The Tokyo-based entertainment and consumer electronics giant said annual net profit jumped to ¥1.17 trillion , more than doubling from the previous year on sales of ¥8.99 trillion. — Reuters picTOKYO, April 28 ― Sony has ended the financial year with fanfare, announcing its biggest-ever net profit today thanks to unprecedented pandemic-driven demand as people around the world turned to gaming to liven up lockdowns.
Although the pandemic has hit many industries hard, the gaming sector has been one of the few to experience an unprecedented boom. But for the fiscal year that began in April, they forecast net profit of a more modest ¥660 billion, on sales of ¥9.7 trillion, with the gaming sector anticipating an eventual tapering of the soaring demand linked to the pandemic.
“The impact of lockdown demand on its game sector was sizable though the pandemic hit revenue from movie theatres hard,” said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo.