Sony to Make Revised PS3 Production and Delivery Targets

Sony may finally be coming out from under one of its worst years in memory. Two weeks after laying off the designer of the PS3 because of deep production delays, Sony President Ryoji Chubachi told reporters in Tokyo today Sony was going to be able to meet its revised target of having 2 million PS3s shipped by year's end to Japan and the U.S. Sony had initially hoped to ship 4 million of the world's most expensive game console ever by Dec. 31 but that proved to be an impossibility after production was heavily delayed. Sony has been forced to cut its profit target from 130 billion to a five year low of 80 billion yen, a result of the PS3 shortfall and the largest notebook battery recall in history at 9.6 million units. Sony shares were up nearly 2% in Japanese trading.
• Sources: Bloomberg, MSN/Reuters
• Related commentary: Sony: Holiday Sales Look Strong, Nintendo's Wii Setting the Pace for Next-Gen Game Consoles this Christmas, Sony's PS3 Launch Shortfall: Who It Affects Most, An Ugly Firsthand Account of Sony's PS3 Launch in Tokyo, Sony's Battery Production Capacity Strained, Sanyo to Benefit. Conference call transcripts: Sony F2Q06 (Qtr End 9/30/06)
• Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Sony (SNE). Competitors: Nintendo (NTDOY.PK), Microsoft (MSFT). Gaming software publishers: Electronic Arts (ERTS), Activision (ATVI), Konami (KNM), Take Two (TTWO), THQ (THQI)

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