Spider-Man boosts profits for Sony – but chip shortages hold back its PlayStation business

Spider-Man: No Way Home has helped Sony bump up its annual profit outlook, even as chip shortages saw it cut the sales forecast for its PlayStation consoles.

The Japanese conglomerate reported operating profits of 465.2bn yen (£3bn) for the third quarter to the end of December, a 32% rise on the same period a year earlier.

That was after its film business saw earnings jump more than seven-fold to 149.4bn yen (£960m) as its revenue more than doubled.

It was propelled by the success of No Way Home, which since its release in December has become the sixth-highest grossing film ever, with box office sales of $1.7bn worldwide.

Another comic book film, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, also boosted the results, as did licensing revenues from the sitcom Seinfeld.

Sony lifted its profit forecast for the full year by 15% to 1.2trn yen (£7.7bn) on the back of the results.

The company’s gaming segment, focused on PlayStation, also posted a rise in profits as it sold 3.9 million PS5 consoles – though supplies were hampered by hardware shortages.

But it cut its full-year PS5 sales forecast, “primarily due to shortages in the supply of components, especially semiconductors”.

Meanwhile, music sales increased – with Adele’s album 30 Sony’s top seller – though profits from the division dropped.

The results come after Sony announced the acquisition of games developer Bungie for $3.6bn – the latest move in a wave of consolidation in the industry after Microsoft said it would buy Call Of Duty maker Activision Blizzard.