Sony’s profit rises on robust performance for music, films and games

Japanese technology and entertainment company Sony logged an 18% rise in profit for the fiscal year through March on healthy results at its music and video game operations.

Tokyo-based Sony said its annual profit totalled 1.14 trillion yen (£5.1 billion), up from 970.6 billion yen in the previous fiscal year.

Annual sales were virtually unchanged, inching down to 12.957 trillion yen (£66 billion) from 13.020 trillion yen.

One area that lagged among Sony’s sprawling businesses was the financial segment, where revenue stalled.

But its film division and its imaging and sensor solutions segment did well.

Among the films that fared positively at the box office for the fiscal year through March were Venom: The Last Dance, featuring the Marvel Comics superhero, and Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, an action comedy in which Will Smith and Martin Lawrence come back in their popular police roles, the fourth instalment in the series.

Sony, which makes the PlayStation console and game software played on that machine, also marked healthy results in the gaming business.

Its music operations, which also held up, include recordings, streaming services and music for games.

The top-selling recorded music project for the latest fiscal year globally was SZA’s SOS Deluxe: LANA, followed by Beyonce, Future & Metro Boomin and Travis Scott.

For the Japan music business, the top-seller was Kenshi Yonezu’s Lost Corner album, followed by offerings from Stray Kids and Six Tones.

For the January-March quarter, Sony posted a 197.7 billion yen (£1 billion) profit, up 5% from 189 billion yen in the same quarter in the previous fiscal year.

Sales were 2.6 trillion yen (£13.3 billion), down 24% from 3.48 trillion yen.

Sony is forecasting a nearly 13% drop in profit for the fiscal year through March 2026, to 930 billion yen (£4.75 billion), on 11.7 trillion yen (£61 billion) sales, down 2.9% on-year.

Sony stocks lost 3% in Tokyo morning trading.