The first quarter of Sony's new fiscal year (Apr-Jun 2008) has proved to be quite successful for the PlayStation brand. The gaming division posted a profit of $51 million, a stark change from PS3 loss-driven quarters in the past. PSP played a significant role in bringing PlayStation to profitability, with increasing hardware and software sales.

During this period, PSP sold 3.72 million units worldwide. This is an increase of 75% over Q1 2008. Software sales went up to 11.8 million units, an increase of 20%. While improving software sales is a good sign, this total still trails significant earnings from both the PS2 and PS3.

PSP has been meeting incredible success all over the world, especially in Japan. With sales the way they are now, there's little reason to believe the trend will change any time soon.

Sony's handheld continues to drive profits to mega-publisher EA. According to Pocket Gamer, PSP games generated $258 million last fiscal year. In comparison, DS games only managed to generate $104 million. Similar figures were revealed last year, when EA admitted that they'd rather focus on Nintendo's handheld than Sony's, calling it a more "fun" system.

Although PSP sales make the largest portion of EA's handheld revenue, the company may spin the fact negatively. While $256 million is a sizable figure, it represents a 28 percent loss compared to last year. On the other hand, the DS platform seems to be gaining momentum for EA, as it has shot up 149 percent. We don't care too much about these numbers, though. As long as EA continues to make good, original games for our platform, PSP gamers have nothing to worry about.

While we were so hyped up about the new 2.80 firmware, some of the smaller news stories fell through the cracks. For example, Sony revealed their quarterly results, and revealed that yes, they finally made money. But, that money certainly didn't come from the games division. Rather, sales of digital cameras, cell phones, and the theatrical release of The DaVinci Code seemed to pour the cash into Sony's pockets. The games division has seen a 29.1 percent drop in sales and operating revenue for this quarter, and the operating losses have increased this quarter to $232.2 million.

Sales for PlayStation 2's notably aged hardware and software predictably went down. Unfortunately, it appears that demand for PSP hardware has dropped worldwide, resulting in approximately 3% less shipments this quarter (note that shipments and sales are two different figures). However, shipments for software have nearly doubled, reaching 9.1 million (an increase of 4.2 million).

While hardware may have seen a small dip, that software figure shows a still-impressive run for the PSP. It appears that the games division will be making most of its money from the PSP for now, as analysts predict that PS3 manufacturing costs will cost the company $2 billion within a year.

[Via Gamasutra]