Sony Trumps Nintendo in Game-Console Sales

Nintendo has had a rough year. The company reported its third consecutive annual loss in May, plans to close its European headquarters in Germany and suffered a customer backlash after flagging thousands of game-play clips uploaded to YouTube.

Now, in yet another blow for the Japanese video-game giant, Sony has overtaken it in terms of game-console sales for the first time in eight years, according to Japanese business news outlet Nikkei.

Sony apparently sold 18.7 million consoles during the past financial year, whereas Nintendo sold just 16.31 million — a 31% drop from the year before.

Sony’s victory was expected following the success of PlayStation 4 and disappointing sales of Nintendo’s newest gaming console, Wii U.

But both Sony and Nintendo have taken hits in revenue over the past few years due in part to the growing prominence of smartphone gaming.

Sony suffered a net loss of $1.1 billion compared with Nintendo’s $229 million loss in the past financial year.

[Nikkei]