Sony profits soar as it benefits from home entertainment boom

Profits at Sony Corporation have climbed by more than a quarter as demand for the PlayStation 5 games console, which boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic, continues to outpace supplies. The Japanese entertainment and electronics conglomerate reported a 26% rise in operating profit in the three months to the end of June to 280.1bn yen (£1.85bn) from 221.7bn yen a year earlier. The better-than-expected first-quarter results prompted the company to raise its profit forecast for the year to March 2022 to 980bn yen from 930bn yen, anticipating that prospects for its music, movies and electronics divisions will continue to improve as the global economy emerges from the pandemic. That is still lower than the consensus prediction of equity analysts, which forecast a 1tn yen profit for the year.