Sony Cuts PSP and PS Vita Forecasts by 4 Million

Today’s Sony Q1 2012 earnings report were the first under new President and CEO, Kaz Hirai who took over the company a little less than 6 months ago. Like the past few years, the earnings report was nothing to write home about though its tough to expect a full turnaround from a company whose been as battered down as Sony. While Sony continued to take big losses in the television division (expected), the company drastically reduced their business ending year forecast for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita by 4 million, with the PS Vita having only been released for 5 months in the US.

While the company had claimed in the past that they could ship 16 million PSP and PS Vita units which they would again later reconfirm in May, the company now expects to fall short of their goal by 4 million units, down to 12 million. Due to slowing PS3 and PSP sales in general (though many expect a $199 Super Slim PS3 later this year which will hopefully ignite sales of the 7 year old console), the PlayStation division suffered a $45 million loss.

While not a tremendous loss, it remains troubling to see the PlayStation division of Sony take a loss as its been one of the few groups within Sony that has been profitable the last few years. Now, all eyes will be on Kaz Hirai and his next move with the ‘One Sony‘ initiative. It should be noted that another electronic company once faced similar situations and was set to go bankrupt in 90 days which then saw its ousted CEO return and cut the companies losses in 6 months while returning to profitability in 1 year. Then again, you can’t compare apples and oranges.