Playstation 5 sales provided a growth driver as Sony (NYSE:SNE) Group Corp increased first-quarter operating profit by 26% and lifted guidance for the full year.
Sony (NYSE:SNE) said it expects to sell 14.8mln PS5’s in the twelve months ending March 2022 though, impacted by a shortage of semiconductors, volumes continue to fall short of demand as they have since the games console was launched in core markets back in November.
Across the whole group, Sony (NYSE:SNE)’s sales were up 15% to ¥2.25trn (cUS$20.6bn) with operating profit up 26%, marked at ¥280.1bn (cUS$2.57bn), which was materially above analyst forecasts for around ¥207bn.
Sony told the market it now expects full-year profit to be in the range of ¥930bn to ¥980bn.
Its entertainment unit - which includes music, TV and movies – is expected to continue expansion following December’s acquisition of the Crunchyroll animation business from AT&T Inc, after guiding earlier this year that it planned to invest ¥2trn in strategic investments over a three-year period across gaming and entertainment.