In its latest financial report, Sony revealed that the company has sold 2.6 million PS5 consoles in the last three months up towards September 30. This brings the total sales of the PlayStation 5 to 97.9 million. Overall, Sony’s game business has seen an increase in sales (+9%) and operating income (+89%). Sony also noted that they will be able to offest the rise in memory costs through cost reductions and price increases. Talking about the future, Sony says that development on the PlayStation 6 is making “solid progress.”
“Although new PS5 unit sales are gradually declining as expected at this stage of the console life cycle, the PlayStation platform continues to expand and grow in a stable manner,” Sony CFO Lin Tao said during a web call.
“Looking ahead to the next fiscal year, we aim to continue to enhance user engagement and further strengthen monetization through the release of strong titles and the expansion of our service. We also intend to make solid progress in preparing for the next-generation platform.”
Sony has revised its forecasts for both gaming sales and operating income upward. They are changing their numbers due to the increased sales of third-party games (like GTA 6), first-party games, and cost improvements. Marvel’s Wolverine sales have exceeded 2.4 million. Sony also revealed that monthly active users have reached 127 million in September – a record high for the month.
Talking about how they are able to get through the global component shortage, Sony talked about how they were able to offset price increases “through adjustments to promotions and pricing, as well as additional cost reductions,” and that it expects hardware profitability to remain on par with the previous fiscal year.
“Regarding memory procurement for the next fiscal year, based on discussions held so far with various suppliers, we have aligned on the quantity of memory needed for our projected unit sales,” it said.
Talking about the future, Tao noted that Sony was making “solid progress” on development of the PlayStation 6.
“From next fiscal year onward, there will be investment in the new platform. For future growth, we have to attach great importance to a new platform and make the necessary investments for that. We have to support the soundness of our platform and think about how rationally we can invest in that platform. We will announce that at an appropriate time in the future.”