Sony has posted its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, revealing a billion-dollar overall loss despite rising sales.

The company announced an overall loss of $1.29 billion, despite sales rising 14.3 percent to $75.4 billion. The reasons for this, as we've heard before, include aggressive restructuring with the PC business being sold off and the TV business getting spun out. Despite Sony offices around the world being sold, along with shares in companies like Square Enix, the Japanese giant has been unable to mitigate the losses.

We know Sony's PS4 is doing well, to the tune of 7 million consoles sold at the last count, but today's results didn't offer any more insight. The company bundles figures for hardware sales together, so all we know is that 14.6 million PS3 and PS4s were sold in the last year. The year before saw PlayStation consoles hit sales of 16.5 million, though that included the PlayStation 2 as well.

Broken down on a quarterly basis, it's clear adding the PS4 to its stable has served Sony well. In Q3, sales of PS3/PS4 rose to 7.8 million compared with 6.8 million the year before, which included PS2 figures. In Q4 we saw 3.7 million pieces of hardware sold, up slightly from last year's 3.4 million.

The Games Segment saw sales rise 38.5 percent, though an operating loss of $78 million was posted, partially due to the huge cost of launching the PlayStation 4, though the decision to shutter certain Sony Online Entertainment MMOs also played a big part. Sony expects home console sales to continue going strong in the year ahead, hitting 17 million for the PS3 and PS4 combined. The Vita, Vita TV and PSP aren't looking so positive however, with sales falling from 7 million 12 months ago to 4.1 million this year, and a prediction of 3.5 million being made for the year ahead.

Though the bulk of the restructuring took place in the previous year, there's still some scheduled for the next 12 months, meaning the company is expecting another big loss of $487 million, though the Games Division is hoping for a comparatively small profit. After that, however, it should be complete, placing the company in a stronger position from which to hunt for profit.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/14/sony-financials-reveal-huge-loss-with-more-expected

Hopefully they trim off the fat and start making a profit.

Maybe stop trying to pump money into the Vita when no one wants it?