Poor performance and a drop in sales, Sony bears the brunt of the shortage

Sony has sold 19.2 million PS5s as of March 31, 2022. A good result masks a drop in sales due to a lack of components. One of the worst PlayStation years in more than 20 years.

It’s now a long way from launching PS5 Where is the Sony console I managed to break sales records Despite the lack of components. The manufacturer has been dealing with a difficult slowdown in sales for several months, to the point that The Xbox Series S and X sell better in Europe and North America in particular. Viewing Sony’s financial statements is an opportunity to get more accurate numbers on this trend.

Worst year since 1997

So, Sony sold 2 million PlayStation 5 over the quarter (January-March 2022) for a total of 11.5 million over the year (March 2021 to March 2022) and 19.2 million since the console launched in 2020. For comparison, PlayStation 4 sold 14.8 million In her second year of life. Several factors can explain this decline from one generation to the next. There is a fact that Microsoft is now at its best With a very clear strategyA far cry from the disastrous launch of the Xbox One. But a good explanation is simply the lack of ingredients. Every PS5 in stock still finds a buyer within seconds of its arrival, a sign that demand far outstrips supply.

Even with portable consoles removed from the equation, you have to go back to 1997 to find a year Sony sold fewer consoles than in 2021-22. pic.twitter.com/CNnscCLsOW

– Oscar Le Maire May 10, 2022

journalist Oscar Lemerrework on site Ludustriegives us context counter performanceMade by PlayStation 5 over the past few months. Portable consoles aside, because Sony no longer sells them today,”You have to go back to 1997 to find a year when Sony sold fewer consoles than in 2021-22That is, in the early years of the first PlayStation, when Sony wasn’t a popular gamer.

Sony is still fine

We still have to wonder about the PlayStation 5’s supply issues. Microsoft seems to be better able to manage the shortage as the company manages to both sell more Xbox Series S and X consoles and both to develop its servers cloud games He asks about the modified X series. Here, Redmond can thank for its choice to develop a simpler console to produce with the Xbox Series S. It is also possible that Microsoft, with an incomparable financial level, was able to negotiate more aggressively with suppliers of the best supply lines only Sony.

Console sales aside, Sony is still doing very well. The manufacturer even had a record year in video games thanks to game sales and a continuous increase in the share of sales of non-physical games, which is benefiting the manufacturer. Remember that manufacturers earn higher commission on selling games in their online stores. We should also mention subscribing to PlayStation Plus And selling microtransactions, especially in gamesFree to playWhich explains these good results.

However, these benchmark scores are the result of a huge installed base of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles. Selling consoles serves as the foundational foundation for the manufacturer’s ecosystem. Without selling consoles, there are no games or non-material subscriptions. Far from being in jeopardy at the moment, Sony should therefore start PS5 sales rising again.

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