Sony said on Wednesday that it expects a record net profit this financial year, after fresh coronavirus lockdowns continued to boost demand for games and consoles, including the recently released PlayStation 5, reported AFP.

While the pandemic has hit several industries hard,  the gaming industry has been one of the few to experience an unprecedented boom, as people sought entertainment at home during successive rounds of restrictions.

According to Sony, net profit jumped 87% in April-December from the same period earlier, to 1.1 trillion yen ($10 billion).

The tech giant’s  strong results led the firm to revise its full-year sales and profits forecasts upwards on the back of “higher-than-expected sales in all segments except for the pictures (movies) segment,” it said.

The company’s full-year sales are now projected at 8.8 trillion yen, up from 8.5 trillion yen forecast in October. It had  revised its annual forecasts up last quarter.

Sony hiked net profit outlook to a record 1.1 trillion yen for the fiscal year to March, from an earlier estimate of 800 billion yen.

PlayStation 5 console hit shelves in November and kicked off a head-to-head battle for holiday sales with the new Xbox from US rival Microsoft.

PS5 sales reached 4.5 million units by end-December and Sony expects to sell 7.6 million by the end of March, hoping to beat the performance of the PlayStation 4.

However, pandemic-related supply problems have left many would-be customers empty-handed.

The demand has led to chaotic scenes at electronic stores when supplies do become available.

“PS5 got off to a steady start in general, selling well in accordance with its plan,” said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo.

“Initial shipping and marketing costs squeezed its earnings in the third quarter, but we should not be pessimistic so far,” Yasuda told AFP.

As well as sales in the gaming sector, Sony’s strong earnings were driven by strong performance for imaging sensors — key parts for cameras in phones including models made by Apple and Huawei.

Sony’s animation unit Aniplex also scored a box-office triumph with the anime epic “Demon Slayer”, which in December became Japan’s top-grossing film of all time.

“Although the film’s contribution to such a huge company was limited, it helped boost Sony’s brand image,” Yasuda said, as the firm seeks to broaden its entertainment offering.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing, with Sony opting to pull the much-hyped game Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation stores in December after a flood of complaints over bugs and compatibility issues.

Sony shares, hovering around two-decade highs, soared some 40 percent over the past 12 months and closed at 10,635 yen, up 1.62 percent, as the firm released the results just after the closing bell.