New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS): Sony Group on Wednesday said it prepares for the spin-off and listing of the shares of Sony Financial Group in October 2025, as it lowered its revenue forecast after sales of its PlayStation 5 gaming consoles slowed down in the quarter ended December 31, 2023.

The company said in its consolidated financial results for Q3 FY2023 that in the financial services segment, “we were able to obtain approval for the corporate restructuring plan for a partial spin-off under the ‘Act on Strengthening Industrial Competitiveness of Japan’.”

“Based on this approval, we are working in earnest to prepare for the spin-off and listing of the shares of Sony Financial Group Inc. in October 2025,” the company informed.

Sony’s stock went up more than 3 per cent in pre-market trading in New York following the announcement.

Sony lowered its revenue forecast after sales of PS 5 gaming consoles came in less than the analyst estimates.

“PS5 hardware unit sales in the quarter were 8.2 million units, which fell short of the target to hit our annual shipment target of 25 million units, but was a record high number of quarterly unit sales for PS5, and PS5 cumulative sales have exceeded 50 million units,” the company said.

Based on the results for this quarter, “PS5 unit sales for this fiscal year are expected to be around 21 million units”, said the company.

The monthly active users for all of PlayStation in December reached a record high of 123 million accounts, and total game play time for the quarter increased 13 per cent year-on-year.

The cumulative sales of Marvel's SpiderMan 2, which was released last October, exceeded 10 million copies as of February 4, and the Marvel's Spider-Man game series has now sold through over 50 million units including sales from PC, said the company.