Latest Sony sales figures, less PlayStation Home, more PlayStation bedsit

Sony is trying its hardest to disguise its PlayStation sales figures, lumping TV (PS2 and PS3) and portable (PSP and Vita) consoles together to hide the splits, Whatever the intention, it merely looks like a poor effort to hide an uncomfortable truth, especially when it prints rivals' sales device-by-device.

While the gaming division made a small profit of $29 million, sales are falling fast for hardware (according to the latest figures with the Vita selling barely 5,000 units in Japan last week, and the PSP doing most of the leg work).

Handheld Ja-Mr'12       Ap-Jn'12            Jl-Sp'12             Oc-Dc'12 (2012 - YTD)
3DS         2.10             1.86                    3.20                   -               7.16 (million)
PSV/PSP 0.9               1.4                      1.6                     -               3.9 (million)
NDS        0.46             0.54                    0.44                   -               1.44 (million)

Software sales

FY 2012/13                  5.8                     8.7                      -               14.5 (million)

Sony's reduced forecast of 10 million handheld units (down from 16 million estimated, which had already been reduced to 12 million) already looks pretty hollow with it at only 3 million in this financial year. Things aren't looking good, but all Sony needs is a kick-off in the west from Assassin's Creed, Need for Speed, Black Ops and the other games and a ball could start rolling (and any confirmation about the release of a certain Capcom title in Japan).