Sony gaming profits could be hit after the Japanese Company for the the second time in weeks delayed the launch of one of their hottest selling games “Gran Turismo 5” for its PlayStation 3 the Company is blaming production problems.
Sony was planning to launch the game on Nov. 2 . According to GFK “Gran Turismo 5” is the biggest exclusive game this year for Sony.
According to gaming analysts”‘Gran Turismo’ is one of the most important products coming from Sony this year for its gaming business,” said Jay Defibaugh, a games analyst at MF Global FXA Securities Ltd. in Tokyo.
“The product highlights the graphic strength of the PS3” and is a genre with global appeal, he said by telephone.
Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony refused to say wether Gran Turismo 5,” which can be played in 3-D, will go on sale in time for US Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and usually the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S.
About 56 million copies of the “Gran Turismo” game series has been sold since its debut in 1997, Fukuoka said.
The March release of “God of War III,” another title exclusive to the PS3, helped raise U.S. sales of the console by 44 percent that month from a year earlier, according to researcher NPD Group Inc.
Sony aims to make its game unit profitable in the year ending March 2011, the company said in November last year. The console maker stopped losing money on PS3 hardware in the quarter ended March 31.
