Sony reported a significant increase in PlayStation (game and network services) business sales of 1,682.3 billion yen in the holiday quarter, up 237.9 billion yen, or 16%, from a year ago.
The increase in sales of hardware was due to an increase in hardware unit sales as well as an increase in sales of third-party game software including add-on content.
In the holiday quarter, Sony sold 9.5 million PlayStation 5 game consoles, compared to 8.2 million a year earlier. Sony sold 95.6 million copies of PS5 and PS4 software in FYQ3 2024, up from 89.7 million a year earlier. Sony sold 11.6 million copies of first-party games in the holiday quarter, down from 16.2 million a year earlier. The PlayStation Network had 129 million players, up from 123 million a year earlier.
Operating income was 31.9 billion yen for the quarter, up 37%. Adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization was 34.9 billion yen, up 31%. That came from bigger sales of network services, third party game software, decreased hardware losses and a decrease in sales of first-party game software.
Sony now expects better overall revenues for the fiscal year, with sales expected to hit 4,610 billion yen for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, up 120 billion yen.
By contrast, Microsoft said its Xbox game hardware business was down 29% from a year earlier. This means Sony is pulling further ahead, even though Microsoft had a great quarter for game launches during the holidays.
Sony expects game and network services to report operating income of 500 billion yen, or 25 billion yen more than previously expected. For the nine months ended December 31, 2024, Sony reported adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization of 412.6 billion yen, up 140.6 billion yen from previous estimates.
For the third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2024, Sony reported adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization of 148 billion yen, up 34.9 billion yen.
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