TOKYO
Shares in Japanese giant Sony gained almost six percent on Thursday after it hiked its full-year sales and profit forecasts, as the weaker yen helped its PlayStation video games division. The firm expects net profit of 1.13 trillion yen ($7.2 billion) in the 2025-26 fiscal year, up from its previous projection of 1.05 trillion yen given in November, and a six-percent rise on last year.
It also increased its revenue forecast to 12.3 trillion yen from 12.0 trillion yen and its operating profit projection to 1.54 trillion yen from 1.43 trillion yen, a statement said. In the previous year, Sony posted a net profit of 1.07 trillion yen, sales of 12.0 trillion yen and operating profit of 1.28 trillion yen. Its forecast for the estimated impact of tariffs imposed on Japanese imports by US President Donald Trump’s administration remained at 50 billion yen. Trade officials in July reached a deal that saw Washington lower tariffs on Japanese goods to 15 percent from a threatened 25 percent.
The upbeat message about its gaming business comes despite the fact that Sony’s PlayStation 5, which launched in 2020, is beginning to get old. While it increased its forecast for revenues for its Games and Network Services (G&NS) division to 4.6 trillion yen, this is down from last year’s 4.7 trillion yen. Important for the PlayStation’s continued sales is the hotly anticipated upcoming release of “Grand Theft Auto VI”.
GTA’s creators Rockstar Games last year again delayed the launch, this time until November. Sony’s announcement comes a day after shares in Nintendo, maker of the rival Switch 2, dived 11 percent on concerns over software sales and the impact of a memory chip shortage on its consoles. The AI boom has pushed up prices and shipments of conventional NAND and DRAM memory chips, while demand for high? bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI servers has soared.
Analysts pointed to what they see as a lacklustre line-up of new Nintendo games, while the global chip crunch also threatens higher manufacturing costs. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said at a post-results briefing Tuesday that higher memory chip prices could potentially weigh on profits, Bloomberg News reported.
