Sony shipped 4.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles worldwide through the end of 2020, the company uncovered in a profit report Wednesday. The number is extensively similar to 4.5 million PS4 consoles shipped in that system’s 2013 holiday launch quarter. In any case, potential PS5 clients shouldn’t expect the rate of production to increase, Sony said, regardless of widespread retail sellouts that have prompted significantly used markups.
“It is difficult for us to increase production of the PS5 amid the shortage of semiconductors and other components,” Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said during a briefing accompanying the results. “We have not been able to fully meet the high level of demand from customers [but] we continue to do everything in our power to ship as many units as possible to customers who are waiting for a PS5.”
Overall, Sony’s Game and Network Services division saw its vacation quarter benefits increment almost 50% year over year. The company now conjectures the best financial year execution for the gaming division in company history, thanks in huge part to an increment in PlayStation Plus memberships (which presently sit at 47.4 million). An entire 87 percent of PS5 owners so far subscribe to PlayStation Plus, Sony said, making those memberships key to the company’s benefits going ahead.
Despite the record-pace performance, Sony said its gaming benefits were harmed by a “loss resulting from strategic price points for PS5 hardware that were set lower than the manufacturing costs.” That’s not strange for new consoles, which frequently launch at a loss to help make a wider crowd for software and services like PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now.
Sony’s gaming division likewise evidently keeps on profiting by the impacts of the worldwide pandemic, “Thanks to continued stay-at-home demand and the launch of the PS5, we have achieved a very high level of user engagement,” the company said. “Total PlayStation user gameplay time in December was approximately 30% higher than the same month of the previous fiscal year.”
Demand for the aging PlayStation 4 was down to simply 1.4 million units for the vacation quarter, contrasted with an entire 6 million a year back. That console has now sold an aggregate of 114.9 million units around the world, ahead of the original PlayStation but still well short of the 155 million units moved for the PS2.
Microsoft has not revealed unit deals for the Xbox Series X/S however said in a profit report a week ago that Xbox hardware income expanded 86 percent year over year for the vacation quarter.
