By Kosaku Narioka


Sony Group reported a rise in fourth-quarter net profit thanks to stronger earnings from its game and movie businesses.

The Japanese entertainment and electronics company said Tuesday that net profit rose 34% from a year earlier to 189.005 billion yen ($1.21 billion) for the three months ended March. That beat the estimate of Y149.71 billion in a poll of analysts by data provider FactSet.

Fourth-quarter revenue climbed 14% to Y3.481 trillion.

Operating profit for its game business more than doubled to Y105.98 billion, and that of its movie business nearly doubled to Y30.67 billion.

For the fiscal year that began in April, Sony Group projected revenue to drop 5.5% to Y12.310 trillion and net profit to decline 4.7% to Y925.00 billion.

It expects operating profit from its game business to rise to Y310.00 billion from Y290.2 billion the previous year.

The videogame industry is struggling to regain its vigor following a pandemic-driven boom a few years ago. Earlier this year, Sony Group said it was laying off about 900 employees from its PlayStation business. Microsoft cut about 8% of its videogaming staff following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October.


Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-14-24 0313ET