Sony game unit betting big on PS3 sales

Sony Corp expects its PlayStation 3 game consoles to play a bigger role in securing profit in the games unit amid weak handheld sales in the year to March, the executive in charge of the unit said on Thursday.

Sony's game unit is sticking to its target of an 80 billion yen operating profit on sales of 1 trillion yen in the year to March 2015, Andrew House, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment, told Reuters in an interview.

"I think we will be profitable this year," he said on the sidelines of the Tokyo Game Show. "We have a growing installed base, growing connectivity of the PS3."

Gaming is one of the divisions Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai says will help Sony return to profit as it draws back from money-losing TVs.

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012