PS5 hardware sales 8% ahead of the PS4 in the US -- launch aligned

[mibu no ookami]

How do the doomers explain this despite the PC ports and the lack of game announcements/events? Could it be that you're all just delusional and rabid fanboys living in your own echo chambers?

PS5 is also ahead in Japan launch aligned and until recently was in the UK as well... All despite the pandemic and despite being MORE expensive than the PS4 and not getting a price cut or a Pro model yet and all before GTA6 releases.

The only place where PS5 is running behind PS4 is in Europe, where *checks notes* the PS5 is the most expensive, but Sony will catch up on this once EA FC abandons the previous generation.

 

[Darth Vader]

How do the doomers explain this despite the PC ports and the lack of game announcements/events? Could it be that you're all just delusional and rabid fanboys living in your own echo chambers?

PS5 is also ahead in Japan launch aligned and until recently was in the UK as well... All despite the pandemic and despite being MORE expensive than the PS4 and not getting a price cut or a Pro model yet and all before GTA6 releases.

The only place where PS5 is running behind PS4 is in Europe, where *checks notes* the PS5 is the most expensive, but Sony will catch up on this once EA FC abandons the previous generation.

Still behind the PS4 launch aligned globally, and will be further behind by the end of FY24.

 

[voke]

Europe economy in shambles. makes sense they are behind

 

[Loy310]

The worst xbox in 2 generations, really is there wiiu

 

[Danja]

The worst xbox in 2 generations, really is there wiiu

more like their N64 without the games.

 

[Cool hand luke]

How do the doomers explain this despite the PC ports and the lack of game announcements/events? Could it be that you're all just delusional and rabid fanboys living in your own echo chambers?

PS5 is also ahead in Japan launch aligned and until recently was in the UK as well... All despite the pandemic and despite being MORE expensive than the PS4 and not getting a price cut or a Pro model yet and all before GTA6 releases.

The only place where PS5 is running behind PS4 is in Europe, where *checks notes* the PS5 is the most expensive, but Sony will catch up on this once EA FC abandons the previous generation.

Sony are forecasting to be behind PS4 even further by next April.

We explain things in terms that don't make sense to short-sighted low-scope brainlets. We said gamepass was bad for gaming and unsustainable, brainlets said subs were the future. We said PC ports were a dilution of the brand, brainlets said look at these peanuts they made from PC sales last year.

 

[arvfab]

People still missing the fact that consequences of such decisions aren't immediate.

Also regarding PS5 being more expensive in EU being the reason for it trailing behind PS4 sales:

1. At launch people were willing to spend scalper prices to get a PS5, now the console is "too expensive"

2. The same people were arguing how a (more expensive) PS5 Pro would help overtake the PS4

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

With the way Xbox is cratering and even Switch dropping more heavily now, PS5 should be comfortably ahead of PS4 by a good bit more than 8%. So my only answer to why that isn't happening is because a bigger portion of those would-be PS5 buyers coming from Xbox and Nintendo are going to PC (and to a lesser extent, mobile) rather than PlayStation.

So it's not like Sony aren't losing potential sales: they are. It's just not enough to have PS5 tracking behind PS4 in the US market. Since you brought up Japan though...well there for the year, yes PS5 is tracking behind PS4 just looking at CY 2024 vs CY 2017. The drop in PS5 sales in Japan from last CY to this CY has been absolutely significant, and it's still not out of the question they could be looking at 10K-15K weeklies as the norm going forward.

Is it the PC ports causing this to happen? No, not exclusively. And again I would even say that for now they aren't the biggest factor: pricing and economic factors outside of Sony's control are likely the bigger culprit as to why, for example, PS5 is "only" up 8% PS4 in the US (I'm not trying to say this to downplay it being up, just saying it could and probably should likely be even more up vs PS4 considering the collapse with Xbox and the slowdown with Switch).

However, and like I've been saying for a while, the PC ports certainly aren't playing a non-zero factor in this. We'll see to what degree they're having an impact on longer-term adoption rates once the PS5 Pro releases, provided Sony/SIE continue their porting strategy the same as they have up to this point (or get even more aggressive with it). You're eventually going to be wrong in underestimating the long-term impact of their PC porting strategy on PS console sales (and even B2P, subscription & MTX revenue), Mibu.

