Sony’s April-June profit slipped 17% from a year earlier, as worries grew about revenue damage from a strike in the movie sector, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Wednesday.
Tokyo-based Sony Corp.’s fiscal first quarter profit totaled 217 billion yen, down from 261 billion yen a year ago.
Quarterly sales rose 33% to 2.96 trillion yen ($21 billion), as sales for the period grew in games and network services, the music business, financial services and imaging solutions.
Sony said its results got a boost from a favorable exchange rate. The yen has been declining lately, trading at about 143 yen to the dollar, and a weak yen is a plus for Japanese exporters like Sony.
Sony’s revenue in the movies segment was expected to suffer because of the strikes by the Writers Guild of America, or WGA, and Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA.
Release dates of movies, as well as deliveries of TV series, were being delayed, according to Sony.
Sony said it shipped 3.3 million of its PlayStation 5 video game consoles during the quarter through June. Sony estimates 108 million people are active users on its Sony online gaming network, up by 5 million users from a year ago.
Among Sony’s recent top-earning music releases were the “SOS” album by SZA, Miley Cyrus’ “Endless Summer Vacation” and “Harry’s House” from Harry Styles.
Sony raised its full year profit forecast to 860 billion yen from an earlier projection for an 840 billion yen profit. That’s lower than the profit it recorded the previous year at 1 trillion yen.
© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
5 Comments
Login to comment
dagon
Just pay the actual creators and workers; instead of the execs, shareholders, investors and Private Equity.
You know, like how the whole "free market" capitalism exchange of time and labor for money is supposed to work.
David Brent
And yet they’ve just broken ground on a brand new semiconductor fab here in Kyushu! They aren’t cheap.
stormcrow
We’re all worried about AI and how it affects our own jobs, but how can you limit it let alone stop it?
fxgai
I’m not worried about AI, rather I hope indeed that it takes over boring mundane work so that there is more time left for us to do high value activities.
As for workers in the movie biz, they need not worry about AI if they come up with inventive new content, as opposed to say, creating Indiana Jones part 15.
opheliajadefeldt
I still have my old small Sony cassette player, I have had it since I was about 4/5 yrs old, and it still works great.