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Sony raises profit outlook on good games growth and lower tariff costs

Sony raised its full-year operating profit forecast on Thursday by 4% to 1.33 trillion yen ($9.01 billion), as it saw strong growth in games and a smaller impact than expected from tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Sony said it foresees a tariff impact of 70 billion yen, compared to the earlier 100 billion yen forecast in May.

The Japanese electronics, games and entertainment company said it sees a stronger profit outlook at its games business, which rose 36.5% in operating profit to 340 billion yen for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30.

PlayStation 5 hardware sales hit 2.5 million units in Q1, up from 2.4 million a year earlier. Full-game software was 65.9 million units, up from 53.6 million a year earlier. First-party titles sold 6.9 million units, up from 6.0 million a year earlier. Sony had 123 million monthly active users in Q1, up from 116 million a year ago.

All those numbers are pretty strong and they indicate Sony’s PS5 is still holding strong despite having launched back in 2020. Nintendo launched its Switch 2 in June and it has sold more than six million machines since then. But, again, Sony doesn’t seem hurt by it yet.

Sony was expected to report an operating profit of 288 billion yen. Sony’s shares rose 5% in trading during the day in Tokyo.

In games, Sony’s Q1 FY25 sales were 936.5 billion yen, up 71.6% from 864.9 billion a year earlier. Operating income was 148 billion yen, up 82.7% from 65.2 billion a year earlier.

Sony said its sales forecast for games in fiscal year 2025 (ending March 31, 2026) is 4,320 billion yen, up slightly from its previous forecast of 4,300 billion yen in May.

The first fiscal quarter went well due to strong sales of non-first-party game software titles including add-on content, an increase in sales from network services, offset by impact of foreign exchange rates. Operating income was impact by the increase in non-first-party game software sales and higher sales from network services. The forecast for the fiscal year for 2025 is lower slightly due to a delay in the launch of a first-party title.

Hardware revenue in Q1 FY25 was 153.3 billion yen, compared with 146.3 billion yen a year earlier. Game software sales were 540.2 billion yen in Q1, versus 486.5 billion a year earlier.

Physical software was 22.7 billion yen in the quarter, compared to 20.6 billion a year ago. Digital software was 199.5 billion yen, compared to 141.9 billion a year earlier. Add-on content was 292.6 billion yen, compared with 290.8 billion a year earlier.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.