Sony Group Corp

It's now time to begin the Sony Group Corporation Consolidated Earnings Announcement Meeting. I'll be serving as the MC. I am Ishii from Corporate Communications. Today, the financial results for the fiscal 25 first quarter and the full year forecast will be presented by Lin Tao, Corporate Executive Officer and CFO. Then, an overview of the financial services segment, which is scheduled for partial spin-off and listing at the end of September, will be given by Toshihide Endo, President and CEO of Sony Financial Group, Inc. that will be followed by a Q&A session. The entire session is scheduled to last about 70 minutes. Please note that Ms. Tao wishes to deliver her remarks directly in English to the global audience, so a pre-recorded video will be streamed on the English channel.

Hello, everyone. Today, I will explain the content shown here. After that, Mr. Endel will explain the financial results of Sony Financial Group. Sales of continuing operations for the quarter increased 2% compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year to 2,621.6 billion yen, and operating income increased 36% to 340 billion yen. both of which were record highs for the first quarter. Net income increased 23% to 259 billion yen. The financial results by segment are shown here. Next, I will explain to our full year results forecast. Our sales forecast is unchanged from our previous forecast of 11 trillion 700 billion yen, and we have upwardly revised our operating income forecast from our previous forecast by 4% to 1 trillion 330 billion yen, and our net income forecast by 4% to 970 billion yen. We raised our forecast for operating cash flow by 2% to 1 trillion 270 billion yen. The forecasts for each segment are shown here. Now I will provide an update on the impact of additional U.S. tariffs. Although there have been significant developments in the past few weeks regarding the situation surrounding the additional tariffs, there are still some fluid aspects, such as product-specific tariffs. We plan to carefully assess the impact and our response throughout this fiscal year based on multiple scenarios. Furthermore, we need to carefully consider the impact on each business of the product and pricing strategies we aim to undertake in response to the additional tariffs. Taking this into consideration, We have decided to present the impact of the additional tariffs as an estimate for all of our continuing operations, as was the case in the previous forecast. We expect the impact on operating income for FY25 to be approximately ¥70 billion, which is a decrease of 30 billion yen from the previous forecast based on the tariff rates announced as of August 1st. We had nearly completed the diversification of the production locations of our main products by the end of the quarter, and we expect to complete the measures we are planning by the end of the first half of the fiscal year. We intend to continue to monitor the situation and take actions to minimize the impact. Now I will turn to an overview of each business. First is the GNNS segment. FY25 Q1 sales increased 8% year-on-year to 936.5 billion yen, primarily due to an increase in third-party software sales, partially offset by the negative impact of foreign exchange rates. User engagement continued to increase year-on-year with the number of monthly active users across all of the PlayStation in June increasing 6% compared to the same months of the previous year to 123 million accounts. And total playtime for the quarter also increased 6% year-on-year. Operating income increased approximately 2.3 times year-on-year to 148 billion yen. a new quarterly record high for the segment, primarily due to the impact of the increased sales of third-party software and increase in network service revenue. As a consequence of the recent strong user engagement trend, we have upwardly revised our FY25 forecast for sales slightly from last time to 4 trillion 320 billion yen, and our FY25 forecast for operating income by 4% to 500 billion yen. The improvement in operating income for FY25 compared to the previous fiscal year is expected to be driven primarily by an increase in our strong network service revenue, cost reduction, and an increase in first-party software revenue. In our studio business, our live service game revenue is steadily growing thanks to the MLB The Show series, Destiny 2, and Helldivers 2, and it contributed more than 40% of our first-party software revenue during the quarter. In the single-player AAA title space, we plan to release Ghost of Yotei in October, following the release in June of Death Stranding 2 on the Beach, which received a Metacritic score of 90. We look forward to many game fans enjoying these titles. We decided to postpone the release of Marathon to further improve the quality of the gameplay. Based on community feedback, we think we can further enhance the overall gaming experience