Sony on Thursday reported a 95 percent decline in profit for the fourth quarter of 2008. The electronics maker didn’t get the sales boost it hoped for during the holiday shopping season as consumers turned to competing products.

The Japanese company said sales decreased 24.6 percent year by year as its electronics division sales plunged 29.3 percent in the wake of yen appreciation, the economic downturn, and intensified price competition.

In the Sony Pictures segment, sales decreased 21.8 percent year by year due to a boost from the worldwide home-entertainment release of Spider-Man 3 in the same quarter of 2007, Sony said.

“From the second half of September last year, there has been a sudden deterioration in the economy, and with the effects of foreign exchange it has had severe consequences on our business,” Sony Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda said in an Associated Press report.

The Problem with PlayStation 3

Sony’s game segment performed even worse. Sales decreased 32.2 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2007. Sony is moving to reverse that trend. Sony Online Entertainment inked an exclusive publishing agreement with PopCap Games on Thursday. PopCap markets games that appeal to all ages.

The agreement will bring five hit titles to the PlayStation Network, with the first, Bejeweled 2, available immediately for download in North America, with European versions to follow later. Zuma, Heavy Weapon, Peggle and Feeding Frenzy will soon be available for download. Sony hopes the agreement will position it to compete more effectively against Nintendo’s Wii.

Nintendo has sold 44.96 million Wii units worldwide and expects to report $2.6 billion net income for the year ending March 31. That’s 33 percent less than the company projected in October. The company is additionally cutting its forecast for operating profit by 16 percent and cut Wii sales forecasts by one million in…

[Source] dhiram