Sony today held its Corporate Strategy Meeting for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017 (FY2016), and said it expects the profitability of its games division to rise as the company prepares to launchthe Playstation VR headset. The company is targeting an operating profit margin of 8 to 10 percent for its games and network services division in the year ending March 2018, up from 5 to 6 percent previously. It raised its target for revenue at that unit to between 1.8 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) and 1.9 trillion yen, up from 1.4 trillion yen to 1.6 trillion yen previously.

Sony considers the Game and Network Services segment the largest growth driver of its mid-range corporate plan, and as of May 2016, PlayStation 4 has cumulatively sold through more than 40 million units worldwide.

Sony's network services business is also continuing to grow, achieving a 50% increase in sales in FY 2015 compared to the previous year. The user base is expanding, driven by the PlayStation Plus membership service, and Sony has continued to engage in investment towards further growth.

The company has forecast profit at its games and network services business will rise 52 percent to 135 billion yen this fiscal year. Subscribers to its PlayStation Vue web-TV service have exceeded 100,000 since its March 2015 debut.

Sony’s new $399 PlayStation VR virtual reality system is scheduled to launch in October 2016. Sony has identified virtual reality as an area it believes offers great future potential for the Sony Group in games, as well as other areas. Virtual reality is an application in which Sony believes it can leverage its technological strengths in areas such as digital imaging, content acquisition and production, as well as its entertainment assets.

Sony on Wednesday cut its forecasts for sales and operating profit margin target at the mobile division.

"Games and network services are the biggest growth drivers in our mid-term plan," Sony's president Kazuo Hirai told reporters in Tokyo. "Beyond just games, VR offers an opportunity to make full use of multiple Sony technologies, such as cameras and shooting, content production capabilities and entertainment assets."

Sony’s film arm encompasses Columbia Pictures and is home to such major Hollywood franchises as Spider-Man and TV classics including Breaking Bad.

On Wednesday, Hirai reaffirmed Sony’s overall targets for operating profit of at least 500 billion yen in the year ending March 2018. The chief executive also said his company’s working on a robot capable of forming emotional bonds with people, and will start a corporate venture capital fund next month to seek out promising technology.

Sony also slashed its target for mobile unit sales to 900 billion yen to 1.05 trillion yen, from 1 trillion yen to 1.25 trillion yen before.

At the same time, in terms of image sensors for mobile products, while the smartphone market itself is slowing, Sony expects the shift to dual-lens cameras and the requirement for higher pixel density to lead to increased demand in the future. Sony is aiming to revitalize the profitability of this business from the second half of FY2016 and into FY2017.

In terms of new image sensor applications, Sony sees potential growth in surveillance cameras, as well as in factory automation, IoT (Internet of Things) including drones, and automotive applications.