TOKYO--Sales in Sony's gaming sector for the second quarter of the company's fiscal year were down 25.8 percent to 119.6 billion yen ($1.13 billion), mainly due to a massive decline in the sales of PlayStation 2 consoles. The sector saw a small operating-profit loss of 11 million yen ($104,000) for the quarter. Sony explained that the decline in PS2 sales is due to the lack of shipments of the console, as the company cut back on its production in anticipation of the release of the new, slimmer model.

　　Only 2 million units were shipped in the current quarter, compared with 6.79 million during the same period last year. But for the full fiscal year, Sony plans to ship 14.5 million PS2 units, which is half a million more than it previously had planned. And although sales of Sony's PSOne took a dip from 600,000 to 360,000 units, shipments of the older console have also been raised, from 1 million units up to 2.5 million units for the full fiscal year.

　　Game software sales for the PS2 were at 56 million for the quarter, which is 12 million units more than in last year's Q2. Game sales for the PSOne, however, took a dip down to 3 million units, from 10 million units a year ago.

　　The company-wide numbers broke down as follows: Sony's net profit for the first half of the fiscal year between April 1 and September 30 was 76.5 billion yen ($720 million), which is double last year's 34 billion yen ($320 million). While sales are down 2.5 percent to 3.31 trillion yen ($30.11 billion), operating profits are up 6.6 percent to 53.2 billion yen ($500 million).

　　Sony's net profit for Q2 (July 1 to September 30) rose 61.6 percent to 53.2 billion yen ($500 million) from 32.9 billion yen ($310 million) in the same period last year. Sales were down 5 percent to 1.702 trillion yen ($16 billion), but operating profits were up 30.6 percent to 43.4 billion yen ($408 million) from 33.2 billion yen ($312 million) the year before.

　　The company's movie sector made a major contribution, with an operating profit of 27.4 billion yen ($258 million). This was largely attributed to the success of its summer blockbuster Spider-Man 2, which made $781 million worldwide.

　　For the full fiscal year, Sony is cutting back its group sales forecast by 200 billion yen ($1.88 billion) to 7.35 trillion yen ($69.2 billion), but its net-profit estimate has been raised by 10 percent to 110 billion yen ($1.04 billion). Operating profits for the full year remain unchanged at 160 billion yen ($1.51 billion).