by deepening gameplay and elevating narrative immersion. So we're working hard to do that. MAU in June, four years and seven months after the launch of PS5, increased 32% from the 93 million MAU accounts in June 2018, the same period after the launch of PS4, and they continue to consistently grow. Content and service revenue is expected to grow approximately 50% on U.S. dollar basis in the current fiscal year forecast compared to the level recorded in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019. exceeding the MAU growth. This indicates that in addition to the increase in the number of users, an increase in spending per user is contributing to revenue growth. We expect content and service revenue to continue to grow steadily from next fiscal year onwards as well, thanks to the user community we have cultivated to date. Next is the music segment. FY25 Q1 sales increased 5% year-on-year to 465.3 billion yen, primarily due to higher revenue from streaming service and increase in revenue from a mobile game, partially offset by the impact of foreign exchange rates. Operating income increased 8% to 92.8 billion yen. On the U.S. dollar basis, streaming revenue for the quarter increased 7% year-on-year in recorded music and 8% in music publishing. We have upwardly revised our previous FY25 forecast for sales and operating incomes slightly to ¥1,870,000,000 and ¥360,000,000 respectively. In recorded music, albums from Sony Music Entertainment-owned and distributed labels claimed 42% of weekly top 10 global albums on Spotify during the quarter, with Bad Bunny's new release taking the number one spot for six consecutive weeks. The contribution of catalog products to our revenue continues to increase, and we remain committed to acquiring catalogs in both the recorded music and music publishing business, since we believe that the opportunity to increase the monetization of these assets by acquiring more of them will continue. In visual media and platform, Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba, the movie Infinity Castle, which was released on July 18 in Japan, has been a massive hit, attracting 12.55 million people to theaters and generating 17.6 billion yen in box office revenue as of August 3rd. We plan to release the film in the US, Europe, and certain countries and territories in Asia, Central and South America, distributing it along with Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures, and we look forward to it being a major global success. Next is the pictures segment. FY25 Q1 sales decreased 3% year-on-year to 327.1 billion yen and operating income increased 65% to 18.7 billion yen. On the U.S. dollar basis, sales increased 4% year-on-year and operating income increased 76%, primarily due to higher series deliveries in television productions. There is no change to our forecast from the previous forecast. In television productions, the second season of The Last of Us, which was renewed for a third season, received several Emmy nominations. In feature films, 28 Years Later has become a box office hit after crossing $150 million globally. and K-pop Demon Hunters produced by Sony Picture Animation has achieved massive success, becoming the most watched Netflix original animated film of all time. Crunchyroll is steadily growing its paying subscribers and is expanding the global anime community through such activities as hosting the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in Tokyo in May. Now, I will explain our strategic partnership with Bandai Namco, which we announced on July 24th. Through this partnership, we plan to accelerate our collaboration with Bandai Namco even more than before, working to do such things as co-create new IP, collaborate on video production, distribution and merchandising in the anime and manga fields, as well as strengthen marketing through the sharing of data. Additionally, in the field of experiential entertainment, we aim to create new condo experience by bringing together the strengths of both companies such as Bandai Namco's knowledge and venue and Sony's technology. Next is the ETNS segment. FY25 Q1 sales decreased 11% year-on-year to 534.3 billion yen, primarily due to a decrease in unit sales of TVs and the impact of foreign exchange rate. Operating income decreased 33% to 43.1 billion yen, primarily due to the impact of decrease in sales and the impact of foreign exchange rates. There is no change to our forecast from the previous forecast. Except for televisions, where competitors engaged in more aggressive pricing than we had anticipated, Market conditions during the quarter progressed generally in line with our expectation across the other major product categories. The imaging business performed well, essentially in line with our original projection. supported by the continued tailwind of the subsidy program in China. Last June, at the largest Hollywood film production equipment