Sony has reported a 44 per cent rise in quarterly profit to 449.6 billion yen (£2.2 billion), helped by the box-office performance of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and continued demand for PlayStation consoles.
The Japanese electronics and entertainment group’s profit for the July to September quarter was up from almost 311 billion yen a year earlier. Sales increased by 10 per cent to 3.4 trillion yen.
Sony said operating profit and sales rose across its games, music and pictures businesses during the quarter. The company sold 2.6 million PlayStation 5 consoles, compared with four million in the same period last year.
The PlayStation 5 was launched in 2020, and sales of games consoles generally decline as they become older. Sony is also facing pressure from a shortage of computer chips linked to the boom in artificial intelligence.
However, the weakness of the Japanese yen has benefited Sony and other major exporters by increasing the value of overseas earnings when converted into yen. The US dollar has recently traded at about 158 yen, compared with roughly 154 yen a year earlier.
The company, which also makes Xperia smartphones, Bravia televisions and Walkman audio players, raised its profit forecast for the financial year ending in March 2027 to 1.3 trillion yen.
That is up from its previous forecast of 1.2 trillion yen and would represent an improvement on the one trillion yen net profit recorded in the previous financial year.
