Sony Q1 operating profit rises 39%, beats estimates

Sony‘s increased profit comes from its popular PlayStation 4 and also its camera sensor business, Sony’s camera sensors are used in the majority of smartphones that are available on the market today.

The videogames business, with the PlayStation 4 console at its core, was providing more reasons to cheer, logging a 350 percent jump in operating profit on the back of lower costs and strong sales of consoles and games.

In addition, Sony said its outlook for the full year 2016 remains unchanged. That was helped by insurance recoveries on losses related to a cyber attack on Sony’s network services.

TOKYO-Sony Corp. said Thursday that its net profit more than tripled during the April-June quarter, helped by strong sales in its videogame and smartphone image sensor divisions.

Sony did not change its forecast for the year, eyeing net income of 140B yen ($1.13B) versus a 126B yen loss last year.

The company has also been undergoing significant restructuring plans that have resulted in asset sales and job cuts. Comparing the last three months of Sony’s performance to the previous year, the company’s gaming division was up 12.1 percent, pulling in ¥288.6 billion ($2.33bn), while its mobile communications unit slumped by 16.3 percent, recording ¥280.5bn ($2.27bn) in revenue. It reiterated its view for group operating profit to more than quadruple in the current fiscal year to 320 billion yen.