Sony reported its sales for its game and network services division were 1,071.5 billion yen ($7.01 billion) for the second fiscal quarter ended September 30, up 12% from a year ago.
Operating income for the G&NS division was 138.8 billion yen ($908 million), up 2.8 times from a year ago.
Sony said that sales grew because of an increase in third-party game software sales, better foreign exchange rates, an increase in network service sales including its PlayStation Plus online service. This was offset by a decrease in hardware sales.
Operating income grew due to an improvement in the profitability of hardware, an increase in third-party software sales, and higher network service sales.
Sony is now forecasting that its game and network services division will hit 4,490 billion yen ($29.3 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. That is more optimistic than the 4,320 billion yen ($28.2 billion) predicted in August. Operating income is also expected to be higher for the fiscal year for the division by 35 billion yen.
Operating income for the group is expected to be 355 billion yen ($2.3 billion), up from the earlier forecast of 320 billion yen.
Overall, Sony’s sales in the quarter were 2,973.4 billion yen ($19.45 billion), up 9% from a year ago.
Sony had some big titles like Astro Bot, but it also had failures like Concord, which sold so poorly that Sony shut down Firewalk Studios, the game studio that made it.
Back in January, Sony said it had sold 50 million PlayStation 5 consoles. That sounds like a lot, but it’s not nearly as much as the PlayStation 4, which has sold more than 117 million units as of October 2024.
Back in May, PlayStation leader Jim Ryan retired and he was replaced by two executives. Hideaki Nishino became CEO of SIE’s Platform Business Group, and Hermen Hulst was appointed CEO of SIE’s Studio Business Group.
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