still record sales, but missed goals for Sony

The fiscal year ended at the end of March for most of the major video game players and it is time for them to take stock of the year just past. On the side of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the figures were particularly expected; and for good reason, the Japanese manufacturer achieved a record start in November 2020 for the release of the PS5, and this in the midst of a pandemic and a shortage of components. Looking at the figures that were made public very early this morning, we realize on the balance sheet of Sony Interactive Entertainment is quite paradoxical. As of March 31, 2022, 19.2 million PS5s have been sold worldwide, which is a colossal figure compared to previous PlayStation figures. Zooming in on the details, we realize that 11.5 million PS5s have passed between March 2021 and March 2022, but only 2 million between January and March 2022. This means that there is a fairly significant drop in sales of the PS5, especially since the latter does less well than the PS4 which had recorded 14.8 million sales for its Year 2.

This significant drop in sales is obviously not due to public disinterest in Sony’s latest console, but linked to the shortage of components which prevents Sony from producing as much as it would like. A slack in production which has also allowed Microsoft to sell more Xbox Series X | S in recent months. Demand being stronger than supply, some consumers are turning to other machines, less affected by this shortage which will continue for a few more years. If Sony Interactive Entertainment therefore misses its objectives, it nevertheless recorded a record year, with a turnover of 19.862 billion euros, which corresponds to an increase of 3% compared to the previous fiscal year, knowing that it is 2.509 billion euros in profits, or 1% more than last year. This performance, we owe it to the sales of the games which know neither the crisis nor the shortage. With 70.5 million PS5 and PS4 games sold during the last quarter, there is an increase of 9.1 million compared to the figures for 2021 and its 61.4 million titles sold. Among all of these games, no less than 14.5 million are represented by first-party games from PlayStation Studios, which corresponds to an increase of 6.6 million compared to 2021.

If exclusives remain above all the sinews of war to sell consoles, we know that subscriptions to online services are also an important element in the success of a platform now. Microsoft has known this for a long time, and Sony realized it recently. A few weeks before the launch of the new PlayStation Plus (which has merged with PlayStation Now), we see that the number of subscribers has dropped slightly. The service goes from 47.6 million to 47.4 million subscribers, ie 200,000 people who have decided not to renew their subscription. It remains to be seen whether the new formula with its 3 proposals will allow the service to attract more people…