The chip shortage didn’t get in the way of Sony’s Playstation 5 outpacing sales of its predecessor, as the company announced 7.8 million units have sold since November.
As the actual console itself is sold as a loss leader, with games and subs making the money, the gaming division dived 30 per cent year-on-year in operating profits for the Jan-March quarter.
Hefty marketing costs for the console, and — counter-intuitively — impressive sales, are to blame for that downfall.
Despite this, Sony reported a record net profit for the fiscal year ending March, buoyed by the focus on home entertainment brought about by the pandemic.
Sony’s net income for the year ending March grew 101 per cent to US$10.7 billion, while total sales grew 9 per cent to US$82.5 billion.
Sony’s music division operated strongly, growing 90 per cent to US$8.63 billion for the year ending March. Operating income was $1.73 billion.
Interestingly, it was a film that helped the music division, as the anime movie Demon Slayer became Japan’s biggest ever box office hit. The production team responsible for this film, Aniplex, is a division of Sony Music Entertainment Japan.
Sony Pictures (the film and television division) managed to see operating profit rise for the full year, due to the decreased spending on film production and marketing, and an increase in home streaming sales. Conversely, actual sales fell 253 per cent, due to the widespread shuttering of cinemas, and the halting of television production. It also suffered a drop in the Jan-March quarter (due to strong cinema profits in the pre-pandemic Jan-March 2020), which was to be expected.
Sony are now looking to diversify further, with a deal to get their films onto both Disney Plus and Netflix, and plans to start their own streaming service.
No doubt they will also be hoping to bolster PS5 sales once the chip shortage is over, and they will look to Aniplex – hoping that lightning strikes twice for the anime production wizards.
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