exhibition, Cinegear Expo 2025, we exhibited a system that links Zeng's spatial reproduction display with the Venice Extension System Mini as a form of new content creation. It attracted strong interest from the film production creators in attendance. In this segment, we aim to accelerate the expansion of our creation-centered business through these products and solution services. Next is the I&S segment. Despite the impact of foreign exchange rate, sales for the quarter increased 15% year-on-year to ¥408.2 billion primarily due to increased shipment of sensors for mobile phones and digital cameras. Operating income increased 48% to 54.3 billion yen as the impact of the increase in sales significantly exceeded the negative impact of foreign exchange rate. There is no change to our forecast from the previous forecast. The market for smartphone continued to recover gradually on a global basis. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange rate, mobile sensor sales for the quarter grew steadily. due to an increase in sensor shipment volume and an increase in unit price on a U.S. dollar basis. Although recent shipment volume is increasing year on year, taking into account the possibility that customers are bringing forward orders due to the additional tariffs, we expect the annual shipment volume to be on par with the previous fiscal year. From FY25Q2 onwards, we expect sales to steadily increase due to rising unit price resulting from further progress towards larger-sized sensors and higher added value, despite an expected deterioration in foreign exchange rate compared to the previous fiscal year. In the consumer camera space, in addition to robust demand for single-lens camera, the growing demand for video is driving demand for sensor used in new video camera, such as handheld cameras. We aim to benefit from this market expansion and create new revenue opportunities. To summarize, we believe that during the quarter, we made steady progress toward achieving the numerical targets we established in our fifth mid-range plan as profits continue to increase, primarily in the GNNS, Music, and INSS segments. On the other hand, we expect that uncertainty in the business environment such as additional tariffs in the U.S., will have a greater impact from FY25Q2 onwards, and we will focus on conducting business operations that anticipate change while preparing for risks. This concludes my remarks.

now mr endo will provide an overview of the financial services segment performance so endo please now i are explaining the financial results of the sony financial group on an eye first basis adjusted net income for the quarter increased 0.3 billion yen compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year to 23 billion yen, primarily due to the improvement in the loss ratio at the Sony Assurance. Adjusted net income over Sony Life decreased 1.0 billion yen year-on-year to 15.6 billion yen, primarily due to the impact of rising interest rates, partially offset by an improvement in funding costs as a result of the decrease in a repo transaction. Insurance accounting under IFRS requires an amount prepared for the future uncertainty be recorded as a risk adjustment liability. As interest rates rose during the quarter, the risk of a mass cancellation increased from an accounting valuation perspective, which reduced adjusted net income through the recognition of a loss and an increase in a contractual service margin amortization. The new business acquisition at Sony Life continued to trend at the high level of the previous fiscal year with the annualized premiums from the policies enforced during the quarter increasing ¥16.1 billion to ¥1,313.6 billion demonstrating strong growth especially in the corporate insurance sales channels. The recruitment of life planners and an agency supporter is progressing well and our sales channels are continuing to expand. Next, I will explain the progress of our measures to strengthen our financial foundations. As I explained at the investor day in May, the interest rate sensitivity of our assets exceeds that of our liability, resulting in an over-hedge position at Sony Life. To address this, we are selling bonds and undertaking reinsurance over the course of two years, including this fiscal year. In the quarter, we accelerated sales of bonds that we had planned to sell over the course of the full fiscal year. As a result, the ESR level at the end of the quarter improved three percentage points, mitigating a significant negative impact of rising interest rates. Our consolidated ESR was 184%, and then Sony Life's standalone ESR was 163%. Loss on sales of securities is deducted as an adjustment item from the adjusted income. Going forward, we aim to further strengthen our financial foundation by accumulating economic value-based capital through the acquisition of a high-level new insurance contract and efforts to reduce risks.

