Tokyo, Feb 4 (EFE).- Sony Corporation's net profit fell 31.2 percent year-on-year to 569.55 billion yen ($5.22 billion) in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, the company said Tuesday.

Its operating profit fell 0.18 percent to 810.01 billion yen while its pre-tax income stood at 803.43 billion, 10.6 percent less than the same period of the previous fiscal year,

The company's sales declined 0.4 percent year-on-year between April and December of 2019 to 6.51 trillion yen.

Sony's game and network services experienced a slowdown in the first nine months with sales falling 12.8 percent to 1.54 trillion yen and a 22.25 percent fall in operating income to 192.24 billion yen.

The tech giant attributed the reduction mainly to a decrease in sales of its PlayStation 4 console and non-first-party software titles.

Revenue from its movies division also fell 1.44 percent to 682.71 billion yen owing mainly to the lack of a blockbuster release like 2018's "Venom" and lower television licensing revenues, according to the company.

Sony's restructured mobile division, known as the Electronics Products & Solutions unit, which also includes TV, audio and camera products, also reduced its sales by 11.4 percent to 1.63 trillion yen although it saw a jump in its operating income of 27.2 percent to stand at 146.79 billion yen owing to a reduction in costs.

These decreases were offset by the good performance of the conglomerate's music, chips and financial services sectors.

Sales of Sony's semiconductor sector expanded by 22.2 percent to 839.41 billion yen, mainly on account of an increase in sales of image sensors for mobile products, the company said in its financial report.

Sales from the music segment grew 7.4 percent to 638.46 billion yen thanks to an increase in streaming revenues as well as higher sales for Music Publishing due to the consolidation of the EMI Music Publishing business.

The Japanese tech company also released its forecast for the current financial year, which will end on Mar. 31.

Sony forecast a net income of 590 billion yen and an income-before-taxes of 860 billion yen during the current fiscal year, 9.2 percent and 7.5 percent more than its earlier forecast in October, due to "higher-than-expected" in the financial services and semiconductor segments.

The company also revised upwards its operating income forecast to around 880 billion yen and its sales and operating revenue to 8.5 trillion yen, all lower than the figures recorded in the 2018 fiscal year. EFE

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