Tokyo, Japan - Sony Group Corporation ("Sony") held a briefing today on its Corporate Strategy and FY2025 Earnings. During the corporate strategy presentation, President and CEO Hiroki Totoki provided an update on Sony's business, corporate priorities and direction as the company enters the final fiscal year of its current Mid-Range Plan.

Totoki provided updates on Sony's Creative Entertainment Vision, the company's long-term vision which seeks to leverage the power of technology to empower creators, deliver new experiences across both physical and digital space and maximize the value of IP, while also reviewing key topics across Sony's businesses and the evolution of its business portfolio and direction in entertainment, IP, content creation and creation technology. Totoki also noted that anime is an important growth sector for Sony, introducing various initiatives centered on anime, and announced that Crunchyroll has now surpassed 21 million subscribers.

Totoki then introduced AI as one of the most important themes across the Sony Group businesses to unlock new value creation and to capture new opportunities for growth for its entertainment businesses. Totoki emphasized that "human creativity must remain at the center," and stated that "AI is not a replacement for artists or creators." He then presented examples of how AI is being utilized across Sony's businesses and welcomed Hideaki Nishino, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), to share examples of AI utilization at SIE.

Totoki then announced that Sony signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited ("TSMC") regarding a strategic partnership for the development and manufacturing of next-generation image sensors, with the aim of balancing business growth and improving profitability.

In closing, Totoki emphasized the importance of adaptability in driving the business forward amid technological and geopolitical disruptions and noted that the diversity of its businesses and employees will drive continued success for Sony.

Highlights from the presentation are below. For further details, please refer to the presentation materials and the recorded webcast from the event, both available on Sony's Investor Relations website.

1. Advancing the Creative Entertainment Vision

Under the Creative Entertainment Vision, Sony seeks to leverage the power of technology to empower creators, deliver new experiences across both physical and digital space, and maximize the value of IP in its entertainment businesses.

• In the anime sector, we collaborate with Group companies and strategic partners spanning production, fan engagement, marketing and global distribution to generate synergies to deliver anime at scale to worldwide audiences.
• The explosive worldwide growth of anime is exemplified by last year's massive global hit film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, which was produced by Aniplex and its partners.
• Crunchyroll now serves more than 21 million paid subscribers globally as of the end of March 2026. To further accelerate growth, the company enabled global fan participation in voting for the upcoming Crunchyroll Anime Awards through MyAnimeList for the first time, in partnership with Gaudiy Inc. In addition, this fall, Crunchyroll will host its first-ever "Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum", bringing together leading companies from various fields to strengthen relationships with Japanese publishers and creators globally.

2. Optimizing the Business Portfolio

During this Mid-Range Plan period, Sony continued to optimize its business portfolio while continuing to invest and lean into areas where it sees ongoing growth and competitive advantage.

• Building on the strategic partnerships announced with Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. ("Bandai Namco"), Sony is further strengthening its position in anime and other areas.
• Sony's agreement with WildBrain Ltd. to acquire its stake in Peanuts Holdings LLC increased Sony's ownership stake to 80%.
• Following major deals to acquire the Pink Floyd and Queen catalogues, Sony Music Group announced a partnership with GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, to further build its music IP investments.

3. Driving Growth with AI

AI brings new opportunities for value creation and growth, while remaining a tool to unlock human potential - not a replacement for artists or creators. Under this principle, Sony introduced examples of how it is leveraging AI across its businesses.

• 1) The role of AI
  • AI is not only for efficiency, but also a tool to empower creators to expand their creativity, making it easier to take on more innovative and ambitious projects that were previously difficult to pursue due to constraints of cost and time.
  • Sony is continuing a collaborative pilot initiative with Bandai Namco to explore the use of Generative AI and other advanced technologies, and has confirmed significant gains in speed and productivity per person in video production. Sony will continue to integrate its own technologies with Generative AI to establish a creator-first production environment that maximizes creative potential while ensuring safety and security.

• 2) How AI strengthens the area of games (Speaker: Hideaki Nishino, President and CEO, SIE)
  • As AI lowers barriers to creation and increases the volume and diversity of content, SIE's platform and studios will remain critical in delivering high quality experiences and helping players discover the right content in an increasingly crowded landscape.
  • Within SIE's studios, AI powered tools are automating repetitive workflows and improving productivity across areas such as software engineering, quality assurance, 3D modeling, and animation, allowing teams to focus on building richer worlds and gameplay.
  • Across its platform business, AI is driving efficiency, personalization, and customer value at scale, while continued investments in AI and machine learning will push visual fidelity forward and deliver higher quality player experiences.
  • Overall, AI will unleash the creativity of SIE's studios, power a more curated and consumer centric platform, and enhance the PlayStation experience, supported by its global player base, deep IP library, and integrated ecosystem.

