The company says it expects a "significant" decline in operating profits for its networked products and services unit, which includes gaming, over the coming fiscal year (April 1, 2011 to April 1, 2012).
The report comes as the company told analysts that it anticipates posting a $975 million profit for fiscal 2012. That would be Sony's first annual net profit in four years. For fiscal 2011, Sony posted a net loss of $3.2 billion, its biggest drop since 1995.
Sony's outlook, which some analysts declared too optimistic, calls for 15 million units of PlayStation 3 to be sold over the coming fiscal year-- the same number as in fiscal 2011 -- and 27 million TV sets, compared to 22.4 million in fiscal 2011.
Sony also posted $274 million in charges related to the March earthquake in Japan and estimated it lost $63 million in sales during that period. The company expects to recover some of those costs from insurance.
Hackers hit Sony's PlayStation Network in late April, compromising some 77 million users' private information. Since then, the network has been up and down several times. The service's status is so unpredictable that an enterprising developer has created an iPhone app [iTunes link] that tells users whether PSN is on or off.