There is no change to a full year forecast of 60 billion yen in income before income taxes. Our forecast for adjusted net income has been reduced by 9% to 98 billion yen. We downwardly revised the forecast because we have revised our long-term interest rate assumption this time from the previous 2.7% to 3.3%, the average interest rate level in July, and because we have incorporated additional risk adjustments. However, going forward, we will continue to make every effort to bring adjusted net income as close as possible to our initial plan by accelerating the acquisition of new policies and reviewing expenses. Lastly, preparations for the listing on September 29th are progressing smoothly and we plan to submit the final application for the listing to the Tokyo Stock Exchange tomorrow, August 8th. Additionally, at the board meeting of Sony Financial Group Incorporated, which will be held on the same day, we plan to officially approve the establishment of a share repurchase facility with a limit of 100 billion yen, effective from September 29th of this year through August 8th of the following year. There is no change to the 25 billion yen we plan to pay at the fiscal year end dividend. Heretofore, we have announced our financial results at the Sony Group's earnings announcements, including when we were a listed company in the past. From the second quarter onward, we will hold our financial results briefings as an independently listed company. We are fully committed to becoming a financial services group that is truly valued by a wide range of stakeholders, including shareholders and investors. We sincerely appreciate your continued support after the listing. The presentations were given by Ms. Tao and Mr. Endo. We will begin the Q&A session for media representatives at 425 p.m., followed by the Q&A session for investors and analysts at 450 p.m. Each Q&A session is scheduled to last approximately 20 minutes. For those who have registered in advance to ask questions, please click the Join Webinar link and remain on standby in the session. Please kindly make sure to review the guidance document sent in advance for details on how to ask questions and important notes. We will be reviewing shortly. you

We will soon start the Q&A session for the members of the media. Please wait a little while longer. Thank you for waiting. We will now start the Q&A session. First, the officers on stage. Corporate Executive Officer and CFO, Lin Tao. Senior Vice President in Charge of Finance and IR, Sadahiko Hayakawa. Senior Vice President in Charge of Corporate Planning and Control, Disk Manufacturing Business and Storage Media Business, Naoya Horii. President and CEO, Sony Financial Group Inc., Toshihide Endo. We will now take the questions from the members of the media. Please limit your questions to two per person. If you would like to ask a question, please click the raise hand button in the WebEx screen. So the first question will come from Toda-san of Yomiuri Newspaper. Can you hear? Yes. About tariffs, two questions. So initially, tariff outlook was $100 billion. Now that's been reduced by $30 billion to $70 billion. Can you explain in a little more detail why the decline? That's one. The other thing, the Trump administration in the U.S. talking about 100% tariff rate for semiconductors. I don't know how it would be applied for Japan, but what would be the risk if that becomes 100%? Thank you for the question. Let me respond. The 100 billion tariff impact that we explained previously and the difference this time. For Q1... For semiconductors, there's no impact. And for G and NS, games and Sony Electronics, total of 100 billion plus impact. That's according to assumptions. So there was some postponement and there was a strategic delay. inventory, and this was smaller than in Q2 onwards. And based on the assumptions and measures, Q2 onwards, the decline is lower compared to expectation in May. So GNF, ETNF, INSS, 20 to 30 billion each, so that's a total of 70 billion impact from tariffs. that's now factored into our forecast so you ask about the trump administration's semiconductor tariffs today we announced our forecast that's based on the tariff rate that was officially announced first of august so there's a lot of information coming out about tariffs and the situation is shifting daily But we rely on the officially announced numbers, and based on that, we will evaluate the direct and indirect impact that we will continue to do going forward. Thank you. One additional thing. In our business, semiconductor components itself, direct export to the U.S. is very limited. So I would just like to make that point.

