Sony PlayStation 5.
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Sony It raised its full-year sales guidance on Friday and reported an operating profit that beat analysts' expectations after a strong quarter for its gaming business.
Here's what the company did in the September quarter, versus LSEG consensus estimates:
Revenue: 2.97 trillion yen ($19.4 billion), versus 3.03 trillion yen expected. This was up 9% and slightly below analysts' expectations. Operating profit: 455.1 billion yen, compared to the expected 336.07 billion yen. This is up 73% year over year and exceeds expectations.
The Japanese technology giant revised its fiscal 2025 revenue target slightly higher to 12.7 trillion yen. It had previously targeted sales of 12.6 billion yen. Sony also expects full-year operating profit to reach 1.3 trillion yen, in line with its previous forecast.
This came at a time when Sony witnessed strength in its gaming and network services division, which includes its famous home console brand, PlayStation. The company's gaming and network services revenue reached 1 trillion yen, up 12% year-on-year.
Sony's gaming division has held up well thanks to the shift to digital game purchasing and its PlayStation Plus subscription service. However, hardware shipments have proven lackluster amid a weak console market suffering from a lack of triple-A games.
Analysts expect things to get better next year for the gaming sector, not least thanks to the expected launch of the next-gen Nintendo Switch model and the release of Grand Theft Auto VI.
Sony said it sold 3.8 million PlayStation 5 units in the September quarter, down 22% year over year. However, the company saw a 28% jump in gaming software sales for the three-month period, to 612.3 billion yen. Astro Bot, a new platformer released for PS5 in September, sold 1.5 million units in its first 58 days.
Sony on Thursday launched its upgraded PlayStation 5 Pro console, touting a better graphics card that allows for faster gameplay rendering and new artificial intelligence capabilities to upscale graphics with sharper clarity.
Analysts hope the launch will boost interest in the PS5 with an improved piece of hardware ready for the release of GTA VI, one of the most anticipated games of the decade.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that operating income jumped 73% year over year in the September quarter. Sony raised its full-year sales guidance on Friday. An earlier version made a mistake back in the day. Sony's operating profit reached 455.1 billion yen. An earlier version misstated this number. Gaming and network services revenues increased 12% year over year. An earlier version got the percentage wrong.
