TOKYO, Feb 13, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Japanese entertainment and electronics giant Sony upgraded its annual net profit forecast to $7.0 billion on Thursday thanks to its strong gaming business.

The conglomerate said it now expects a net profit of 1.08 trillion yen in the year ending March 31, compared with an earlier projection of 980 billion yen.

It also lifted its annual sales forecast to 13.2 trillion yen, from an earlier estimate of 12.7 trillion yen. 

The change came after Sony saw robust sales of its games, music and financial products in October-December, a key holiday shopping season, with the yen's weakness against the dollar and euro also providing a boost.

Sales reached 4.41 trillion yen in the quarter, up 18 percent on-year, giving a net profit of 373.7 billion yen, which was an increase of three percent.

The firm also announced a share buyback worth up to 50 billion yen. 

During the three months, Sony sold 9.5 million of its PlayStation5 consoles, a healthy jump from the 8.2 million units sold in the same period the year before.

Chief operating officer Hiroki Totoki, who is set to take over as chief executive officer in April, said the game business will see more strong titles in the next fiscal year as the segment continues to see active user numbers rise.

"We saw a kind of momentum that went beyond our expectations," he told a news conference.

"During the third quarter, we saw high-quality third-party (game) soft titles, which created synergy effects" and drove up overall sales in the game business, he said.

He added that the segment may see a drop during the three months to the end of March. 

"In the next fiscal year (from April), we plan to introduce strong titles... and should see even stronger momentum in that year," he said. "I have high hopes."

Sony said its music business also enjoyed surging sales, thanks to "higher revenues from streaming services".

Music streaming is a key money-spinner for Sony, which has an impressive back catalogue and whose current roster includes major artists such as Beyonce.

The firm is expanding its content businesses and in December paid $320 million for 10 percent of Kadokawa, a Japanese media conglomerate behind the smash-hit game "Elden Ring", making it the firm's biggest shareholder.

The deal expanded Sony's games and anime portfolio, after its 2021 purchase of Crunchyroll, a once semi-legal US-based sharing site that is now a streaming giant for Japanese anime.