TapTechNews August 7th news, today Sony announced the results of the first fiscal quarter of the 2024 fiscal year ending June 30. The operating profit in this fiscal quarter increased by 10% year-on-year, exceeding analysts' expectations, mainly due to the strong performance of its industry-leading image sensor business.
The company's revenue in the first fiscal quarter was 3.01 trillion yen, an increase of 2% year-on-year, higher than the market expectation of 2.8 trillion yen. The operating profit reached 2791.1 billion yen, an increase of 10% year-on-year, higher than the market expectation of 2753.5 billion yen. The net profit was 2316.38 billion yen, an increase of 6.5%.
Affected by the foreign exchange rate and the growth of sales, the profit of Sony's image sensor business in this fiscal quarter increased by approximately twice year-on-year, reaching 366 billion yen.
Sony expects the full-year operating profit to increase to 1.31 trillion yen, previously expected to be 1.28 trillion yen.
Sony said that the cumulative sales of PlayStation 5 (PS5) have exceeded 61 million units. Although the PS5 sales in this fiscal quarter decreased to 2.4 million units compared to the same period last year, the overall game business performed strongly. Financial data shows that the revenue of Sony's game and network service department increased by 12% year-on-year in the first fiscal quarter, and the operating profit increased significantly by 32%, reaching 652 billion yen. Sony said that the revenue growth was mainly due to exchange rate changes, the increase of first-party game software sales, and the increase of network service income such as PlayStation Plus. Based on the data of the first fiscal quarter, Sony revised its forecast for the game department in the 2024 fiscal year (April 2024 to March 2025), and increased its revenue and operating profit forecast by 3%.
TapTechNews noted that Sony's performance in the just-ended 2023 fiscal year was not ideal, with the operating profit declining by 7% year-on-year, mainly due to the drag of the financial services business. In addition, the annual sales of Sony's PlayStation 5 in 2023 were also lower than expected, at 20.8 million units, lower than the previously reduced target of 21 million units (the initial target was 25 million units). Sony said in May this year that it expects to sell 18 million PS5 units this fiscal year, lower than last year's 20.8 million units.