Sony said that the restructuring costs were behind the 98% plunge in net profits to 1.1bn yen ($9.3m; �5.8m) compared with the same period of 2002. Total sales were down 6.9% to 1.6 trillion yen as PlayStation2 games consoles and Trinitron TVs sold poorly.

Figures from the Japanese electronics giant showed a rough three months for the console, with shipments of the PS2 down by almost two million, compared to the same time last year.

In total Sony sold more than 50 million PS2s since the console was launched in Japan in March 2000. Nintendo takes the second place with 9.55 million consoles sold, and Microsoft claims the number three spot with 9.4 million Xbox consoles sold.