Sony’s latest financial report shows that the company’s quarterly net profit increased by 32.1% compared with the same period last year. The results have also allowed the Japanese corporation to raise its full-year financial outlook for the PlayStation business.

This July has felt as though it lasted three months, but the end is finally only a few hours away. The seventh month of the year has been filled with bad news, even worse developments, and decisions that have raised fresh questions about the direction of the entire video game industry. Sony nevertheless has reason to celebrate after publishing its first-quarter financial results, which include a 32.1% increase in net profit. The company’s recent decision to move away from physical media could not have affected this report yet, meaning any financial consequences will not become visible until a later earnings release.

Sony recorded a net profit of 342.161 billion yen, approximately €1.85 billion, between April and June. That figure represents an increase of 32.1% compared with the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year. Operating income climbed by 40.2% to 476.499 billion yen, around €2.576 billion, while revenue rose by 8.2% to 2.84 trillion yen, or approximately €15.36 billion.

Following these positive results, Sony also raised its forecast for the 2026 fiscal year ending in March 2027. The company now expects annual net profit of 1.21 trillion yen, approximately €6.54 billion, compared with the 1.16 trillion yen forecast issued in May. Sony attributes the improvement partly to the performance of its video game operations, favorable foreign exchange movements, and refunds relating to certain United States tariffs.

Revenue from the Game & Network Services division responsible for PlayStation remained essentially flat during the quarter, increasing by only around 0.06% year over year. Digital downloads represented 82% of full-game software unit sales across PS4 and PS5, while physical copies accounted for 18%, and this ratio does not include DLC or other add-on content. Favorable currency movements largely compensated for lower hardware sales and weaker revenue from third-party software. Releases such as Saros also provided only a limited commercial boost during the quarter.

Console sales, by contrast, moved clearly in the opposite direction. PlayStation reached 125 million monthly active users in June, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 2% and a new record for that particular month. Sony shipped only 1.6 million PS5 consoles during the quarter, however, a 36% decline from the 2.5 million units shipped in the same period of 2025. This brought cumulative PS5 shipments to 95.3 million units, while quarterly Game & Network Services revenue totaled 937.1 billion yen, equivalent to approximately €5.1 billion.

Sony Says It Has Enough RAM to Manufacture Every Planned PS5

One of the most noteworthy parts of the financial report is Sony’s direct discussion of current conditions in the memory market. Rising RAM prices, driven partly by rapidly increasing demand for chips used in artificial intelligence systems, are pushing up the manufacturing costs of technology hardware. The situation has already prompted speculation that it could affect either the development or the launch schedule of the PS6. Sony nevertheless says it has secured enough memory to support its entire projected PS5 sales volume for the 2026 fiscal year.

The company says it already possesses the quantity of memory required to manufacture every PS5 planned through March 2027. According to Sony, current market conditions also leave its hardware profitability plans unchanged, with margins expected to remain similar to those achieved during the previous fiscal year. The company did not explicitly confirm, however, that this rules out another PS5 price increase during the coming months. CFO Lin Tao offered similar reassurance in February 2026, only for Sony to introduce a third console price increase several months later, so the company’s actual decisions remain worth watching.

Securing sufficient memory serves another crucial purpose beyond avoiding a further price increase: the arrival of Grand Theft Auto VI. PlayStation and Rockstar Games have maintained a close commercial relationship for years, and Sony expects the studio’s highly anticipated open-world game to encourage the sale of millions of additional consoles. Microsoft previously disputed the suggestion that available data had already handed the competitive advantage to PlayStation, but Sony clearly sees the game as an enormous hardware sales opportunity. Guaranteeing adequate PS5 production for the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2027 will therefore be one of the company’s highest priorities.

Source: 3DJuegos