As much as I hate to be 'Negative North', there's no denying that Sony has had a pretty hard time this past year or so. The gaming community in particular has been very down-in-the-mouth about Sony's products, and the sales of these products have been trailing behind all of their competitors. That's why it is nice to see some positive news like this about the giant Japanese electronics company for a change, although not much of the good news comes from the gaming division.

Gamasutra tells us that Sony has announced a doubling of profit in their first quarter financial reports. They are up from last year's ¥32.3 billion yen to ¥66.5 billion yen ($540 million) profit for the quarter. Depreciating yen rates and increased sells of televisions and cameras have managed to help the company out, although the PS3's 'stragetic pricing' seems to be holding back the company's game division. The problem is that the PlayStation 3 costs more to make than they're selling it for.

It should be said that the game division's revenues are up 60.5% from last year's same quarter, and they credit the increased sales of PS3s to that. This makes for an overall increase in sales and operating revenue, 13.3% over the same quarter last year.

Does this deserve a 'Hang in There!' motivational poster or what?

[via gamasutra]