Let's move on to the next questions. From Nikkei, Yoshida-san, please go ahead and ask your questions. Yoshida-san, are you there? Can you hear me? This is Nikkei Yoshida speaking. Sorry about that. I do have two questions. The first one is about animation and so current evaluation of the titles. in pictures, and Demon Slayer got off to a really great start, and then also National Treasure has been hugely successful. And how are you evaluating the box office performance of these two titles compared to your initial estimate? And with regards to Daymond Slayer, and it is expected that the box office revenue will continue to increase, and do you think that this will be good enough so that it will cause you to really revise upward your forecast, including merchandising? And then also, your investment in Bandai Holdings, and so you have been... aggressively investing in IP content creation. And so how are you evaluating the result of the investment so far? And is there any specific investment that calls you to up or revise your forecast? So the first question, I will take that. And then second question will be answered by Hayakawa-san. Excuse me. With regards to anime titles, and as you said, the Demon Slayer and the National Treasure have been quite successful. And we are getting a really positive feedback. And these titles, whether they are in line with our expectation, but Demon Slayer, because there are previous release, which was loved by many users, that was really successful IP so we had a really high expectation for this IP so that what has been factored in our forecast but as for the national treasure and under the umbrella of any flex and a million studio was producing this title and this was the first title and which has met with a really positive response and And this is significantly outperform our expectation. But in terms of the overall impact on our revenue and our profit, the impact is not that sizable. And so that has been already included in the forecast or our outlook. So with that, thank you very much for the question. So the investment in abandoned and of course we have been shifting to the creation. So for example, the entertainment three businesses basically account for 60% of a consolidated revenue. So basically our business portfolio is shifting more to the creation. And then as for the electronics business, in TV compared to output devices, And we are now shifting our creation devices that include digital camera. So as a result, we are seeing more stability in profitability and revenue, and also the productivity of our performance is increasing. And again, such backdrop, and for example, in a music business, the music streaming and EMI music publishing has been acquired, and then we increased the music catalog. And as I mentioned in the speech, in gaming business and moving away from a hardware-centric business to more to the community-based engagement business, and that has been increasing. So now as we make more transition to entertainment creation, the stability and the productivity of performance is increasing. so this upward revision might not have been direct result of these however the music publishing and also acquisition of a music catalog and then also the acquisition of a country role and these are the areas that where we are seeing growth and as a portfolio we have been expanding our businesses and also improving our profitability moving on to the next question

Nishida-san, freelance reporter, please. Do you hear me? Yes, we do. This is Nishida. I have two questions about the semiconductor business and electronics business. First, about the semiconductor business, today it was reported in the news that Apple investing in the U.S. as partner So it is possible that they will have production facility in the U.S. So this type of risk might not appear this year, but towards the end of this year to next year, how would you mitigate this risk, like risk hedge? Number two, within the electronics, I have a question on smartphones. In the first half, Xperia mark 7 there has been a risk of recall and what would be the impact on the sales and impact on the smartphone business itself can thank you for the question I have received two questions And I would like to respond to the smartphone questions on ET and S. And I and SF question, Hori-san will respond later on about the Xperia, about the defect of Xperia smartphone. So we are very sorry that we caused inconvenience to the users. I would like to apologize. About identifying the defect and the countermeasures have already been completed. The malfunction itself was coming from the production process. The impacted loss and so we have exchanged the parts which have been impacted and about the quality. So this is a big management agenda for Sony. So we will work so that this will not happen going forward. The smartphone business itself is an extremely important business for us. The telecom technology is a technology that we have been nurturing for a long time. And also this is used to other areas other than smartphones. So we will continue to grow this business. The first question about the semiconductors. Hoi-san, please. Thank you for the question. So I cannot respond to questions pertaining to particular customer. However, about the risks and countermeasures on overall risk, I would like to respond. As you have indicated, in the US, we do not have any semiconductor production facilities in the US. In the short term, it is not really feasible to produce in the US in the short term. However, where the source is and offering very high-quality devices to the customers and how to make the final product delivered to the customers as attractive as possible. This is what we have been working on from before, and we will make sure that we will provide devices that even exceed that of competitors. And this type of risk always exists. And as a device manufacturer, the competitiveness and quality of the product, with this, we would like to get involved in this market. Thank you.

We'd like to move on to the next question. from NHK, please. Can you hear? Taruno from NHK, can you hear? Yes. Thank you. About the U.S. tariffs, I want to ask about the impact. In the last announcement, the President said that there is no major change occurring in the short term, but there's a timeline about the economic changes. sentiment, and so you look carefully. So about your views about the economy, what's the current situation with the U.S. consumers? And also for this fiscal year, you talked about earnings, and you said that there are uncertainties, and you'll be watching carefully. But in terms of the performance forecast, if you can also talk about that, please. Thank you. I'd like to respond to that question. About the U.S. economy, it's slightly decelerating, slowing down a bit, but a rapid deterioration we expect can be avoided. However, we need to carefully monitor the situation, is what we think. Q2 saw April to June U.S. GDP decline. was 3% growth, higher than expectations. Personal consumption starting to show recovery, but compared to last year, the strength is less. And concerning our business, as a portfolio, we have hardware, and we have to carefully watch the situation for hardware. On the other hand, for entertainment business as a whole, They can withstand the impact of the economy. Their business is less impacted by the economic situation. That's the nature of that business. So those impacts have been already factored into our forecast that we announced today. Thank you.

