Spider-Man drives 65% increase in games profits for Sony
Software sales were behind a strong fiscal Q2, Sony said, even as PS4 hardware sales continued to fall
Sony's Q2 games profits soared 65% over the prior year, boosted by the strong performance of its first-party titles - and Insomniac's Spider-Man in particular.
In the three months ended in September 30, 2018, Sony Interactive Entertainment earned ¥550.1 billion ($4.88b) in revenue, up 27% over the prior year. Operating profit for the quarter was ¥90.6 billion ($803m), up 65% year-on-year.
Sales of the PlayStation 4 were actually down, slipping from 4.2 million units in Q2 last year to 3.9 million. However, the division's real strength was in software, with unit sales rising year-on-year from 69.7 million to 75.1 million, with 28% of those full-game digital downloads.
A huge factor in that success was Spider-Man, which hit 3.3 million units sold just three days after it launched in September. Overall, software revenue increased 56% to ¥317 billion ($2.8b), with ¥258 billion ($2.3b) of that amount from digital games and add-on content.
Sony Interactive Entertainment said that its Q2 software sales exceeded expectations, and it has adjusted its full-year forecast as a result. Another factor is higher than expected revenue from PS Plus, the subscriber base for which increased from 28.1 million to 34.3 million over the last 12 months.
SIE now expects to earn ¥2.35 trillion in revenue this financial year, up from its July forecast of ¥2.18 trillion, and ¥310 billion in operating profit, up from ¥250 billion. It has also raised its PS4 unit sales forecast from 17 million to 17.5 million.