Strong PS4 sales help boost Sony’s Holiday Quarter

Sony announced today its earnings for the third quarter ending December 31, 2015 (Q3 FY2015), revealing relatively flat sales year-on-year, but a whopping 33.5 percent increase in profit.

Sony attributed much of its quarterly sales to "increases" in its Game & Network Services segment, which is home to the PlayStation brand and, most notably, the PS4. Revenues for the segment increased by 10.5 percent, attributed to 8.4 million PS4 consoles shipped to retail a "significant increase" in PS4 software sales in the quarter.

Earlier this month, Sony announced that more than 5.7 million PS4 consoles were sold through during the 2015 holiday season (Nov. 22, 2015 – Jan. 2, 2016), bringing the cumulative total to more than 35.9 million units globally as of January 3, 2016.

Sony did not mention PlayStation 3 and PS Vita shipments in its financial documents, but did note specifically a decrease in PS3 software and hardware sales during the quarter. The company also posted year-over-year gains thanks to a major write-off in the third fiscal quarter of last year. That was due to flagging sales of Vita and PlayStation TV.

Overall, it was another strong quarter for the PlayStation 4, and was certainly needed to help offset the slumping Mobile Communications and Devices segments. But if Sony is to continue to lean on the PlayStation 4, it's going to need a strong lineup of games this year.

Microsoft hasn't revealed specific Xbox One sales numbers, but new estimates put the figure around 19 million consoles sold life-to-date.