Sony raises profit forecast on stronger games performance

By Sam Nussey

 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony raised on Thursday its operating profit forecast for the year ending in March by 2% to 1.34 trillion yen ($8.70 billion), citing the strength of its gaming business. 

 

Once best known for consumer electronics such as the Walkman, Sony’s business spans games, movies, music and image sensors.

 

Operating profit in the third quarter was 469.3 billion yen, up 1% on a year earlier and beating analysts’ estimates, helped by growth in games and music.

 

President Hiroki Totoki is strengthening his grip over the Japanese technology and entertainment conglomerate, taking the CEO role from April 1.

 

Totoki has been finance chief and took executive roles at the games unit while moving to improve margins.

 

Quarterly profit at the games business grew 37%, driven by higher sales and reduced losses from hardware.

Sony sold 9.5 million PlayStation 5 units during the quarter, compared to 8.2 million units a year earlier.

 

Monthly active users on PlayStation Network grew more than 10% to 129 million users compared to three months earlier.

 

The network was recently disrupted by a global outage. 

 

Sony’s music unit’s profitability was also boosted by higher revenue from streaming services.

 

The conglomerate agreed to a capital tie-up with media powerhouse Kadokawa last year as it looks to expand in entertainment.

 

Sony said it would buy back up to 30 million shares for some 50 billion yen.

 

($1 = 153.9700 yen)

 

(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing)