Eighty years and still going strong. Or perhaps there are some aches and pains, and it shows. Because Sony, in the midst of new important maneuvers that will see it increasingly focused on entertainment at the expense of other sectors that had piqued its interest, celebrates its 80th anniversary by presenting investors with financial results that are “mixed.”
SOME CONTEXTUAL DATA
After all, it is a period of tribulations, not only because the Japanese giant is finalizing new industrial strategies that will lead it to concentrate investments on a single sector type. Besieged by increasingly aggressive Chinese and South Korean competitors who churn out every type of device at a rapid pace that once would have borne the “Sony” logo on the casing, it seems intent on drastically reducing its presence in consumer electronics. Furthermore, in the gaming sector, it appears determined to reduce the number of exclusives destined for PC, leaving the field open to Microsoft’s rival Xbox.
As if the picture were not already volatile enough, the high cost of RAM makes everything even more uncertain, on one hand extending the life of its currently marketed console, the PlayStation 5 – already hit by numerous price increases during its short existence – but on the other hand risking slowing down the development of the next platform, the PS6, which cannot have a definitive form at least until memory costs continue their upward trend. Determining how much memory the new machine will have will also drastically determine its cost once it reaches store shelves. An operation that cannot be carried out with the current fluctuations.
As if all this were not enough, its adventure in the automotive sector with compatriot Honda seems to have ended in the worst possible way, with Honda in deep crisis and also determined to carefully choose which expense items to focus on. Not necessarily a bad thing for Sony, however, since, net of the investments made so far for the JV, as mentioned, it wants to increasingly focus on video games.
PLAYSTATION 5 SALES
This, in short, is the starting context. Reference has been made to the continuous price increases of the PlayStation 5: for this purpose, it is useful to remember that the 2025 data shown below cover only the first of the price increases that have occurred in the last year, while the most recent one, falling in April, will be captured (provided it affects sales) with the next quarterly report.
That said, it was not a particularly positive year for the Ps5, closing with 16 million consoles sold, compared to 18.5 million in 2024. For further comparison, it may be useful to note that in the same period Nintendo sold 19.86 million Switch 2 units, but unlike Sony, the House of Super Mario was able to benefit from the boost of the debut: in short, a kind of surprise effect. Therefore, even the rival seems to have little to be confident about because the numbers are reflecting a general market slowdown.
THE BOOST FROM GTA VI AND THE RAM UNCERTAINTIES
Returning to Ps5 sales, the stumble in the fourth quarter of 2025 stands out, with just 1.5 million PlayStation 5 units sold compared to 2.8 million a year earlier. And if the release of Gta VI, scheduled barring further delays for November 2026, could lead to a considerable increase in console sales, Sony itself admits that production will continue to be burdened by the RAM crisis, although it has already stockpiled to ensure coverage for the upcoming holiday season (in other words, Christmas 2026).
SONY’S 2025 IN NUMBERS
Finally, let’s look at the numbers. Sony closed fiscal year 2025, ending last March 31, 2026, with total sales of 67.7 billion euros and an operating profit of 7.85 billion euros.
Consistent with the choices to focus solely on entertainment, the Game & Network Services division, which includes the PlayStation brand and related services, drove the financials: 25.4 billion euros in sales, with an operating profit of 2.5 billion euros, the latter up about 12% year on year.
There were missteps as well, reflected in the numbers by 650 million euros in losses due to the software house Bungie (acquired for 3.6 billion dollars in 2022), which certifies how the specter of suffering flops like Concord can also affect established brands like Destiny 2 in the case of the recent Marathon.
