SonyPlans to purchase back shares worth 200 billion Japanese yen (1.54 billion USD). The company recently announced that its operating profit has more than doubled, largely due to the PlayStation gaming division.

As it reports operating profit rose to 138.6 million yen ($1.06 trillion), the Japanese giant said it plans to have the share repurchase done between May 11, 2022 and May 10, 2023.

It was due in large part to its continued strong sales for the PlayStation 5 console as well as games.

The March quarter saw a 175% increase in operating profit for Sony’s games business. 11.5 Million units of the PlayStation 5 were sold in its financial year ending March. 31, compared to 7.8 million the year before.

Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s chief financial officer, stated that the company expects to sell 18 million PlayStation 5 units in its current fiscal year ending in March 2023. This would represent a 56% increase year-on-year.

It is quite different from rivals. NintendoIt stated Tuesday, however that they are expecting a 9% decline in sales of its Switch consolea lack of components to its devices in the current year.

Totoki warned analysts on a conference call that China’s Covid-19 lockdown could limit the company’s ability to purchase parts.

Sony projects that its gaming division will see an operating loss of around 12 percent in the current financial year. According to the company, there will be higher costs in game development. It will also record its expenses for any proposed expenditures. $3.6 billion acquisition of Destiny and Halo maker Bungie closes.

Tokyo, Japan-based Sony also had success with their movie division. Sony Pictures’ March quarter profit was helped by “Spider-Man: no Way Home”.

Totoki offered some cautionary words about the condition of the global economic system.

“With the situation in Ukraine and Russia and slowdown of the global economy resulting from rapid inflation, we expect the demand environment this fiscal year to be even more severe than recent years,” the Sony CFO said.