(Reuters) - Sony on Thursday reported a 22% rise in third-quarter operating profit, beating analyst estimates, and hiked its full-year forecast.

Profit reached 515 billion yen ($3.28 billion) for October-December. That compared with the 469 billion yen average of 10 analyst estimates compiled by LSEG.

Sony hiked its full year operating profit forecast by 8% to 1.54 trillion yen, citing the performance of its music business.

The Japanese electronics manufacturer and entertainment behemoth has seen its share price slide in recent months as investors question what its future growth drivers will be.

At the same time, hardware makers are grappling with surging memory chip prices amid a boom in AI investment.

Shares of gaming peer Nintendo 7974.T tumbled 11% on Tuesday amid concern over the impact of rising chip prices.

The adoption of artificial intelligence in the videogames industry has also created uncertainty, with gaming stocks falling in recent days on the introduction of an AI-powered game-making tool by Alphabet's Google.

($1 = 156.8400 yen)