Sony said sales of its flagship PlayStation 5 console totaled 20.8 million in fiscal 2023, slightly short of its already revised target of 21 million units.
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Sony on Tuesday reported a 7% drop in annual profit in fiscal 2023, dragged down by a decline in its financial services division.
The company also failed to meet its full-year sales forecast for flagship gaming console PlayStation 5.
Here’s how Sony fared in the March quarter against LSEG consensus estimates:
- Revenue: ¥3.5 trillion ($22.4 billion), versus ¥2.89 trillion expected. That represents a 14% year-over-year increase — but the first decline since Sony’s September 2020 quarter, according to LSEG data.
- Operating profit: 229.4 billion yen vs. 236.81 billion yen expected. This marks a 57% jump year-on-year.
The Japanese gaming giant reported revenue of 13 trillion for 2023, up 19% year-on-year.
However, Sony’s full-year operating profit was 1.2 trillion yen, down 7% year-on-year.
Sony narrowly missed its revised sales target for the PlayStation 5. The firm said sales of its flagship console totaled 20.8 million in fiscal 2023.
That’s slightly lower than the revised target of 21 million units that Sony gave investors in February. The company previously predicted that its PS5 console would sell 25 million units for the full year.
Sony expects even weaker sales of 18 million units of its PS5 in the year ending March 2025, a company executive said, according to Reuters.
It comes after Sony on Monday announced management changes at its games division Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), with the division’s interim CEO Hiroki Totoki becoming chairman of the business.
Longtime Sony executives Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst have been named CEOs of the Platform Business Group and Studio Business Group, respectively, two newly created divisions of SIE.
The financial unit weighs on profit
Sony said its financial services business was the main segment driving profit down.
In 2023, operating income in the financial services unit was ¥173.6 billion, down 22.5% year-on-year after a solid increase in 2022.
The company also suffered from a decline in its Imaging and Sensor Solutions (I&SS) business, which houses its imaging chips.
Sony’s I&SS business posted operating income of 193.5 billion yen, down 9% from 2022.
Sony said it forecast a drop in total group revenue for the current fiscal year. The company expects sales to reach ¥12.3 trillion for the year ending March 2025, down 5%.
Operating income for fiscal 2024 is expected to total 1.28 trillion yen, up 5 percent, Sony said in its consolidated results.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/sony-q4-and-full-year-2023-earnings.html
