Today Sony announced its financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2020, which relates to the period between July 1, 2020, and September 30, 2020.
First of all, we get an update on the PS4 units shipped during the latest quarter. 1.5 million units were purchased by retailers worldwide, which means that the grand total as of September 30 is at 113.6 million units (Sony had previously announced 112.1 million as of June 30).
Below you can check out an overview of the performance of the Game & Network Services business (which includes PlayStation and PlayStation Network).
Sales for the business as a whole showcase a significant increase year-on-year (11%) due to the growth in software and PlayStation Plus sales partly offset by lower PS4 hardware sales.
Operating income shows rather massive growth year-on-year (104.9 billion yen as opposed to 65 billion yen) due to first-party software sales and PlayStation Plus sales partly offset by increased costs.
Looking at the forecast for the full fiscal year, predicted sales for the PlayStation business were revised upward (by 4%/100 billion yen) due to higher-than-expected software sales, mainly focused on add-on content.
Operating income was revised upward by 60 billion yen due to the same reason on top of higher-than-expected PlayStation Plus sales.
We also hear that Sony is taking measures to have many first and third-party games ready for the launch of PS5.
“Sales are expected to be higher than the August forecast primarily due to higher-than-expected sales of game software, primarily add-on content. Operating income is expected to be significantly higher than the August forecast due to the above-mentioned expected increase in game software sales and an increase in PlayStation Plus sales.
Regarding the impact from the spread of COVID-19, Sony is aware that there have been delays in the development of some third-party software titles due to constraints such as working from home.
However, necessary measures are being taken and preparations are underway with the aim of ensuring that many strong titles can be released from Sony’s first-party studios and its partners’ studios in connection with the launch of PlayStation 5.”
Additional documentation about the gaming business’ performance reveals that the PlayStation Plus subscriber total was at 45.9 million as of September 30. On the other hand, PlayStation Network had 107 million monthly active users.
Speaking of Sony as a whole, all income numbers are in the black with sales essentially flat year-on-year and a rather significant increase in income numbers.
If you’d like to compare, you can read our dedicated article about the previous financial results announced in August.
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