Sony said Tuesday its quarterly profit through September rose 24% on healthy demand for its music and movies, prompting the Japanese entertainment and electronics giant to raise its annual sales and profit forecasts.
Tokyo-based Sony’s July-September profit totaled 264 billion yen, or $1.8 billion, up from 213 billion yen in the previous year.
Entertainment companies have tended to thrive during the pandemic, as people stuck at home turned to games and movies. Sony makes PlayStation video game consoles and also offers online gaming.
Sony shipped 3.3 million PlayStation 5 game consoles during the second quarter of the April-March fiscal year.
Although Sony's games business quarterly sales rose, its profit declined due to higher costs. Sony acquired U.S. video game developer Bungie during the quarter.
In music, top-selling recordings included Beyonce’s “Renaissance” and Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House.” Among its films, “Bullet Train,” starring Brad Pitt, earned $233 million globally.
Sony, which also makes camcorders and headphones, recorded higher quarterly sales and profits for its imaging and sensor operations.
Sony raised its sales forecast for the fiscal year through March 2023 to 11.6 trillion yen ($79 billion) from an earlier projection of 11.5 trillion yen ($78 billion). Sony’s sales totaled 9.9 trillion yen in the previous fiscal year.
Sony also raised its fiscal year profit forecast to 840 billion yen ($5.7 billion) from an earlier 800 billion yen ($5.4 billion). That’s lower than the 882 billion yen earned last year.
Sony is among Japan’s stellar brands, having brought the world the Walkman portable music player. But it had humble beginnings in the 1940s, when the nation was rebuilding from the ashes of World War II.
In more recent decades, Sony's electronics division has faced tough competition from cheaper Asian rivals. Sales of TVs that were once pillars of Sony’s power, for instance, have declined.
