Japan’s Sony sees profit grow on demand for games, but quake damage still unclear
Sony reported a 32% profit growth in the fiscal first quarter, even as the Japanese entertainment company warned of a negative impact from the earthquake that hit southwestern Kumamoto earlier this week
ByYURI KAGEYAMA AP business writer
July 31, 2026, 1:57 AM
TOKYO –Sony Group Corp. reported a 32% profit growth in the fiscal first quarter Friday while warning of a negative impact from the earthquake that hit southwestern Kumamoto earlier this week
The Tokyo-based entertainment company said its semiconductor facilities there were affected, and production remained suspended at one, while others were back up
There was no major damage. However, the impact on Sony’s bottom line was still being assessed, so that was not included in Friday’s results. Before the quake, Sony had said it was on track to report record profit for the fiscal year
Sony, which makes the PlayStation video game machines, Braune period rose to 342.2 billion yen ($2 billion) from 259 billion yen. Quarterly sales edged up 8% to 2.84 trillion yen ($17.7 billion)
The 7.1 magnitude quake that struck July 28 in the Kumamoto area in Japan ‘s southwestern main island of Kyushu caused at least 34 deaths. It also halted operations at factories, left hundreds of homes without electricity, flattened buildings and stopped trains
Sony’s music business did well in the latest quarter, with both digital streaming and publishing businesses recording healthy results
Among the top-selling projects for Sony Music for the quarter were releases from Michael Jackson like “Thriller” and “Bad,” which continue to have strong global appeal, as well as more recent recordings from Ella Langley and Bad Bunny
Sony’s imaging and sensor business saw solid profits and sales. In a separate development, camera lens maker Tamron said this week that it had received an acquisition proposal from Sony and was reviewing options
Sony’s video-games division also did well, selling 1.6 million PlayStation 5 machines during the three months, up from 1.5 million units in January-March
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Cumulative PS5 sales are now estimated at more than 93 million machines. Active players total 125 million people
The film unit did not do as well, partly because there weren’t as many box office releases in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago. The main release for the latest quarter for its Pictures unit was “The Breadwinner,” directed by Eric Appel about a stay-home dad
On the positive side, subscribers to Crunchyroll, a Japanese animation streaming service, continued to grow. Licensing revenue from its TV catalog also worked as a plus
Sony is projecting a 1.2 trillion yen ($7.5 billion) net profit for the full fiscal year, up 17% on year. It expects 12.5 trillion yen ($77.8 billion) in annual sales through the fiscal year ending in March 2027, little changed from the previous year, inching up less than 1%
Sony Group stock was trading little changed in Tokyo, compared to the previous day, after the earnings results were released
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