Or at least, I have a very strong feeling you will be. But again, that's only if things continue as-is or the pacing & volume of ports picks up even more going forward. Heck, we might get a glimpse into if that happens later tonight .

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Great sales for PS5 but it feels like it should be higher. Xbox dropped 13% so PS5 should be +15% because gaming is bigger now. Still, 8% is good enough to prove consoles are not doomed.

Sony are forecasting to be behind PS4 even further by next April.

We explain things in terms that don't make sense to short-sighted low-scope brainlets. We said gamepass was bad for gaming and unsustainable, brainlets said subs were the future. We said PC ports were a dilution of the brand, brainlets said look at these peanuts they made from PC sales last year.

This would be like Klobrille making graphs to celebrate the sales of Sea Of Thieves and Grounded on PS5 but then you look at the sales of Xbox consoles and it's not the win you think it is

I'm sure MS is very happy about all that extra money but at the cost of losing even more people in their ecosystem. Same for Sony and the PC ports. The line is going up but at what price?

 

[TigerFang]

 

[Yurinka]

PS5 is way more expensive than PS4 was at this point (it had a price increase while PS4 had a price cut instead).

This, combined with the economy being fucked (huge inflation followed by covid and seriously hurt by sanctions to Russia) would explain why Europe -at least in some countries- is behind PS4, but I assume not much behind.

But yes, covid caused the console shortages and price increase instead of price cut. Without covid PS5 would be selling way better both in Europe and worldwide.

We also have to consider that half of the active PS userbase is still on PS4. Most if not all these 60M users will move to PS5 some day, have been longer than usual there due to GaaS, F2P, PS+ and crossgen games. I think once crossgen stops and the GaaS/F2P games available them stop being supported I assume people will migrate faster.

 

[ApolloHelios]

People still missing the fact that consequences of such decisions aren't immediate.

Also regarding PS5 being more expensive in EU being the reason for it trailing behind PS4 sales:

1. At launch people were willing to spend scalper prices to get a PS5, now the console is "too expensive"

2. The same people were arguing how a (more expensive) PS5 Pro would help overtake the PS4

Few enthusiasts eating high costs of scalper prices =/= console sales en masse in huge numbers. There were millions of posts on forums, reddit, all around internet for exchanging stock information for regular prices or low amount of scalping.

Then there's also an economic crisis not during the launch but well AFTER.

Pro console buyers are enthusiasts similar to scalp price eaters who will make bank for Sony.

PS5 isn't just more expensive than PS4 time aligned, it had a PRICE INCREASE when money itself got expensive for Europe so it is doubly harder to buy it time aligned in their respective console sale timelines, not because there's no stock, but there's no money to just spend willy-nilly on entertainment.

 

[Entropi]

The industry is collapsing!!!1!one

 

[mibu no ookami]

 

[mibu no ookami]

Sony are forecasting to be behind PS4 even further by next April.

We explain things in terms that don't make sense to short-sighted low-scope brainlets. We said gamepass was bad for gaming and unsustainable, brainlets said subs were the future. We said PC ports were a dilution of the brand, brainlets said look at these peanuts they made from PC sales last year.

Sony has forecast the same number they forecast for the PS4 launch aligned, yet sold 19 million units. A forecast is a forecast. Their goal is always going to be to hit or exceed that forecast. Continue to tell me how you don't know what a forecast is.

With the way Xbox is cratering and even Switch dropping more heavily now, PS5 should be comfortably ahead of PS4 by a good bit more than 8%. So my only answer to why that isn't happening is because a bigger portion of those would-be PS5 buyers coming from Xbox and Nintendo are going to PC (and to a lesser extent, mobile) rather than PlayStation.

So it's not like Sony aren't losing potential sales: they are. It's just not enough to have PS5 tracking behind PS4 in the US market. Since you brought up Japan though...well there for the year, yes PS5 is tracking behind PS4 just looking at CY 2024 vs CY 2017. The drop in PS5 sales in Japan from last CY to this CY has been absolutely significant, and it's still not out of the question they could be looking at 10K-15K weeklies as the norm going forward.

