Sony posts record annual profit boosted by chips and all-time high PlayStation 5 sales

Sony posted record annual operating revenue on Friday, helped by its chip division and sales of its flagship PlayStation 5 gaming console which hit a record for the financial year.

Here’s how Sony did in the March quarter versus Refinitiv consensus estimates:

• Revenue: 3.06 trillion Japanese yen ($22.7 billion) versus 2.92 trillion yen expected. That represents a 35% year-on-year rise.
• Operating profit: 128.5 billion Japanese yen versus 124.34 billion yen expected. That represents a 7% year-on-year fall.

For its full fiscal year which ended in March, Sony previously forecast operating profit of 1.18 trillion yen and 11.5 trillion yen in revenue. The company beat its own forecast with 1.21 trillion yen in operating profit, a record for the company.

Sony forecast its sales for the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2024, will be 11.5 trillion yen, roughly flat versus last year. It said operating profit would come in at 1.17 trillion yen, down 3% year-on-year.

Sony said it sold 19.1 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the financial year, beating its own forecast of 18 million. That was up from 11.5 million PS5 units sold in the previous fiscal year when Sony was facing supply chain issues.

The Japanese giant’s gaming division was one of its biggest profit drivers for the year, bringing in operating profit of 250 billion yen, although that was down 27% year-on-year.

For the fiscal year, Sony’s gaming division brought in revenue of 3.64 trillion yen, up 33% year-on-year. The business was Sony’s biggest category by sales.

Sony forecast operating profit for its gaming business to be 270 billion yen for the current fiscal year. The company is hoping PlayStation VR 2, the company’s virtual reality gaming headset, will help add to sales. The company said it will see an improvement in profitability from hardware next year.

Sony said that it aims to sell 25 million PS5 units in the current financial year. If achieved, this would be a record for the PS5.

The company is competing with Nintendo’s Switch console and Microsoft’s Xbox.

Sony sells image sensor chips that go into smartphones and other camera products. It’s image sensor business saw profits jump 36% year-on-year to 212.2 billion yen in the year ended Mar. 31.

However, the company expects operating profit for the division to fall 5.7% in the current fiscal year, citing a slump in demand for its image sensors, particularly from Chinese smartphone makers.

Meanwhile, the company’s music publishing business, which has artists from Beyoncé to Adele on its roster, saw profit jump 24.7% year-on-year to 263.1 billion yen in the year ended Mar. 31. It was Sony’s biggest business by profit.