This morning it’s Sony’s turn to discuss the performance of their gaming division in PlayStation. Generally speaking PlayStation is reporting a downturn year-over-year similar to Microsoft and Xbox. Let’s dive in.
Reuters broke down the earnings call which detailed a range of figures and estimates leading into next quarter. The figures below represent the first quarter of Sony’s fiscal year 2022 (April – June) and you can find the key PlayStation figures below.
- Operating profit declined 37% YoY
- CFO Hiroki Totoki blamed the decline on a lack of major first-party titles and the rebound from pandemic with people returning more to their daily lives.
- Due to the large decline in the quarter, Sony has cut for forecast of PlayStation’s annual operating profit by 16%.
- In addition to a fall in game sales, Sony is citing the expenses of closing on the Bungie deal.
- Sony is still forecasting sales of 18 million PS5s in the fiscal year.
- Sony claims production is ramping up and they are getting more units into stores across the US and Europe.
- However, with sales of 2.4 million units in the first quarter, sales will need to increase greatly to hit that target.
- Total PS5 sales to date equate to 21.7 million units.
- Software sales decreased 26% YoY to 47 million units.
- Sony reported that digital game sales now represent 79% of their total game sales – an increase of nearly 10%.
- 47.3m PS+ Subscribers – an increase of 2%
- 102m Monthly Active Users – a decrease of 3%
Our Take
While the figures shared by Sony definitely represent a downturn for PlayStation, it’s also not as negative as it may seem on the surface. With supply chain troubles easing and production increasing, PS5 sales will increase, and if they can manage to near the 18 million figure in the year, that would be hugely impressive. While game sales were lower in the quarter, a massive holiday season approaches. PlayStation not only has the marketing deals for titles like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Callisto Protocol, and Hogwart’s Legacy, but they also have the biggest first-party release of the generation so far with God of War Ragnarok.
What may be the most surprising is that PS+ subscribers only increased by 1 million. For a platform that just launched their big revamp, a 2% increase in subscribers is likely fewer than projected. This will be interesting to watch over time as it is a focal point for PlayStation in the future.