We are running out of time, so the next question will be the last one. Ivato-san from Nikkei Business, go ahead and ask your questions. Can you hear me? Can you hear us? This is Iwata from Nikkei Business. And I do have one question. And during the presentation, you talked about the partnership with Bandai Nabco. And then also last year, you forged a name partnership with Kadokawa. And what would be the timeline of seeing the result in terms of the performance? And I know that Kadokawa and Mbanda Namco, you already have the partnership before your decision to investment. So what are the changes that we can expect after the investment? Thank you for the questions. You are right, Bandai Namco and Sony Group are already collaborating through partnership on the ground, and especially game, music, and anime areas. And before our investment, we treat them as a really important partner for collaboration. So with this recently announced investment, And we can go deeper and wider in terms of collaboration. We are seeing a possibility of that. More specifically, the game and anime IP using us as access so that we can really expand the community. And then also the Bandai Namco is really great at creating venues, and we believe that Sony's technology can really shine in the venues by Bandai Namco so that we can really collaborate together to deliver a condo experience. And we believe that that's something that we can do. And in terms of timeline, and this is kind of difficult to say but i think we and then there are longer term collaboration or there are immediate uh collaboration including ip community building and there are some turn low hanging fruits that can be achieved within one year So in looking at the overall collaboration at the group level, we want to produce the appropriate output and then to see if we are producing returns and we will regularly consider and then assess the situation going forward. That's all. So that concludes the Q&A session for the members of the media. So the Q&A session for investors and analysts will start at 4.50 p.m.

We will start the Q&A session for investors and analysts shortly. Please wait a few more moments until we resume. Hey, thank you for waiting. We will now begin the Q&A session with investors and analysts. I am Kondo from IR Group and I will be moderating this session. As with the media session, the four individuals here will be responding to the questions. Now, let's begin the Q&A. Each person may ask up to two questions. If you have a question, please click the raise hand button on the WebEx screen. Mizuho Securities, Nakane-san, please. So this is Nakane from Mizuho. Do you hear me? Yes, we do. Thank you. I have two questions. The first question is about finance, and the second question is on games. So you are trying to improve the asset overhead in finance. So the progress from the first quarter and the business environment is changing. So please tell me if there has been any changes from the first quarter. The second question is on gaming, about Marathon. In the profit, you have factored in some negative in the profit. So how have you incorporated that, the sales and profit, as well as the timing of launching Marathon? So please give us hints. And about Bungie, so it seems like an autonomous region. So we would like to hear about the governance of Bungie. And also you can say if this is not probable, but the worst case scenario, if you are not going to launch it, if there are any risks such as impairment. So I have such two questions here. Okay, thank you for the questions. Endo-san will respond to the first question, and the second question I will respond. Okay, I will respond to the first question. About asset sales. improvement of finances in the investor day in FY25 and FY26. We have explained and announced the measures for FY25 and FY26, and the partial sale of assets, what was scheduled for this fiscal year has been advanced. So these were sold in advance. thanks to this this is done to improve the esr and selling bonds and through these activities sony lives esr improvement it has improved by three percentage points this fiscal year the interest has risen significantly so there has been lots of downside pressure on esr but overcoming that we have been able to prevent esr from slumping group consolidated was eight one eight nine percent but uh that was end of fi24 But now, this quarter, we have kept the ESR to 184%, so that is within the ESR target range. So this is thanks to advancing our initiatives to improve our finances. So these advanced initiatives were carried out. And about selling U.S. bonds, as I said in the investor day, the losses, the liabilities, so we are trying to sell the bonds as reinsurance. So these are still remaining, and we will be working on that going forward. And beyond that, in FY25, 26, and beyond, We don't have any plans as of now. Second question, I would like to respond to the question on Marathon. First, about Marathon, how we factored in the forecast. We expect the launch to happen within this fiscal year. But having said that, this is not a commitment. We cannot, no official announcement has been given yet So we are expecting this to be launched within this fiscal year. However, the sales is very small compared to the overall sales and the timing of launch. So we are now doing modification development. And based on the progress in the autumn time frame, believe we can communicate when we will be launching that we can launch that either from bungee or a playstation and about governance of bungee as you have said when we the governance at the time of acquisition we were offering a very independent environment so that was one way of thinking however thereafter we have gone through structural reform as we have announced last year So from this type of independence, this independence is getting lighter. So the bungee is shifting into a role which is becoming more part of PlayStation Studio. And integration is also proceeding. So in the long term, if you can see this as an ongoing process, so the direction is to become part of PlayStation Studio. And about the launch of Marathon, we are now fixing the problems. So we believe this launch will happen. And if this launch is canceled, we need to do the revision of the valuation. However, as of now, this is not expected. Thank you.

