On August 7th, Japanese gaming giant Sony announced the financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2024.

The data shows that Sony achieved a bountiful first quarter, with revenues reaching 3.01 trillion yen, a year-on-year increase of 2%, exceeding market expectations; operating profit reached 279.11 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 10%, also exceeding market expectations; net profit reached 231.638 billion yen, a robust year-on-year increase of 6.5%.

At the same time, Sony Corporation raised its full-year revenue guidance. The company estimates that the full-year operating profit will increase to 1.31 trillion yen, higher than the previously estimated 1.28 trillion yen.

Sony stated that the growth in revenue is mainly due to the strong growth in gaming business, music streaming business, and image sensor business.

Sony's gaming business, including the PlayStation console, surged to 864.9 billion yen during the reporting period, a 12% increase from 771.9 billion yen in the same period last year.

Sony's music and image sensor revenues grew by 23% and 21% respectively, especially the image sensor business, which saw its profits nearly double year-on-year to 36.6 billion yen, influenced by foreign exchange rates and sales growth.

Games make or break it. In May of this year, Sony had presented disappointing financial results for the fiscal year 2023.

Throughout the reporting period, Sony's flagship product, the PlayStation 5, only sold 20.8 million units for the year, failing to meet Sony's promise of 21 million units. However, due to the growth in in-game paid sales and the positive impact of exchange rates, Sony's gaming and network services business (G&NS) still managed to perform positively.

In this financial report, the sales of the PlayStation 5 were still unsatisfactory. Sony stated that the company sold 2.4 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the quarter, far below the 3.3 million units sold in the same period last year.

This time, it was software sales that once again saved the hardware business.

Sony stated that during the reporting period, the company's first-party game software sales and network charging services (mainly PlayStation Plus subscriptions) both saw strong growth. In the long-term transformation of the gaming console industry, more and more players are turning to digital downloads and subscription services, which saved Sony's G&NS performance.

Nevertheless, Sony's gaming hardware business has reached a milestone this time. Sony said that in nearly four years, the cumulative sales of the PlayStation 5 have broken through 61 million units, becoming one of the best-selling consoles globally. In comparison, the Nintendo Switch has a cumulative sales volume of 141.3 million units; Microsoft's Xbox One has 57.96 million units; Sony's own PS4, released in 2013, has a cumulative sales volume of 117.2 million units.

Today, there is also news that Sony Group plans to invest 1.8 trillion yen in growth investments over the next three years, including mergers and acquisitions.

Sony had in-depth discussions with the private equity giant Apollo Global Management and planned to cooperate to acquire the American media giant Paramount Global to consolidate its leading position in the global entertainment market. However, for various reasons, this acquisition that shocked the world ultimately did not proceed.

To date, Sony has withdrawn from the acquisition battle of Paramount Global and will no longer make new acquisition offers to it.