What you need to know
- Sony's Q3 financial results have been released.
- The PlayStation 4 crossed over 108.9 million consoles sold, slightly up from 106 million in January.
- Digital games now make up 49% of game purchases.
- Sony isn't discussing the PlayStation 5's price yet due to multiple factors, including competition.
Sony has shared its Q3 financial results, with an update on the performance of the PlayStation division. The PlayStation 4 has now sold over 108.9 million units, which is up a small bit from the 106 million figure given in January at CES. Sony forecasts a total of 13.5 million units to be sold through the financial year ending March 31, 2020. This figure would be an almost 50% decline year-over-year.
Another notable bit from the financial report is that digital share of games has reached 49% of all games, which is well up from 37% last year. PlayStation Plus subscribers increased slightly, to 38.8 million, up from 36.3 million last year.
In an investor call, CFO Hiroki Totoki was asked about factors surrounding the desired "smooth transition" to the next generation. Totoki declined to talk about the price for the PlayStation 5, explaining that there are multiple factors at work, including competition. (Translation below via VGC.)
"What is not very clear or visible is because we are competing in the space, so it's very difficult to discuss anything about the price at this point of time, and depending upon the price level, we may have to determine the promotion that we are going to deploy and how much costs we are prepared to pay," Totoki explained.
He continued by explaining that "So it's a question of balance, and because it's a balancing act it's very difficult to say anything concrete at this point of time, but when I said smooth transition, we mean that we will definitely choose the optimal approach and that we will try to have the best balance so that we will be profitable in the life, during the life of this product."
It's not hard to realize the competition being referred to is the Xbox Series X. Sony has so for forgone the strategy used with the PS4, where a major reveal event was scheduled for February to talk about the specs and games coming to the upcoming console. In 2019, different interviews with Wired revealed bits and pieces of information for the PS5, including the fact that it is scheduled to release sometime in Holiday 2020.
Easy to stock up
PlayStation gift cards are an easy way to grab currency for games, add-ons, themes and more on the PlayStation Store. They also come in a wide variety of denominations.
