Gaming News But what’s going on with the PS5? No internal video games before 2025, a console at the end of its cycle, an estimated 10 billion losses on the stock market. We take stock!
While we thought everything was going well in the best of all possible worlds on PlayStation, Sony’s video game division finally announced last week that sales were falling short of targets. There is also talk of there not being a first-party title until April 2025, a stock market drop estimated at 10 billion, a PS5 that would already be at the end of its life cycle… It’s time to make a statement.
While the Xbox’s new strategic decisions were in focus in mid-February, there is also a stir on the PlayStation side – and not necessarily in a positive way! As we can see from the Q3 FY2023 results, The PS5 will not reach its target of 25 million units sold in the current fiscal year (which ends next month). The latest news says that Sony has sold “only” 16 million copies of its console this financial year… The ambition has therefore been reduced. The Japanese company now plans to deliver 21 million by March 2024.
Check out the PS5 Slim on Amazon
A trend that PlayStation applies to the coming months of the PS5… The manufacturer actually plans a “gradual decline in sales” of the machine from the next financial year (from April 2024 to March 2025), while still aiming to focus on “balance with winnings”. For good reason, as Sony notes: the home console will soon enter its fifth year of marketing and in the “second half of its life cycle”
Red alert at Sony?
So is everything on PlayStation a disaster? Not really. You should know that first of all 2023 was the biggest year for the PS5. From January | Last December, 22.7 million copies of the machine were sold worldwide… An increase of 53% compared to the same period in 2022. “This is the best year in PlayStation history since the 24.2 million PS2s in 2002” , the note says Oscar Lemaire – well-known analyst among industry players. “The PS5 is benefiting from a catch-up effect after two years of shortages.” On the game sales side? That is “very high level”.
The problem is that the performance in the last quarter of 2023 (Christmas, always super important) is not there. “Only” 8.2 million PS5s found buyers there, while the PS4 sold 9.7 million in the same period – reports Oscar Lemaire… Overall, the new PlayStation also achieved the largest market launch of all consoles (although hampered by shortages). and has strong sales figures to date, Compared to the PS4, we are a little behind. While the PS5 will have sold almost 55 million units at the end of 2023, just over three years after its launch, its big sister exceeded the 57 million mark in the same period.
When it’s about nothing
In short, no one died, but the failure to achieve goals was never welcomed with open arms (hence the stock market crash). Overall, Sony appears to have overspent a bit on its home console in 2023-2024, motivated by a previous fiscal year (2022-2023) that ended with 19 million PS5s instead of the originally planned 19 million! This time we will recover the 25 million, which does not mean that the 21 million will fall out of nowhere before next month. We’re still talking a little less than 5 million copies in three months… All in all: There’s a kind of urgency that’s pushing Sony to offer discounts to stay on track
Discounts that don’t necessarily convey the right message either. Ultimately, if PlayStation reaches the 21 million PS5 mark with many reductions in March, margins and profits will inevitably be lower! The money will then be collected thanks HardwareIt is peanuts before the real heart of the matter: the sale of services and games. This is clearly “the money”. And this last model (the console as a flagship product to sell exclusive products) is still very present on PlayStation, even if it will inevitably evolve… However, this strategy also has its limits.
The highlight of a model
Because aside from all this story of missed targets and the PS5 at the end of its life (which, by the way, does not at all rule out the arrival of a Pro model), Analysts polled by CNBC are concerned about something else: Sony’s gaming margin
A problem that Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s finance director | PlayStation’s interim president (following the departure of Jim Ryan) has in mind… In a question-and-answer session following the company’s earnings announcement, the man said he would like to move “aggressively” to improve margins on PS5 games . “If you have first-party content (not only on our console, but also on other media, such as PC) It can be developed on multiple platforms, and that can help increase profits,” he says. A path taken by a certain Helldivers 2, a new service game published by PlayStation and released at the same time on PS5 Steam. It saw a peak of 400,000 concurrent players on the Valve Store, a record for a Sony title on PC.
While the long-term success of Helldivers 2 is not yet certain, the popularity of PC gaming is heading in the right direction for the Japanese company! As a reminder, PlayStation plans to release six service games by 2025-2026. A way to cope with rising production costs – with experiments that are intended to make money in the long term (Fortnite). We are undoubtedly at the beginning of a new strategy for Sonywho must break away from the model of the excluded at all costs.
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