Sony revenue falls flat in the face of increasing PS4 development costs

Sony's gaming sector kept a flat year-on-year revenue in this first quarter, despite an increase in research and development costs for the company's upcoming PlayStation 4 console, alongside shrinking sales of hardware and software.

According to its latest financial results for this quarter ending June 30, 2013, Sony's games arm took in 117.9 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in sales compared to last year's 118 billion yen ($1.2 billion) during the same quarter. But in the face of increases costs relating to PS4, operating income saw a 322 percent increase of 14.8 billion yen ($148 million) compared to last year's 3.5 billion yen.

PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PSP systems are said to be down in sales, while Sony expects its games business to be on the rise in the financial year ending March 31, 2014 while operating income drops thanks to the launch of PS4.

Sony emphasized an overall improvement related to currency shifts, as well as a rise in smartphone sales. Total revenues were up year-on-year by 13 percent, while operating income increased to 36.4 billion yen ($367 million) following the sale of the Sony Pictures Entertainment music catalog at $106 million.