It earned an operating profit of 455.08 billion yen (S$3.93 billion) in the three months to September
Sony Group’s profit rose, thanks to strong music and image sensor sales, as well as continued momentum for PlayStation games.
The Tokyo-based company earned an operating profit of 455.08 billion yen (S$3.93 billion) in the three months to September, up 73 per cent and beating the average of analyst estimates of 335.3 billion yen.
Sony is working to lower its reliance on the core PlayStation business segment, which is losing steam four years into the latest hardware generation. As one of the world’s biggest music rights holders and publishers, Sony has benefited from the popularity of streaming services like Spotify.
Spotify Technology’s US-traded shares have more than doubled this year on optimism for sustained growth. Sony’s music group also houses some of its smartphone games and anime publishing, with both seeing a surge in popularity outside Japan.
The PlayStation platform had several hit titles in the September quarter, such as Sony’s in-house Astro Bot and Game Science Interactive Technology’s Black Myth: Wukong. But the company suffered a heavy blow with the flop of big-budget live service game Concord, which led to the closing of developer Firewalk Studios.
The entertainment group this week launched PlayStation 5 Pro, a high-priced, high-performance version of the company’s flagship game console aimed at preventing defections to rival platforms during the year-end shopping season.
Next year, Sony plans to release blockbuster titles, including Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds and Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI. Still, the company’s profitability from consoles is fading, as more of its portfolio becomes available to play on rival game machines, PCs and smartphones. BLOOMBERG
