Sony hikes guidance on strong games, music performance

TOKYO

Japanese giant Sony on Thursday hiked its full-year net profit forecast thanks to strong performances in its video games and music divisions.

The firm expects net profit of 1.13 trillion yen ($7.2 billion) in the 2025-26 fiscal year, up from its previous projection of 1.05 trillion yen given in November, it said in a statement.

It also increased its revenue forecast to 12.3 trillion yen from 12.0 trillion yen and its operating profit projection to 1.54 trillion yen from 1.43 trillion yen.

Its forecast for the estimated impact of tariffs imposed on Japanese imports by US President Donald Trump's administration remained at 50 billion yen.

Trade officials in July reached a deal that saw Washington lower tariffs on Japanese goods to 15 percent from a threatened 25 percent.

The upbeat message about its gaming business comes despite the fact that Sony's PlayStation 5, which launched in 2020, is beginning to get old.

Important for the console's continued sales is the hotly anticipated upcoming release of the "Grand Theft Auto VI".

Its creators Rockstar Games last year again delayed the launch, this time until November.

Sony's announcement comes a day after shares in Nintendo, maker of the rival Switch 2 console, dived 11 percent on concerns over software sales and the impact of a memory chip shortage on its devices.

The AI boom has pushed up prices and shipments of conventional NAND and DRAM memory chips, while demand for high?bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI servers has soared.

Analysts pointed to what they see as a lacklustre line-up of new Nintendo games, while the global chip crunch also threatens higher manufacturing costs.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said at a post-results briefing Tuesday that higher memory chip prices could potentially weigh on profits, Bloomberg News reported.