Sony increased its full-year sales forecast on Friday after its gaming business exceeded expectations, driving an impressive quarterly operating profit. Here’s a look at how the company performed in the September quarter against LSEG consensus estimates:
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| Sony’s PlayStation 5. Thiago Prudencio | Lightrocket | Getty Images |
Revenue: Sony reported 2.97 trillion Japanese yen ($19.4 billion), slightly below the projected 3.03 trillion yen. This marked a 9% increase from the previous year but fell just short of analyst expectations.
Operating Profit: The company posted 455.1 billion yen, significantly above the anticipated 336.07 billion yen, reflecting a 73% year-over-year increase and surpassing predictions.
Sony revised its fiscal 2025 revenue target up slightly, aiming for 12.7 trillion yen instead of the previous 12.6 trillion yen. The company’s outlook for full-year operating profit remains at 1.3 trillion yen, consistent with its earlier forecast.
Sony’s success was largely driven by its gaming and network services division, which includes its flagship PlayStation brand. This division generated 1 trillion yen in revenue, up 12% year-over-year.
The strong performance is attributed to a rise in digital game purchases and the PlayStation Plus subscription service, although hardware sales have lagged in a weaker console market facing a shortage of highly-anticipated triple-A game titles.
Analysts are optimistic about the gaming sector’s prospects for next year, especially with the upcoming launch of a next-generation Nintendo Switch and the release of Grand Theft Auto VI.
In the September quarter, Sony sold 3.8 million PlayStation 5 units, a 22% decline from the previous year. However, software sales for the PS5 surged by 28%, reaching 612.3 billion yen. Notably, Astro Bot, a new platformer released for PS5 in September, sold 1.5 million units in its first 58 days.
On Thursday, Sony introduced its enhanced PlayStation 5 Pro, which boasts an upgraded graphics card for faster rendering and AI-powered graphics upscaling with improved image clarity.
Analysts hope the PS5 Pro launch will generate renewed interest in the console, especially with GTA VI, one of the decade’s most anticipated games, on the horizon.
Correction: This article has been updated to accurately state that operating income rose by 73% year-over-year in the September quarter. Sony announced the full-year sales forecast increase on Friday, and the operating profit was 455.1 billion yen. Previous versions contained errors regarding these figures and the year-over-year increase in game and network services revenue, which rose by 12%.
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