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: subsidiaries
Nokia has filed lawsuits this week against major CRT and LCD makers, alleging price fixing.
The companies, or their subsidiaries, named in the suits are AU Optronics, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Seiko Epson, Sharp and Toshiba.
“The investigations are into alleged cartel activities, effectively price fixing, in the supply of both CRTs (cathode ray tubes) and LCDs (liquid crystal display) — components that we have bought in significant volumes over a number of years. Had we not been overcharged for them our profitability would have been higher,” says Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant.
Durrant did not disclose how much Nokia was seeking in monetary damages, but did say they were “not insignificant.”
Result for: subsidiaries
According to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, the new DSi handheld will launch in North America and Europe in August 2009 after launching in Japan this month.
In an effort to combat slowing sales in Japan, the DSi went on sale today for JPY 18,900 (about 192 USD). Iwata did not give any other details for the NA or EU release but did give the expected date.
“Specific plans will be unveiled by our local subsidiaries, but an autumn or year-end launch would probably be too late,” said Iwata.
When asked whether the current economic downturn was affecting DS handheld sales, Iwata said it was not.
“With the business environment having changed this much, we of course need to stay alert. But so far I haven’t seen even the slightest sign that overseas DS and Wii demand is being affected by the economy,” Iwata added.
