By Kosaku Narioka


Sony Group raised its fiscal-year earnings forecasts after reporting a higher first-quarter net profit on the strength of its game, music and imaging-sensor businesses.

The Japanese entertainment and electronics company said Wednesday that net profit climbed 6.5% from a year earlier to 231.64 billion yen, equivalent to $1.60 billion, for the three months ended June. That exceeded the estimate of Y214.30 billion in a poll of analysts by data provider Visible Alpha.

First-quarter revenue increased 1.6% to Y3.012 trillion.

For the year ending March 2025, it projected net profit to rise 1.0% to Y980 billion, compared with its previous view of a 4.7% drop, as it forecast higher operating profit for its game, music, movie and sensor businesses.

First-quarter operating profit from its game business climbed 33% to Y65.21 billion as higher software sales and network-services revenue offset a drop in game-console sales. It sold 2.4 million PlayStation 5 units during the period, down from 3.3 million units a year earlier.

Operating profit from its music business increased 17% to Y85.89 billion, supported by higher streaming-services revenue. Operating profit from its imaging and sensing business more than doubled to Y36.65 billion, partly due to stronger sales of sensors used in mobile phones and cameras.

Sony has spent billions of dollars in acquisitions over the past few years to beef up entertainment content creation. Its entertainment businesses, such as games, music and movies, made up nearly 60% of overall revenue in the fiscal year ended March, up from about 30% a decade earlier.

Sony's film unit said in June that it had acquired Austin, Texas-based dine-in theater chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, coming as the U.S. movie industry grapples with how to encourage more consumers to go to the movies.


Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-07-24 0454ET