Sony Set to Outline PlayStation Strategy

By YURI KAGEYAMA Posted 15 March 2006 @ 05:38 am EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

TOKYO (AP) - The head of Sony's video game unit was set to outline strategy Wednesday on the PlayStation console edia reports ofamid Japanese m delays in plans to offer the next-generation machine PlayStation 3 for sale this spring.

Click to Enlarge Sony prepares to announce plans for its up and coming Playstation ...

A delay would be a major setback for struggling Japanese electronics and entertainment company's fledgling recovery. The PlayStation 3 is critical for Sony Corp.'s profits and brand image.

Daisuke Nakata, spokesman for Tokyo-based Sony Computer Entertainment, declined comment on the reports, including Wednesday's editions of major Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun, but he said Ken Kutaragi, who oversees Sony's game business, would detail PlayStation plans later in the day.

Speculation had been growing that PlayStation 3 may be delayed.

The report said the problems involve finalizing the copyright protection technology for the Blu-ray disc, the format for PlayStation 3 and next-generation video for the company's electronics gadgets in the works.

Nihon Keizai also said the problems were not from the advanced computer chip Sony is developing with Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. and IBM Corp. of the United States called "cell," which powers PlayStation 3 and other planned products.

PlayStation 3 will go on sale in November in the United States, Japan and Europe, Nihon Keizai said without citing sources, which would mean it will at least be in time for Christmas when game machines are snatched up.

The PlayStation series is now the dominant brand for home consoles, helping pin Sony's bottom line in recent years.

Any stumbling in the PlayStation business could deal a big blow to Sony at a time when it just announced in January it will post a profit of 70 billion yen (US$592 million; euro494 million) for the fiscal year ending March 31, instead of sinking into a 10 billion yen (US$85 million; euro71 million) loss forecast earlier.

The loss would have been the company's first full-fiscal-year loss in more than a decade since plunging into the red in 1994 for losses related to its acquisition of Columbia Pictures.

For decades, Sony symbolized Japan's manufacturing power exemplified in its Walkman portable. But in recent years, the company, which also has movie and music businesses, was battered by declining electronics prices. Sony also fell behind rivals in flat-panel TVs and music players that have been the main growth products in electronics.

Sony's core electronics division has lost money for two straight fiscal years. It's only been in recent months Sony has made somewhat of a comeback in flat-panel TVs using liquid crystal displays manufactured in a joint venture with South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co.

Sony has also come out with Walkman MP3 digital music players to try to catch up with the hit iPod from Apple Computer Inc. Earlier, it had resisted catering products for the growing MP3 format because of concerns about copyright infringement.

Since Welsh-born Howard Stringer took over last year as the first foreigner to head the company, Sony has been trying to achieve a turnaround.

It has scrapped unprofitable operations such as Aibo entertainment robots, plasma display TVs and an expensive luxury audiovisual line offered in Japan called Qualia. It has also promised to trim 10,000 jobs, or nearly 7 percent of Sony's global work force, by March 2008.

Competition in next-generation game consoles is heating up with U.S. software maker Microsoft Corp. already putting the Xbox 360 on sale last year. Nintendo Co., the Japanese manufacture of Game Boy machines and Pokemon and Super Mario game software, is also planning its version called Revolution later this year.