PS4 unit sales fall slightly year-over-year, total units now at 76.5 million

Sony has published its earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2017.

The three months ending December 31 saw the sale of 9 million PS4 consoles, which is a down from the 9.7 million sold over the same quarter in the last fiscal year.

In its Q2 FY2017 report in October, the platform holder revealed that 67.5 million units had been shipped. Adding Q3's 9 million to that brings the total to 76.5 million units. The numbers are undoubtedly slightly higher.

Sony expects to sell 2.5 million units before the end of the fiscal year in March 31, bringing the total to 19 million, 1 million units below FY2016.

The Game and Network Services segment, which encompasses PlayStation hardware, software, and the PlayStation Network businesses, saw a 16.2% increase in revenue compared to Q3 FY2016, going from 617.7 billion Yen to 718.0 billion.

Looking ahead, Sony has lowered its forecast for the Game and Network Services division for the fiscal year ending March 31. The company said this is the result of changes in some games' release dates. Though it didn't specifically name them, the recently announced April release date for God of War makes it an ideal example.

Sony's sales and revenue as a whole saw an 11.5% increase over the same period last fiscal year, an equivalent to $23,649 billion. Overall, FY2017 has so far been very strong for Sony, showing a 15.7% increase over Q1-Q3 2016, or $59,024 billion in revenue.