Sony has been introducing new technologies to maintain its dominance in the industry and the strategies used seem to be working. The first-quarter figures are in and they look encouraging for the console business. Sony is also investing in image sensor sector where growth is expected as well.
PlayStation Sales and Estimates
As per the operating profit figures of the first quarter, Sony reported that they have had an increase in 18.4 percent. This has been beyond market expectations, probably because of the performance that the company has put in the business of image sensors. In the first quarter of 2021, the company has sold about 96.8 million consoles of PS4.
The profits were posted of Sony’s Japan market mainly were last years the profit figures had been 195.01 billion. As per analysts and their estimates polled, it was predicted to be 174 billion yen. Profit forecast was maintained as the company earned 810 billion yen by the end of March 2021.
This year, by the end of first quarter consoles of Sony PlayStation 4 were 96.8 million for the first quarter and by July it has sold 3.2 million, crossing the milestone set of 100 million.
Profits Surge in Sony
Profits for the last two years have been high in the company, an effect of the revival techniques incorporated across the globe. Next-generation console will be introduced in 2021 when the life of PlayStation 4 will end after five years; the gaming industry would also be seeing larger costs which need to be considered for planning upcoming products in this segment. However, Sony is counting on the image sensor, a business that is being driven for the demand for sensors that create large size images and is also used in multiple lenses which are added in the latest smartphone camera systems.
Businesses that Drive Growth for Sony
Image sensors are not only used in smartphone cameras but also in semiconductors. The latter segment has been seeing profits, especially in Japan where it has nearly doubled in profitability as compared to the last financial year. This is being combined with the gaming business that has also been seeing a steady rise in profitability.
In the gaming business, the company had launched several new products and services. For instance, last quarter the company saw high sales from its video games based on Men in Black and Spider-Man movies that were released this year. The movie division also benefited from the revenues that came in from the theatres. Indeed the gaming segment is diverse with online entertainment segment growing steadily.
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Music unit of the company has seen improvement as well. Though initially, it had been seeing losses in equity from EMI Music Publishing, the company has since then been able to step up sales and increase revenue from online streaming.
It has also seen better sales in the fourth edition of the game console, PlayStation 4. It is no coincidence that the company has appointed a new chief form PS4; Jim Ryan has been appointed a president of the division, Sony Interactive Entertainment and he has taken up the role of CEO and president from Jon Kodera. It could also be that, due to the drop in sales and profits of PS4 a new boss for PlayStation has been appointed. Speculations are now rife about what features the next console edition would include.