Sony reports healthy profits on strong sales of sensors and games

TOKYO (AP) - Sony's profit surged 69% in July-September from a year earlier on the back of strong sales of its image sensors, games, music and network services, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company reported Friday.

Tokyo-based Sony Corp.'s quarterly profit totaled 338.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion), up from 200 billion yen in the same period of the previous year.

Consolidated quarterly sales edged up 3% year-on-year to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion).

Sony's results were boosted by healthy demand around the world for image sensors used in mobile products.

Sales also held up in its video games division. During the latest quarter, 3.8 million PlayStation 5 game consoles were sold globally, although that's below the 4.9 million units sold the same period a year ago.

Demand remained strong for PS5 game software, according to Sony.

The top-selling music releases from Sony for the quarter included "SOS" by SZA, David Gillmore's "Luck and Strange" and Kenshi Yonezu's "Lost Corner."

One area where Sony's business suffered was its movies division, which was hurt by production delays caused by the strikes in Hollywood.

Among the recent hit films from Sony was "It Ends With Us," a romantic drama based on a novel.

Sony, which also makes digital cameras and TVs, stuck to its forecast for a 980 billion yen ($6.4 billion) profit for the fiscal year through March 2025, up 1% from the previous fiscal year.