Sony has given a revised forecast for their fiscal year today, adding a large loss resulting from the earthquake and tsunami tragedy in Japan and the security breach of the PlayStation Network.
The company says the PSN breach will cost Sony $171.1 million and the earthquake will cost them a devastating $1.8 billion.
PSN costs were mainly attributed to the cost of the free 1-year of ID theft protection the company is offering all affected, as well as the free games/PlayStation Plus and customer support costs.
Adds Sony (via Gamasutra):
So far, we have not received any confirmed reports of customer identity theft issues, nor confirmed any misuse of credit cards from the cyber-attack. Those are key variables, and if that changes, the costs could change.
In addition, in connection with the data breach, class action lawsuits have been filed against Sony and certain of its subsidiaries and regulatory inquiries have begun; however, those are all at a preliminary stage, so we are not able to include the possible outcome of any of them in our results forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2012 at this moment.
Overall, thanks to the earthquake and the PSN issues, Sony says its fiscal year, ended in March 2011, will be revised down to a $3.2 billion loss from an $858.5 million profit.
Sony did say, however, that the earthquake will not affect the release of the NGP (PSP 2) and that the PlayStation Store would be available again this week.
Result for: PSP
As of the end of last month, Sony has shipped 50 million PS3 units worldwide and it appears that most of those consoles have been sold to consumers.
Additionally, Sony has sold 8 million Move motion control systems as of April 3rd.
The PS3 launched in late November and the Move was released in September 2010.
Including PSP owners, the PlayStation Network has 75 million registered accounts, with over 40 million expected to be active.
Sony is about 3 million units behind the Xbox 360, which had a one-year head start and has seen extremely strong sales since the release of the Kinect motion control system.
Result for: PSP
Rovio Mobile has announced this week that Nintendo fans will be getting ‘Angry Birds,’ as well, with Wii and 3DS versions confirmed.
Furthermore, the company announced a Valentine’s Day version, and a “secret” Rio-based level for the game.
Rio is an upcoming animated movie telling the story of a Macaw and his adventures.
Rovio did not give a specific date for the Nintendo version, except to say “later this year.”
The Angry Birds mini-game, with 63 levels, hit the PS3 and PSP last month.
Rovio says the Valentine’s Day levels will be an update to Angry Birds: Seasons, which is $1 on the iPhone and free on Android.
