PlayStation has sold nearly 7.8 million units of its recent product that is the PS 5 console which is more than that of PS 4 in 2013 despite the limited supply. That means that PlayStation is doing a very good business because the record sales and profit have never been such high.
Sony has certainly is having its own way of measuring its success and the same was not the scenario at the time of PS4’s launch as it now, and its method are also the least telling metric. In a pair of presentations released online last week — one a corporate strategy overview, the other an investor day presentation — the company gave us a clear look at where it sees growth for PlayStation and the console business as a whole.
Many tech companies rely on software and services but Sony’s interest lies in hardware as a whole with not only restricting to the PlayStation but to the whole business.
- Sony is making its profit and the business through the subscriptions with plus subscriptions making 47.6 million and the PlayStation Now subscribers Making 3.2 million which is fairly a multibillion-dollar revenue generator at an annual stretch.
- The presentation itself admits the “importance of the console business model is reducing,” with Sony citing growth in software, services, and peripherals from 52% of overall Sony Interactive Entertainment revenue in 2013 to 80% in 2020.
- Still, Sony says it expects to break even on the standard edition PS5, which so far has been sold at a loss. Sony is also targeting more than 50% market share in the console business by 2025, up from the PS4’s 45% market share.
But the PS5 platform is still important to Sony. It’s the foundation for how the company intends to grow its audience and, eventually, migrate that audience to new platforms.
- Sony says engagement is higher on the PS5 than the PS4, with more than 8.6 million monthly active users on the new device compared to 7.1 million on the old. Players have also logged almost double the monthly average playtime hours each month since the November launch.
- PS5 players are also spending more money, and increasingly on digital-only items and free-to-play. PS5 owners are spending 231% more on add-ons, like in-game microtransactions and downloadable game content, and 15% less on full games, for an average overall increase in spending of 15%.
- The disc-less PS5 is also generating an overall spending increase of 8%, thanks to players spending 61% more on add-ons and reducing full-game purchasing by just 17%. And free-to-play gaming now accounts for 25% of all PlayStation Store spend, up from just 5% in 2016.
- The PlayStation platform is much more diverse, now with at least 47% of the player base consisting of women compared with 18% during the PS1 era.
Sony says the future of PlayStation is all about expanding into new territory, beyond the console and into new media formats and device categories.
- There are three areas in which sony finds the potential of the business, that being Cloud gaming, mobile games, and virtual reality It’s now set to bring the franchises to smartphone and PSVR with some of the biggest titles being released on its PS Now on a cloud platform.
- Sony’s decision to porting the titles to Steam and making it one of the top priorities, because it was a very good decision and seemed like its only choice as there was no other option left. Horizon made an investment return of 250% after the Steam and other storefronts after Horizon Zero Dawn. Days Gone launched on May 18, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is up next, the presentation revealed for the first time.
- Film and television crossovers are another big growth area for Sony. There’s an in-the-works The Last of Us adaptation at HBO under the new PlayStation Productions arm and an upcoming Uncharted film finally off the ground, with more TV and film adaptations in the works and a new Netflix streaming deal. ()
Sony’s vision for PlayStation sounds like a post-console future. Sony just wants to amplify the business and it’s good to see changes and what might the future be until it’s many equitable segments. But the story with Xbox wasn’t the same because its roadmap being different, and not only this but Xbox sure has incurred more losses than PS because of its lack of in-house studios. )