There have been 3.3 million Sony PlayStation 5 consoles sold this quarter, the company revealed in its earnings call meet. With this, it is 25 million of the PlayStation 5 consoles that found buyers so far since the launch of the gaming console back in November 2020. Also, it was this exact same number of PlayStation 5 consoles that were sold during the same period last year.
However, while the figures might seem impressive, it still falls short of the target Sony had set, which stands at 18 million units for the 2022 fiscal year. At almost the halfway mark, the company managed to sell 5.7 million units, which is marginally better than the 5.6 million unit sales figure that the company did last year. That way there still is a sizeable number of consoles that need to be sold to reach the 18 million annual sales target.
Sony however can still draw solace from the fact that its revenue shot up by a significant margin even though it has sold almost the same number of PlayStation 5 consoles. It earned 12 percent higher revenue which stood at an impressive 727 billion yen or around $4.92 billion. Though there are several factors that ensured a jump in the revenue stream, an increase in the price of the consoles introduced earlier this year is being considered one good reason for the higher revenue.
That said, profit still suffered a steep 49 percent drop owing to the acquisition of Bungie. That apart, game development costs too have increased which too negatively impacted the profit margins. The company is hoping things will pick up big time in the coming holiday season though here again, it is going to depend a lot on whether it will be able to produce enough of the consoles to keep up with the demand.
Sony had sold 11.5 million of the consoles in 2021 and it is betting on a higher sales figure for this year. That is largely because the pandemic has eased off from most parts of the world and people have already got along with their normal lives. Supply chain issues too have settled down and production has gone up significantly. However, the frequent recurrence of the pandemic in China and the subsequent localized lockdown is still a cause of concern for many companies as it can still affect productivity. The PS5 has already had a bumpy ride since launch owing to the pandemic but the console is more easily available right now than ever before.
Another cause of worry for Sony is that the PlayStation Plus subscriber base which has continued to shrink for the second consecutive quarter now. Software sales too have seen a drop from 76.4 million units to 62.5 million, of which 63 percent has been downloaded online. However, the company is still sticking to its 18 million shipment target for this fiscal year and is aiming for an even higher 25 million unit shipment in the next fiscal. All of this makes us wonder if Sony has something interesting to offer in between that can bump up the sales figure.
