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The PlayStation 4 has shipped 102.8 million units worldwide, earning it the title of the second-highest selling home console of all time, but Sony has reported disappointing PlayStation revenues over the last quarter (via MCV).
The PlayStation 4 outstripped the PlayStation 1 and the Nintendo Wii sales statistics to sit comfortably in the silver medal position, with the PlayStation 2 lording it over the peons with 155 million lifetime sales. Sony shared the information in its quarterly financial report, which also said that the PlayStation 4’s total sales rose by almost three million units since July 2019.
Software unit sales – or video games, to you and me – have spiked since the previous quarter with a considerable 42.9 million units and of these 37 per cent were digital sales. In spite of this, Sony has claimed that when compared year-on-year, sales have actually decreased by quite a chunk, from 75.1 million in Q2 2018 to 61.3 million games at the end of Q2 2019.
Moreover, its PlayStation business reported ‘significant decreases’ in this fiscal quarter, with revenue produced in its Game & Network Services sector (that includes PlayStation) decreasing by 17 per cent year-over-year to $4.17 billion. In comparison to Q2 2018, that’s a difference of $878.5 million. And, Sony’s operating income has suffered a loss of 28 per cent bringing its quarterly total to $596.7 million. These are still impressive sales statistics, but they are not on target for where Sony expected to be at this time.
Sony has rationalised that these numbers are the natural conclusion to the end of a current-generation cycle. The PlayStation 5 is set to launch in late 2020, just like Microsoft’s Project Scarlett, so it’s possible that consumers are stepping away from PlayStation 4 to save up. The company also referenced ‘the impact of a change in the launch date of a first-party title’, and this would be The Last of Us Part II’s delay into spring of 2020 instead of early 2020. It has elected to curtail its forecast for the rest of the fiscal year, by trimming its expected sales and operating revenue back by 2 per cent.
