Sony profit jumps 44% on PlayStation and Spider-Man film earnings
Console hardware sales fell, but game sales and a strong film quarter pushed Sony's September-quarter profit well above last year.
Sony's September-quarter results show net profit rising 44 percent to 449.60 billion yen, roughly $2.84 billion, against 311.4 billion yen a year earlier. The gain was driven largely by PlayStation and by Sony Pictures, where Spider-Man: Brand New Day, released in July, earned $2.52 billion worldwide and pushed the studio's quarterly earnings to $581 million, up from $93 million. Console hardware moved the other way, with PlayStation 5 shipments falling to 2.6 million units from 4 million a year earlier. Digital and physical game sales nonetheless grew, despite a week-long August player blackout protesting Sony's plan to drop discs. Management says the next-generation console is progressing as scheduled, which matters for developers planning around the platform's roadmap.
Why it matters
For readers following the industry, the quarter shows Sony leaning on software and film rather than console sales to drive earnings. The fall in PlayStation 5 shipments alongside rising game sales suggests that players are still spending on the platform even as fewer new consoles are sold. Management's statement that the next-generation console is on schedule keeps attention on the company's longer-term hardware plans, though the results themselves do not show how that will play out.
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