Sony has promised that the PS5 product “has never been reached before” to keep up with the growing demand. In a briefing with investors, Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, described the company’s successes and struggles since launching the latest console.
In a recent update, Sony said it sold only 2 million PS5 consoles in the last quarter, bringing the total to 19.3 million. Not only did it see a significant decline in the previous quarter, but the company sold 3.1 million fewer PS5 units at the same time in its lifetime than the PS4 console.
Barriers to Sony’s sales are not due to a drop in demand, but to a shortage of supplies caused by the coronavirus epidemic. Demand is, in fact, high, with Sony claiming that 80,000 PS5 units could be sold in 82 minutes, while the same number of PS4s would be sold in nine days. At the one-year mark, 55% of consumers surveyed were still interested in the PS5, while only 28% wanted the PS4 for its first anniversary.
Sony believes that it could increase supply enough in the fourth year of its release, or in 2024, to overtake the PS4 by selling the PS4 for the PS5. Meanwhile, the company will turn to several suppliers “for more agility in volatile market conditions”. Avoid potential problems in the “logistics and parts inventory” caused by the epidemic and the shortage of supplies caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Looking beyond the initial ramp-up, Sony “plans to further increase console production, taking us to production levels we’ve never reached before,” Ryan said during an investor briefing.
Although Sony does not sell many current-gen consoles, the company is benefiting from game revenue growth. The PS5 has a 15% increase in gameplay costs compared to the PS4. Game add-ons account for a growing portion of that revenue, with console generations jumping 247%, while overall game sales falling 21%. Also an audit of total growth is an increase in subscription revenue.
While the PS5 struggles to find its footing, the PS4 is humiliating its age, breaking records in the late life cycle. Sony reports that the PS4 had 36.1 million PS3 users in its second year, while the PS5 had 84 million PS4 users in its second year. Given the extremely limited availability of the PS5 in these 24 months, this success is of course a star to behold.
Sony wants to have more PlayStation games on PC and mobile
Turning to the game release strategy, Sony said that by 2025 almost half of its game releases should be on PC and mobile as well. That would be a significant increase over the year, when a quarter of the company’s releases were game releases. Two platforms. The company is already seeing the benefits of expanding beyond its own platform: sales of games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone and God of War have estimated PC sales at $ 300 million, up from $ 80 million last year.
“By expanding into PCs and mobiles, and so to speak साठी even for live services, we have the opportunity to be present everywhere, even in a very narrow segment of the overall gaming software market,” Ryan said, according to the Video Games Chronicle.