Sony CEO vows to tackle game addiction as WHO to group it as disorder

May 23, 2019 | News On Japan

May 23, 2019 (Japan Times) - Sony Corp. will tackle game addiction, its chief executive said Wednesday as the World Health Organization prepares to formally recognize it as a disorder.

"We need to take it seriously and adopt countermeasures," Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said in an interview with media outlets, without elaborating.

Sony, the maker of PlayStation consoles, saw its gaming business generate 27 percent of the group's overall sales and 35 percent of operating profit in fiscal 2018 at Â¥2.31 trillion ($21 billion) and Â¥311 billion, respectively.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant logged a record net profit of Â¥916.27 billion for the year ended in March on strong demand for its game software, subscription-based gaming services and music streaming services.

The WHO is set to include gaming addiction in its International Classification of Diseases, in a revision to be approved at its annual assembly through next Tuesday.

The move is expected to help prompt health professionals to report more of such addiction cases and develop preventive and treatment measures, the U.N. organization said.

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