Chairman Howard Stringer is committed to shift the struggling electronics giant from recovery to growth and to make the PlayStation 3 a profit driver despite the console's lagging sales. However, investors at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Tokyo remained skeptical of an imminent turnaround, pressing Stringer for a clear strategy on how he intended to regain losses at its video games unit.
A lack of attractive games and high price tag has been widely cited as the reasons for the PS3's weak performance. Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) president Kazuo Hirai was quoted by the Nikkei newspaper saying 380 titles will be released for the PlayStation 3 in the current business year, ending March 31st 2008 - including 200 software titles and 180 download-only titles.
Currently the PlayStation 3 has around 60 games and 50 downloadable titles, including many small and hardly entertaining games offered as free downloads through the console's Internet menu. Hirai said that Sony would work with game software publishers on marketing, including events and in-store promotions, to help ensure an increase in the release of games.