20/02/2013 World Business Report

the border into Nigeria. Those are the latest headlines from BBC World

News. Now time for the latest financial news with Sally and World

Playing for keeps. Sony's gamble to capture hearts and homes. The new

PlayStation 4 launches today. And profits tumble at the world's

biggest miner, BHP Billiton. We Wellcome, you're with World

Business Report. I'm Sally Bundock. Also we focus on the plight of the

young and unemployed in Italy in the lead-up to this weekend's

elections. So Sony is launching what it hopes will be the market

leader among its video games consoles today. It's a $9 billion

global market and Sony's PlayStation 3 is currently trailing

behind Microsoft's Xbox. Console makers as a whole are losing out

because of the popularity of gaming on mobiles. So how can the new

style PlayStation recapture enthusiasm for the good old-

fashioned games console? At a moment I will be speaking to Chris

Green. But first this report from Jeremy Howe.

For a year now Sony's PlayStation 3 has been losing the sales race to

the Xbox. So it's trying to regain the lead with a new model which

could go on sale as early as next Christmas. The gaming community has

been rife with rumours about it, but all their excitement masks the

fact that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are fighting over a

diminishing market. Global sales of consoles fell last year by one-

fifth. So did global sales of video games. More and more people now

choose to play on smartphones and tablets, which can be taken

anywhere. And they are favouring the Friis simple to play games

produce for mobiles, rather than the complex pricey ones produced

for consoles. Sony may try to counter this trend with new

technology which allows users to transfer the game their playing on

their console to mobile devices. It must do something to be captured

the imagination of gamers. The PS Vita, launched last Christmas, has

had poor sales. The Sony group made a net loss last quarter of $128

million. Chris Green is an independent

technology analyst. Thank you for joining us. We have to wait until

later today to find out what it's all about and the costs and all

that kind of thing. What are you expecting? There will be faster

processing power, Crayton graphics, more games, new controller

technologies as well -- curator graphics. These are all givens --

greater graphics. We could have 3D gaming. We could have more focus on

streaming content. To say for Sony this is made of -- make-or-break,

is that an exaggeration? It really is. The PlayStation is a massive

cash cow for the company. It is one of their highest margin products as

well. The PS 4 will be a huge contributor to the overall business

plan to rehabilitate their balance sheet. Compared to the Xbox,

compared to the Nintendo Wii 'The Week That Was', where will this

place Sony? -- Nintendo Wii Wii U. It is a challenging market. They

are coming to the market's second after Nintendo's sap lacklustre

launch with the Wii U. We don't know yet what might a sock is going

to do with its next-generation console -- what Microsoft. It has

an opportunity to factor in some last-minute changes to react. All

of the console manufactures have got to try to get on board and try

to tackle the challenge from mobile gaming. What evidence is there that

we use the gaming devices for other tasks in the home? The PlayStation

3 is used extensively as a Blu-ray movie player as well as for

streaming content. We see revenues from streaming services going up

and up, as are the demand for services from third content --

third party content providers. Thank you for joining us. Coming

out later today, the PlayStation 4. To Italy next, where Italians will

be taking a decision on who will be their next leader in four days. One

of the biggest issues facing the country is the growing number of

unemployed. No surprise that all candidates have made this central

to their campaigns. Many politicians have been calling for

the protection of existing stake jobs and employment rights, but

finding work for the rising number of young jobseeker's is proving

more difficult. -- state jobs. Nigel Cassidy has been meeting some

of those affected. -- job-seekers. 31 year-old Antonia is not giving

up hope yet three months into her search. She has a Masters and US

experience. But the region's mainly family companies in her field of

food and drink aren't selling enough to expand. I think young

people are kind of upset with the politicians at the moment. A kind

of see them and the government as the reason why there aren't many

jobs for the young people. The politicians and the government

invest a lot in the older generations of Italy and they tend

to forget about the young people, the ones in their twenties and

thirties. Really the generation that's going to make Italy grow.

There are success stories. This recruitment organisation says there

could be more if the labour market was freer and companies could

harness the ability of more flexible younger knowledge workers.

This new company in Bologna really is a kind of poster child for the

short technocratic government of Mario Monti, who got rid of some of

the notorious restrictions for start ups. The concern here is that

reforms under the new government may not be as speedy. The co-

founder of this business says Italy must invest in its infrastructure

to reach new markets. In comparison with other countries, consider that

in Italy we have regions that have connectivity of the Nineties. This

is not good in business. Especially because we want to change our way

of thinking in business. We must think globally. Meanwhile what's

fast becoming a lost generation of talented workers has set to leave

Italy if the country can't turn the corner under its new leadership --

is set to. One of the world's biggest miners,

BHP Billiton, has reported a sharp slide in profits. We can go to

Singapore for more on that. She was there and I'm sure she can hear me.

There you go, nice to see you. What has BHP Billiton said today? That's

right. A sharp expected drop in profits for BHP, they said their

net profit for the first half fell 58% to $4.2 billion. It is due to

weaker metals prices. They made almost $10 billion last year at the

same time. The firm also said its CEO would retire in May. He will be

replaced by Andrew MacKenzie, currently the head of the company's

base metals business. Last August the CEO said he would forgo his

bonus for 20 Krul after the company announced right downs in its share

of gas and Nicole assets business. -- 2012. Face a this does not

indicate any change in strategy. Analysts say the change in CEO

should not be compared to Rio Tinto. -- they say this. I should say as

well that Australian listed shares of BHP have been trading lower on

all of this news. All right, Sharon, thank you for joining us. BHP

Billiton very much in the news today. Let's have a look at what's

going on in the financial markets. The Nikkei's up by 0.6 % today. A

very interesting story out of Japan, which is good and bad news I have

to say. Japan's trade deficit swelled to a record $17.4 billion.

That's mainly on the higher energy imports that it's having to bring

in as its nuclear reactors continue to stand idle following the

Fukushima disaster. Also the weaker yen, that means the cost of

importing energy is going out as the currency weakens. Of course

it's a benefit for Japanese exporters. Incidentally Sony shares