Sony Boosts 2024 Outlook on Gaming, Music Growth

Sony had a fantastic Thursday! Their stock prices jumped up by more than 8%. Why the excitement? Well, Sony thinks they are going to make even more money this year than they first thought. This good news is mostly because their video game and music sections are doing incredibly well. Unfortunately, the movie part of Sony isn’t performing quite as strongly.

More Money Coming In! Sony Raises Forecast

The company shared their new predictions. They now believe sales will reach a massive 13.2 trillion yen. That’s a huge $86 billion! Also, they are expecting a hefty operating profit of 1.34 billion yen. That’s about $8.7 million. And finally, net income is predicted to be 1.8 trillion yen, or $12 billion. These new forecasts are better than before. Sales are up 4%, operating profit increased by 2%, and net income jumped a whopping 10%!

Breaking Down the Numbers: Here’s How Sony Performed

Let’s look at the details! Sony’s revenue reached a massive 4.41 trillion yen. That’s $29 billion! This is an impressive 18% jump compared to last year. Experts had predicted less, around $24.32 billion. Net income also grew to 373.7 billion yen, or $2.44 billion. This is a 3% increase from last year. Total operating income hit 469.3 billion yen, about $3.06 billion. That’s a small 1% rise.

Video Games and Music are Rocking It for Sony

Sony’s gaming division is booming! Sales went up by 16%, reaching 1.68 trillion yen. That’s a cool $11 billion! People are buying more PlayStations. Also, games that aren’t made by Sony, plus extra game content are selling well.

Lots of people are playing on PlayStation. A record 129 million users are active each month! Total playtime is also up, increasing by 2%. Interestingly, over 40% of new PS5 buyers were completely new to the PlayStation world.

This success shows in the money made. Operating income for gaming jumped 37% to 118 billion yen, or $770 million. Network services and non-Sony games brought in more cash. However, hardware costs and lower sales of Sony’s own games slightly reduced profits.

Music is also a hit for Sony! Music division sales grew by 14%. Reaching 481.7 billion yen, or $3.14 billion. Streaming services are the main driver here. More people are streaming music and using Sony’s ticketing platform called eplus inc. Operating income for music climbed 28% to $97.4 billion yen, or $630 million.

Looking ahead, Sony expects gaming to continue growing. They predict a 3% sales increase, reaching 4.61 trillion yen, or $30 billion. Operating income is also expected to rise 7% to 380 billion yen, or $2.48 billion. The music division is also expected to grow steadily. Sales are predicted to rise 3% to 1.79 trillion yen, or $11.6 billion. Operating income should also increase by 3% to 340 billion yen, or $2.2 billion.

Movies Face Headwinds: Marketing Costs Impacting Profits

But, Sony Pictures, the movie division, is facing some challenges. Operating profit here actually fell by 18% to 34 billion yen, or $220 million. This is because they spent more on marketing movies in theaters. Also, they earned less from older movies being licensed out.

However, movie revenue did increase by 9% to 398.2 billion yen, or $2.6 billion. The movie “Venom: The Last Dance” did well in cinemas. Their anime streaming service, Crunchyroll, gained more subscribers. Plus, they bought Alamo Drafthouse cinema chain. But, they delivered fewer TV shows, which reduced revenue a bit.

Sony mentioned the Los Angeles wildfires. They said the impact would be “minor”. Also, TV show production, which was stopped by the Hollywood strikes last year, is now almost back to normal. However, movie release dates are changing. The next “Spider-Man” and “Jumanji” movies are delayed. Sony says this is still because of the strikes.

For the full year, Sony’s prediction for the movie division stays the same as they announced back in November.