Sony Group Corp. on Wednesday lifted its net profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March to 860 billion yen ($6 billion), up 20 billion yen from an earlier estimate, expecting record sales partly due to continued growth in its PlayStation game business.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant revised upward its sales outlook for fiscal 2023 to 12.20 trillion yen against its April forecast of 11.50 trillion yen.

For the three months through June, Sony's net profit declined by 16.7 percent from a year ago to 217.55 billion yen, as its insurance unit saw a drop in earnings. Sales grew 32.9 percent to 2.96 trillion yen on the back of revenue increases in its game, network services and music segments.

Sales of both game hardware and software increased in the first quarter of the current business year, the Tokyo-based company said, while a weak yen, which boosts overseas revenue when repatriated, has also benefited the company.

Sony has been showing confidence in its game business, selling a record 19.1 million PlayStation 5 consoles in fiscal 2022. It aims to expand sales to 25 million units this fiscal year, while rival Nintendo Co. has seen sales of its Switch consoles fall in recent years.

In the April-June period, Sony sold 3.3 million units of PlayStation 5, compared with 2.4 million units a year before.

Sony also said it saw a jump in its music streaming service due in part to the smash hit "Idol," a song by popular Japanese duo Yoasobi.

While the overall outlook is positive, Sony said it expects its movie business to fare worse than initially anticipated as a major U.S. actors' strike led to changes in the release dates of movies and delays in deliveries of TV series.

The company also downgraded the sales outlook for its semiconductor business as it expects a decrease in unit sales of image sensors for smartphones in China amid an economic slowdown there.

"We will not hold excessive inventories while optimizing investment opportunities," Sony Group President Hiroki Totoki, who assumed the post in April, said.

Sony Group posted record sales of 11.54 trillion yen in fiscal 2022, helped by robust video game sales and a weak yen.

==Kyodo

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