Sony has just published its official financial report on its last fiscal year, which ran from April 2018 to March 2019. The company is reporting its best-ever fiscal year with record-breaking operating profits and net profits in its seven-decade-long history.

According to the report (which was posted on ResetEra by user ArmGunar), the top five (5) biggest profit drivers for Sony were:

1. Game & Network Services : ¥311.1bn / $2.81B (34.8%)
2. Music : ¥232.5bn / $2.10B (26%)
3. Financial Services : ¥161.5bn / $1.46B (18.1%)
4. Semiconductors : ¥143.9bn / $1.30 (16.1%)
5. Home Entertainment & Sound : ¥89.7bn / $0.810B (10%)

It just goes to prove how far gaming has come that Sony’s games and network services division (which includes PlayStation) is now its most profitable, accounting for a whopping 26.7% of total sales/revenue and 34.8% of total operating profit.

Latest PS4 Sales Numbers

Other interesting pieces of information that can be gleaned from Sony’s fiscal year report include:

• 17.8 million PS4 units shipped between April 2018 and March 2019
• A lifetime total of 96.8 million PS4 units shipped (as of March 2019)
• A total of 36.4 million PS Plus subscribers (as of March 2019)

Sony’s Plans For The Next Fiscal Year

However, Sony is predicting a decreased operating profit for the next fiscal year, which will from April 2019 to March 2020. Here are several reasons why:

• Increase in development expenses for the next generation console (Sony is gearing up for the PS5)
• Decrease in contribution from highly-profitable first-party software titles (Days Gone is the only confirmed 2019 first-party AAA title so far)

PS5 Release Window

Last but not least, Sony’s fiscal year report also confirmed that the PS5 (or whatever the next-gen PlayStation console will be named) will not launch during the current fiscal year, referring to the period between April 2019 and March 2020.

That means the earliest possible release date for the PS5 would have to be from April 2020 onwards. A more realistic prediction would be near the end of the year, during 2020’s holiday season. In the meantime, check out our report for more details on the PS5 itself here, or the rumoured PS5 launch titles and price here.