Gaming giant raises FY sales guidance

Sony raised sales guidance for the full year Thursday and posted operating profit that smashed analyst expectations after a strong quarter for its gaming business.

Here’s how the company did in the September quarter, versus LSEG consensus estimates:

• Revenue: 2.97 trillion Japanese yen ($19.4 billion), versus 3.03 trillion yen expected. That was up 9% and slightly below analyst expectations.
• Operating profit: 445.1 billion yen ($2.91 billion), versus 336.07 billion yen expected. That’s up 73% year-over-year and beats expectations.

The Japanese tech giant revised its fiscal year 2025 revenue target up slightly to 12.7 trillion yen. It previously targeted 12.6 billion yen of sales. Sony also expects full-year operating profit of 1.3 trillion yen, in line with its previous forecast.

That came as Sony saw strength in its game and network services division, which houses its popular PlayStation home console brand. Game and network services revenue at the company came in at 1 trillion yen, up 11% year-over-year.

Sony’s gaming division has held up well thanks to a shift to digital game purchases and the PlayStation Plus subscription service. However, hardware shipments have proven lackluster amid a weak console market beset by a lack of hyped up triple-A games.

Analysts expect things to improve next year for the gaming sector, though — not least thanks to the anticipated launch of a next-generation Nintendo Switch model and the release of Grand Theft Auto VI.

Sony said it sold 3.8 million PlayStation 5 units for the September quarter, down 22% year-over-year. Still, the firm saw a 28% jump in game software sales for the three-month period, to 612.3 billion yen. Astro Bot, a new platformer title released for PS5 in September, sold 1.5 million units in its first 58 days.

On Thursday, Sony launched its upgraded PlayStation 5 Pro console, touting a better graphics card allowing for faster gameplay rendering and new artificial intelligence capabilities to upscale graphics with sharper image clarity.

Analysts hope that the launch will boost interest in the PS5 with a souped-up piece of hardware ready for release of GTA VI, one of this decade’s most hotly anticipated games.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that operating income jumped 73% year-over-year in the September quarter.