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Sumary by chatGPT
Sony has issued a lackluster forecast for its fiscal year ending March 2026, projecting flat operating profit of ¥1.28 trillion ($8.7 billion). The company warned that newly announced U.S. tariffs could reduce profit by around ¥100 billion. Net income is expected to decline by 13% to ¥930 billion.
The PlayStation 5 is expected to see reduced sales, with forecasted shipments of 15 million units—down from 18.5 million last year. Sony plans to mitigate tariff impacts by diversifying manufacturing locations and possibly adjusting PS5 prices.
David Cole of DFC Intelligence commented that the delay of Grand Theft Auto VI, a highly anticipated title, is a major setback for the PS5, as the console approaches the later stages of its lifecycle without a significant system-selling game.
While Sony's music and movie divisions remain strong, fears of potential U.S. tariffs on foreign films add further uncertainty. Despite the muted outlook, Sony shares rose 3.7% following the announcement of a ¥250 billion share buyback.

Sony’s Outlook Underwhelms With US Tariffs Weighing
Sony Group Corp. offered an underwhelming forecast for the year ahead, with the burden of US tariffs wiping out expectations for an increase in operating profit.

Sony Group Corp. offered an underwhelming forecast for the year ahead, with the burden of US tariffs wiping out expectations for an increase in operating profit.
The entertainment-focused group said on Wednesday that it sees a ¥100 billion ($700 million) impact from US levies in the year to March and expects an operating profit of ¥1.28 trillion. Even without the tariffs, Sony's projection fell shy of the average analyst estimate of ¥1.5 trillion and is essentially flat compared to the year concluded in March 2025.
"Our internal outlook — or rather, the image we have in mind — is around 15 million units shipped," Chief Financial Officer Lin Tao said in a call after the earnings release. "There are currently many uncertainties, such as tariffs and other external factors. So instead of just chasing numbers, we want to flexibly adjust our shipments while keeping an eye on profitability and the overall market."
Sony's new Chief Executive Officer Hiroki Totoki's first task is to navigate the entertainment group though this new era of a tariffs-wielding US. North America comprises the bulk of PlayStation 5 sales, which is mostly produced in China. Tao said Sony will diversify the production locations of the PS5 and may consider raising prices as an option to deal with the impact from tariffs. The company raised its flagship console's price in Europe, Australia and New Zealand last month.
Higher prices would slow momentum of the five-year-old hardware, especially as it vies with rival Nintendo Co.'s Switch 2, which launches in June. The postponement of Rockstar Games Inc.'s much-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI is also weighing on PlayStation sales in the current fiscal year.
"The delay in GTA VI is a real blow to the PS5," said David Cole, chief executive officer of US-based digital entertainment research firm DFC Intelligence. "This was supposed to be the product that got many consumers to get off the PS4 and on to a PS5."
Sony's other operations are also under siege. The outlook for image sensors, used in smartphones by everyone from Apple Inc. to Xiaomi Corp., is murky, with tariffs hitting handsets in the US. And President Donald Trump has suggested tariffs may also be placed on movies made outside the US, just as Sony is promoting Japanese animated films such as the Demon Slayer series overseas.
Profit at the company's image sensing operations was flat in the March quarter on a less than 3% rise in sales. Totoki said he expects the mobile image sensor business to grow for years.
Sony is considering a spin off of the semiconductor unit in a bid to streamline its structure as it focuses more on its entertainment operations, Bloomberg reported earlier.