From Goldman Sachs. Munakata-san, please. Munakata from Goldman Sachs. Can you hear? Yes, we hear you. Thank you. I also have two questions about the games. First, improvement of margins. Why or why? Seems that the margin has improved quite substantially. but what will be the mix between hardware and software and what is the gross margin of hardware and what is inside software. I think that there's also contribution from network services. Can you talk about this in more detail? Also second quarter onwards, The tariff impact will be larger than Q1 is what's expected. So this high margin, is that something that you'll be able to sustain? That's the first question. Second question. So about the marathon, I also want to ask. So it's a title that's attracting a lot of attention, strengthening live service games. So how do you look at the current status of your strategy to strengthen that? So you look at the quality before launch and you're making a decision and you're postponing. So I think you're making a flexible decision. I think that's a good thing. But on the other hand, it's a negative thing that the title doesn't appear. So how do you look at the current situation? And in terms of strengthening live service games, where do you see the issues, please? Thank you for the questions. So I'd like to respond to those questions. First, about the game margins. For Q1... mainly what drove the margins was third-party software and network service and also decline in acquisition cost and decline in SG&A cost. So the margin as a whole going forward The factors that will drive the margins, there are two major parts. One is network service and the other is first-party studio contents. Structurally, those should lead to improvement of margin. For network service, the number of subscribers increasing and ARPU rising. And shift to higher tier. And the optimization of content acquisition costs. These are things we are working on diligently. So structurally, they should contribute to the margin. The other thing is about the first-party contents, and as you point out, not everything is going well, but this fiscal year, well, compared to fiscal 24, first parties seeing higher revenue and profit, and that will contribute to higher margins. Our first-party portfolio, if that should stabilize, then we think that the margin increase will be sustainable. Second question about marathon and also live service game, the overall status. Last year, Concours and this year, marathon was postponed. So somewhat negative news has been coming out. But if you look at the past five years, Five years ago, live service games was almost non-existent for the PlayStation Studios. We have held Diver 2, MLD, and GT7, and Bungie's Destiny 2. So we have these four live services contributing to sales and profit in a stable manner. For Q1, live service ratio was about 40%. For the full year, it's a little less, probably between 20% to 30%. In terms of the transformation, it's not entirely going smoothly, but from a longer-term perspective, if you look at the changes over five years, you see that there has definitely been a change. Of course, we recognize that there are still issues, many issues, so we should learn the lessons from mistakes and make sure that we introduce live service content where there's less waste and it's more smooth. So that's all for myself.

