for the latest quarter was $628 million, down 22.8% form the same period a year ago. Diluted earnings came to 64 cents a share in the quarter, down 27.9% from the same quarter in 1999.

A core concern for the company surrounds sales of the PlayStation2 video game console. The company now expects to ship 9 million consoles this fiscal year, down from its earlier forecast of 10 million. Sony also said 6.4 million consoles have been sold worldwide to date, with 2.88 million of them sold in the latest quarter.