Sony Sees Profit Rise on Music, Films; Says People Playing Less Games as COVID-19 Restrictions Decrease

Sony, which makes PlayStation consoles, Bravia TVs and Columbia Pictures films, said sales from its music streaming service rose during the quarter.

By Associated Press | Updated: 29 July 2022 16:24 IST

Sony Sees Profit Rise on Music, Films; Says People Playing Less Games as COVID-19 Restrictions Decrease

Sony sees profit rise on music and films

Highlights

Sony reported a 3 percent increase in profit for the second quarter
The company continues to deal with challenges posed by the ongoing COVID
Sony's sales fell in the video games sector and technology services

Sony's profit edged up 3 percent in the last quarter, weathering production setbacks from COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and a trend away from video gaming as pandemic restrictions eased elsewhere.

Tokyo-based Sony's April-June profit totaled JPY 218 billion (roughly Rs. 12,96,000 crore), up from 212 billion yen a year earlier, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Friday.

Quarterly sales rose 2 percent to JPY 2.31 trillion (roughly Rs. 37,45,00,000 crore), on the back of strong demand in Sony's music operations, including for Harry Styles' Harry's House and Doja Cat's Planet Her.

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Among the better performers in movies was Morbius, a film based on the Marvel Comics hero. But Sony is hoping Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt and set for release in August, will do well at the box office.

Sony, which makes the PlayStation video game consoles, Bravia TVs and Columbia Pictures films, said sales from its music streaming service rose during the quarter. Despite some concern about a global economic slowdown, the streaming business was expected to remain stable, said Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki.

Sales fell in the video games sector and technology services. One reason was that, as restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic eased, people were playing games less and instead going out, Totoki said.

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Also, a shortage of computer chips has slowed production of the Sony's PlayStation 5 machine.

Sony's game software sales fell in the latest quarter, while costs for developing software rose. Sony acknowledged the slowdown in shipments may dampen the momentum of game players' interest in PlayStation 5. But the company is banking on major game titles slated for release later in the year to revive sales.

Sony said it expects its full fiscal year profit to fall to JPY 800 billion (roughly Rs. 47,60,000 crore) from the previous year's JPY 882 billion(roughly Rs. 52,45,000 crore).

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Morbius

Release Date 1 April 2022
Language English
Genre Action, Adventure, Drama, Superhero
Cast
Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, Tyrese Gibson
Director
Daniel Espinosa
Producer
Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Lucas Foster

Read Review

Bullet Train

Release Date 4 August 2022
Language English, Japanese, Spanish
Genre Action, Mystery, Thriller
Cast
Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Benito A Martínez Ocasio, Sandra Bullock, Zazie Beetz, Logan Lerman, Karen Fukuhara, Masi Oka, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, Miraj Grbić
Director
David Leitch
Producer
Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, Antoine Fuqua

Sony PlayStation 5

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
DualSense is great
Very powerful
Reduced loading times
Friendlier storage expansion
Capable of 8K / 120fps
4K Blu-ray player (finally)

Bad
Expensive
Lack of truly next-gen exclusives
Not a generation leap over PS4 Pro at launch
Game prices now go up to Rs. 5,000
Missing next-gen upgrades for PS4 games
No "Quick Resume", as on Xbox Series X
Limited backward compatibility
No support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos
SSD storage amount is restrictive

Read detailed Sony PlayStation 5 review

HDD 825GB PCie Gen 4 NVMe SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.5GHz with SMT

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 36 CUs @ 2.23GHz (variable frequency)

RAM 16GB GDDR6

USB 4

Weight 4.5kg

Ethernet Gigabit

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