SMBC, Nikko Security, Katsura-san, you're up next. Thank you very much for the opportunity. This is Katsura from S&P C&E Securities. I do have two questions, and tariff related, and also your revision to the forecast for this fiscal year. With regards to the first question about the tariff, this is just confirmation in one queue, I mean the quarter one, basically $1.10 billion. And so this has been already factored in by each segment. And So basically, in all segments, I think the negative impact has been reduced. And I just want to confirm that. And then also the second question is about the four-year forecast. And the gaming is improving 20 million, and then also tariff impact has been reduced by 30 billion. And I think those are the main changes that you have made. But for game area, and there is an upward performance in Q1, but compared to that, I think the division is smaller than the outperformance. But maybe that is not limited to Q1 or the four-year. And also for music area, FGO and then also Damien Sayre, and there are positive outcomes. profit drivers, but it seems that you seem to be more conservative and cautious in terms of the four-year forecast. So can you talk to me about your thinking about the revision from the macro perspective? Thank you. So the first question, Hori-san will take that on, and then the second question will be answered by me. Thank you very much for your question. So with regards to the tariff, and your understanding is correct, and in Q1, and basically the impact was already included in the actual performance and the P&L of each business for the full year, and $70 billion is basically is few at the company level. And as we continue to see a progress in the actual performance, I think it would be more difficult for the head office to really observe that impact. But for the Q1 announcement, and yes, you are right about that in terms of thinking, and that's all I wanted to say. The second question for the four-year forecast and then thinking behind that, and full gain in Q1, and we see a really high performance in profit, and for the full year, and basically we made a revision by 20 billion. Thinking about the positive drivers, network service, and then also the positive impact of the Forex, and also as was mentioned the first party gain then because of the delay of the launch of a marathon which had a negative impact on the profit and then that is also partially offset so that's why we made an airport revision by 20 billion in profit and then for music and there are a number of hits unfortunately, but again, the impact on the overall business has been rather limited, and the blockbuster like Day One Slayer, we basically expected that will be a huge shift from the beginning of the year, so that's why that is not a factor for the revision this time. And also, in Sony Group overall, from Q2 onward, the U.S. tariff impact will be felt more pronouncedly, and then also there will be more uncertainty. So in Q1, we had a really good performance, but from Q2 onward, we are more conservative, and we need to take a more cautious approach.

So we have a little time remaining. So we would like to accept one question each from two people. Okazaki-san from Nomura Securities, please go ahead. So this is Okagaki from Nomura. I have a question on game. to the revision of production basis to respond to U.S. tariffs. You said you have completed this within this quarter. So where are the games sold in U.S. produced now? And also the cost, I think, will influence the sales. So I would like to hear about the pricing strategy of game consoles. okay i would like to respond so about gaming consoles so we are so we are diversifying our supply chain as for consoles we have already uh transformed the production and if we include peripherals So the transfer to outside China, we will be completing that by the end of the first half. Hardware sold in the U.S. are now sourced outside China. About the pricing strategy of hardware. So that really pertains to our future competitive strategy, so it's very difficult to comment on this. But the overall thinking is our annual profit and lifetime value and also the sell-in volume and the expected content sales going forward. So all these factors will be considered as well as the receptiveness of the consumers to prices. So we would like to flexibly decide on the prices.

Final question from J.P. Morgan Securities. Please. Ayada-san, do you hear? Ayada from JP Morgan. Can you hear? Yes. Thank you. You say one question, so maybe it's a difficult question for you to respond to. And it overlaps with the previous question, but I want to come back to this. For INSS, for North America, there's this biggest customer, and as a part of its effort to increase procurement from the U.S., they've officially made a comment that they're going to procure chips from a Korean supplier. In that context, as a general matter, in enhancing product competitiveness you're going to try to maintain your positioning but that context Itself may not be valid just by your competitiveness So you may not be able to absorb those changes as what I want to ask about is inclusive of those things this kind of situation Has it been? Considered as a risk and have you been making preparations or simulations that this could happen as a risk in terms of timing It may be somewhat somewhat more into the future. Maybe you have some preparation period of several years, and during that time, you will be able to come up with countermeasures. I think this will relate to capital expenditure plans, so please respond to the extent possible. Thank you for the question. So Hody will respond. Thank you for the question. Yes, this situation. Had we foreseen this and taken measures? Well, partly we had considered this and assumed this, but it's not that we have answers to all parts of this. Now, it's just this morning that this was reported, so we have to check about the accuracy of the reporting, and we'll be debating internally based on that. This is an issue of that kind of nature. So as of now, I'd like to limit my comment to that extent. So with that, we'd like to conclude Sony Group earnings announcement meeting. Thank you so much for joining us today.