Sony reports 7% drop in annual profit as PlayStation 5 sales miss trimmed target

Sony on Tuesday reported a 7% drop in annual profits in the fiscal year 2023 amid weakness in its gaming division.

The company also narrowly missed its forecast for unit sales of its flagship PlayStation 5 gaming console for the full year.

Here’s how Sony did in the March quarter versus LSEG consensus estimates:

• Revenue: 3.5 trillion yen ($22.4 billion) versus 2.89 trillion yen expected. That represents a 14% increase year-over-year — but the first drop since Sony’s 2020 September quarter, according to LSEG data.
• Operating profit: 229.4 billion yen versus 236.81 billion yen expected. That marks a 57% jump year-over-year.

The Japanese gaming giant reported 2023 revenue of 13 trillion, an increase of 19% year-over-year.

Sony’s operating profit for the full year, though, came in at 1.2 trillion yen, down 7% year-over-year.

Sony narrowly missed its revised down target for PlayStation 5 sales. The firm said that sales of its flagship console totalled 20.8 million in the fiscal year 2023.

That’s slightly lower than the revised 21 million unit target that Sony gave investors in February. Prior to that, the company had forecast that its PS5 console would sell 25 million units for the full year.

This breaking news story is being updated.