Sony has said it expects PlayStation 5 hardware sales to “gradually decline” over the next financial year, which runs from April to March 2025, and confirmed it doesn’t plan to release any “major existing franchise titles” during that 12-month period.
In the company’s financial results for the three months ending December 31, 2023, Sony’s gaming division reported another record quarter for revenue, with PS5 sales reaching 54.7 million, but lowered its sales forecast for the year after lagging behind its high-end hardware. target.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has set a target of 25 million PS5 sales for the year ending March 2024. However, it sold 8.2 million consoles in the last quarter, bringing the total to 16.4 million consoles for the year. The company said it now expects to fall short of its initial target of 4 million units (21m).
The corporation now expects sales of ¥210 billion from its Gaming and Network Services segment for the year — a 5% downward revision — partly due to lower sales and increased equipment losses due to promotions, it said.
“Regarding the PS5 hardware, which will enter its fifth year since launch,” said Hiroki Totoki, president, COO and CFO of Sony. “Partly as we enter the second half of the console cycle, we aim to optimize sales with a greater focus on profitability. Hence, we expect a gradual decline in unit sales from the next financial year onwards.
“When it comes to first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality products and producing live service games. However, with major projects currently in development, we do not plan to release new major existing franchise titles such as God of War: Ragnarok and Marvel Spider-Man 2 in the next financial year.
In software, Sony highlighted Marvel Spider-Man 2, which it says has now sold 10 million units. The Marvel Spider-Man series has sold over 50 million copies worldwide on PC and console.
Sony’s Network services revenue, which includes PS Plus and advertising revenue, rose again to ¥137.1 billion (¥122.2 billion last year), the highest level since last year’s service revamp.
PlayStation Network monthly active users (MAU) also increased by 11 million year-over-year to a record 123 million. Sony says its MAU is the estimated total number of unique accounts that played games or used services on PlayStation Network during the last month of the quarter.
Software sales (PS4 and PS5) increased by 3.2 million year-over-year to 89.7 million units. Digital software accounted for 66% of game sales in the quarter, compared to 62% last year.
Dr Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based industry consultant, told VGC: “After the second quarter sales in 2023 came out, it was clear that Sony would never reach 25 million units this fiscal year. Q3 was good, but only made possible by Sony’s heavy promotions and discounts during the holidays.
“There is one bright spot in Sony’s PlayStation business, which is a record 123 million monthly active users on the PlayStation Network.”
Sony introduced the new PS5 Slim model in November. The Slim console will be the only one available once the launch model is out of stock.
It was recently claimed that Sony plans to launch the PS5 Pro console in late 2024, which will feature a custom solution similar to DLSS.