Some pre-orders did not even arrive at the intended time, and those that did were disappointed by the lack of truly innovative games that would define the new generation of console gaming. Furthermore, hardware issues cropped up, as gamers on various online forums complained of loud fan noise, the console overheating, and even software glitches in the console itself. This and everything surrounding the poor sales performance of PS5 will be covered in the article below.
Despite these challenges, Sony managed to ship roughly 25 million Playstation 5 (PS5) consoles by November 2022 after ramping up production in the previous few months.
Sony’s latest earnings report sold another 3.3 million PS5s just in that quarter, which ended on September 30, matching the same period in 2021. Though these numbers may seem impressive, Sony managed to sell “just” 5.7 million PS5s in fiscal 2022 (April 2022), indicating that the firm has a tough climb to reach 18 million sold consoles by March 2023.
Sony’s executive, Hiroki Totoki, is optimistic that the firm will reach its goal of 18 million as 6.5 million PS5s were fabricated during Q2, more than was expected.
“We recognize that demand from customers for the PS5 continues to be strong as the actual sales situation at retail stores in the U.S. is such that, in September, it took an average of 17.5 hours to sell out of 100 thousand units after their arrival. To meet this strong demand, we will do our utmost to bring forward supply into the year-end holiday selling season and aim to exceed our financial year 2022 forecast of 18 million units.”
With rising inflation and fear of more costs being levied on the household budget, hitting these sales targets could be challenging. Some users may ask themselves rightly, is now a good time to buy a console whose price hasn’t budged much since it was launched?
Photo Illustration: Freepik
Sales projections
Fiscal year 2021 was not one that Sony will remember as a year of good sales.
Namely, the Japanese giant noted that sales of PS5 were not meeting the company’s projections, selling 11.5 million units out of the projected 14.8 million units. This miss in sales was attributed to the chip shortage that was hitting various market segments, not just gaming.
In general, the gaming segment in Sony’s business operations increased by 3% year-on-year (YoY), translating into an increase in operating income of 1.2% YoY.
To make up for the lost sales in 2021, Sony presented more aggressive plans for 2022, including increased development expenses to strengthen first-party software. The sales projections for PS5 were raised to 18 million units for the entire year, a number that the company bases on the parts procurement statistics.
New rumors: Now might be the worst time to buy a PS5
Recently, new rumors emerged that corroborate the fact that now might be the worst time to buy a PS5 console. The issue that scalpers created after the launch by buying up all of the stock and selling the consoles at higher prices is not the main reason why now is not the best time to buy a new PS5.
Allegedly, the PS5 slim model is coming, a first major revision of the console that should launch in 2023. This slim version will simply replace the standard PS5 and should have a detachable disk drive. Following this model in 2025 a PS5 Pro model should arrive, making an investment into a PS5 now seems like a bad choice.
Photo Illustration: Freepik
While Sony hasn’t confirmed the coming of these models, creation of a smaller, slimmer version of the console that will have more storage and more powerful hardware seems like a no-brainer. While PS5 is now easier to buy, a smaller more powerful version could be more appealing to users, especially if its launching in 2023.
The best console around?
PS5 has an amazing dual sense controller which is innovative with its adaptive triggers, led lights and haptic feedback that makes gaming more immersive. It sports next generation gaming in 4K with 120fps performance; however, Xbox Series X has the same capabilities. Sony’s console though has a faster SSD, but the snappiness of the Xbox system is almost as fast.
While Sony may be dominating on the hardware front, when it comes to the game pass Xbox has a slight advantage in terms of “bang for buck”. The game pass offers a larger library of video games along with first day releases of certain AAA games, while Sony is still struggling to make the PSN Plus comparable to Xbox game pass Ultimate that also allows gamers to use the game pass on a PC.
Only small shades divide these two consoles and for gamers looking for an immediate large library of games that they can enjoy on the console and PC could opt for the Xbox, while those looking to play more exclusives could opt for the PS5.
Gamers backlash
There are numerous discussions online about gamers actually being furious at Sony for rasing the price of the console, and eventually migrating the PS5 exclusives onto the PC. These discussions have grown into musings about actually staying on PS4 as there is no real reason to migrate to PS5 as the graphics and game quality are not that different compared to the previous generation.
But, even bad publicity is better than no publicity at all, as Sony is dominating the console and gaming discussions. Some see their moves of developing game exclusives for their consoles solely and not giving out day one releases through their subscription service as genius moves. Others on the other hand laud the Xbox and their wide catalogue of games and day one releases.
Either way, gamers have at the moment and will possibly have in the near future amazing opportunities to get their hand on a gaming system that could meet all their needs, whether its a new PS model or an improved Xbox version. All in all, waiting until 2023, which is around the corner, for a potentially improved PS5 slim version could be the smartest play at the moment.