4. Strengthening Competitiveness in Sensor Technology that Underpins Creativity

Building on the deep expertise cultivated over many years in the analog domain, Sony is strengthening the competitiveness of its sensor technology with a view to mid- to long-term business growth and value creation, while delivering the best possible imaging experience for its customers.

• Sony's image sensors have advanced to a phase beyond competition solely based on specifications. By leveraging deep analog-domain expertise cultivated over many years across areas such as pixel structure, stacking technologies, circuitry, and process technologies, Sony has established difficult-to-replicate strength that underpins its sustainable competitive advantage.
• In its core mobile image sensor business, Sony is pursuing enhanced performance through the development of higher density enabled by finer process technologies and stacking technologies.
• Sony signed a non-binding MOU with TSMC to form a strategic partnership for the development and manufacturing of next-generation image sensors. Under this partnership, the two companies intend to establish a joint venture, with Sony as the majority and controlling shareholder, and are conducting studies toward setting up development and production lines utilizing Sony's newly constructed fab in Koshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture.

5. Navigating a Changing World

Sony is carefully managing technological and geopolitical disruptions that are impacting international supply chains, including the current memory shortage driven by surging AI infrastructure demand. Looking ahead, even amid geopolitical complexity and rapid change, the strengths and diversity of Sony's businesses and employees will continue to support Sony's growth.

• Cautionary Statement
  Statements made in this material with respect to Sony's current plans, estimates, strategies and beliefs and other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements about the future performance of Sony. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those statements using words such as "believe," "expect," "plans," "strategy," "prospects," "forecast," "estimate," "project," "anticipate," "aim," "intend," "seek," "may," "might," "could" or "should," and words of similar meaning in connection with a discussion of future operations, financial performance, events or conditions. From time to time, oral or written forward-looking statements may also be included in other materials released to the public. These statements are based on management's assumptions, judgments and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Sony cautions investors that a number of important risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and therefore investors should not place undue reliance on them. Investors also should not rely on any obligation of Sony to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Sony disclaims any such obligation. Risks and uncertainties that might affect Sony include, but are not limited to:
• (i)Sony's ability to maintain product quality and customer satisfaction with its products and services;
• (ii)Sony's ability to continue to design and develop and win acceptance of, as well as achieve sufficient cost reductions for, its products and services, including image sensors, game and network platforms, smartphones and televisions, which are offered in highly competitive markets characterized by severe price competition and continual new product and service introductions, rapid development in technology and subjective and changing customer preferences;
• (iii)Sony's ability to implement successful hardware, software, and content integration strategies, and to develop and implement successful sales and distribution strategies in light of new technologies and distribution platforms;
• (iv)the effectiveness of Sony's strategies and their execution, including but not limited to the success of Sony's acquisitions, joint ventures, investments, capital expenditures, restructurings and other strategic initiatives;
• (v)changes in laws, regulations and government policies in the markets in which Sony and its third-party suppliers, service providers and business partners operate, including those related to taxation, as well as growing consumer focus on corporate social responsibility;
• (vi)Sony's continued ability to identify the products, services and market trends with significant growth potential, to devote sufficient resources to research and development, to prioritize investments and capital expenditures correctly and to recoup its investments and capital expenditures, including those required for technology development and product capacity;
• (vii)Sony's reliance on external business partners, including for the procurement of parts, components, software and network services for its products or services, the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of its products, and its other business operations;
• (viii)the global economic and political environment in which Sony operates and the economic and political conditions in Sony's markets, particularly levels of consumer spending;
• (ix)Sony's ability to meet operational and liquidity needs as a result of significant volatility and disruption in the global financial markets or a ratings downgrade;
• (x)Sony's ability to forecast demands, manage timely procurement and control inventories;
• (xi)foreign exchange rates, particularly between the yen and the U.S. dollar, the euro and other currencies in which Sony makes significant sales and incurs production costs, or in which Sony's assets, liabilities and operating results are denominated;
• (xii)Sony's ability to recruit, retain and maintain productive relations with highly skilled personnel;
• (xiii)Sony's ability to prevent unauthorized use or theft of intellectual property rights, to obtain or renew licenses relating to intellectual property rights and to defend itself against claims that its products or services infringe the intellectual property rights owned by others;
• (xiv)risks related to catastrophic disasters, geopolitical conflicts, pandemic disease or similar events;
• (xv)the ability of Sony, its third-party service providers or business partners to anticipate and manage cybersecurity risk, including the risk of unauthorized access to Sony's business information and the personally identifiable information of its employees and customers, potential business disruptions or financial losses; and
• (xvi)the outcome of pending and/or future legal and/or regulatory proceedings.

• Risks and uncertainties also include the impact of any future events with material adverse impact. The continued impact of developments relating to the situations in Ukraine and Russia and in the Middle East, as well as the series of changes in U.S. tariff policy, could heighten many of the risks and uncertainties noted above. Important information regarding risks and uncertainties is also set forth in Sony's most recent Form 20-F, which is on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.