Is it the PC ports causing this to happen? No, not exclusively. And again I would even say that for now they aren't the biggest factor: pricing and economic factors outside of Sony's control are likely the bigger culprit as to why, for example, PS5 is "only" up 8% PS4 in the US (I'm not trying to say this to downplay it being up, just saying it could and probably should likely be even more up vs PS4 considering the collapse with Xbox and the slowdown with Switch).

However, and like I've been saying for a while, the PC ports certainly aren't playing a non-zero factor in this. We'll see to what degree they're having an impact on longer-term adoption rates once the PS5 Pro releases, provided Sony/SIE continue their porting strategy the same as they have up to this point (or get even more aggressive with it). You're eventually going to be wrong in underestimating the long-term impact of their PC porting strategy on PS console sales (and even B2P, subscription & MTX revenue), Mibu.

Or at least, I have a very strong feeling you will be. But again, that's only if things continue as-is or the pacing & volume of ports picks up even more going forward. Heck, we might get a glimpse into if that happens later tonight .

i.e. I have no facts, but I do have strong feelings.

They've literally gone from, the PS5 is selling less than the PS4 launch aligned to, oh it should be selling more since Xbox is doing so bad and when GTA6 drops and everyone buys PS5s for it and Europe catches up and the PS5 ends up millions ahead of the PS4, they'll simply say, it should have been more but the decline IS coming, we promise...

 

[Danja]

Just remember Sony wanted the PS5 to be at 63 million by the end of the march

 

[Cool hand luke]

Sony has forecast the same number they forecast for the PS4 launch aligned, yet sold 19 million units. A forecast is a forecast. Their goal is always going to be to hit or exceed that forecast. Continue to tell me how you don't know what a forecast is.

Clown in the mirror, indeed. For publicly traded companies, a forecast is meant to be the most accurate representation of where the company thinks they'll end up, as guidance for investors. Exceeding a forecast on units has ramifications for profit when the console is sold at a loss.

Continue to get schooled in every aspect of business.

 

[Wing84]

Still behind the PS4 launch aligned globally, and will be further behind by the end of FY24.

The real question is which is more important to Sony; the console sales or the revenue. If the revenue is higher, meh?

 

[mibu no ookami]

Clown in the mirror, indeed. For publicly traded companies, a forecast is meant to be the most accurate representation of where the company thinks they'll end up, as guidance for investors. Exceeding a forecast on units has ramifications for profit when the console is sold at a loss.

Continue to get schooled in every aspect of business.

Sell 1 million more PS5s assuming they're taking a 50 dollar loss on hardware is 50 million dollars... That's not going to be enough to dramatically impact operating income for the year.

Again, they estimated 18 million for the PS4 for the same year launch aligned.

We have no idea what the margin is on the PS5 Pro. It's extremely difficult to accurately forecast PS5 Pro sales and demand. They're probably modeling in off of first year sales of the PS4 Pro, but the PS5 Pro is likely to be more expensive than the PS4 Pro relative to the PS5. Maybe they're considering that as well.

If you take their sales from last year which were 20.8 and then reduce this by 30% you get 14.56. So if nothing changed and you think you're going to be down 30% this year, that's how much you think you'll get, but they know the PS5 Pro is going to launch. They probably think between US, Europe, and Japan they can sell at least 3 million units this year. That brings you to 17.56 million units. Just short of the 18 million units, which sounds like a pretty conservative number, but again, almost impossible to accurately gauge demand on this scale.

My guess is if they're planning to sell about 3 million of these units they'll ship at least 5 million.

They don't have a big game like Spider-Man 2 but they'll be able to adjust promotional sales based on how far they are from that target of 18 million.

Let's now assume PS5 sales are down 40% for the year. That would be 12.48 million units for the entire year and the same 3 million units of PS5 Pro would bring you to 15.48 million which is 2.52 million shy of the forecast. First this wouldn't be the end of the world, because Sony would rather sell PS5s in 2025 at full price with GTA6 pushing units than to sell more units with a price cut in 2024. They could still easily recover the distance of what would be closer to 3.5 million under the PS4 with the release of GTA6 and a PS5 price cut the following fiscal year.

So the question for you doomers has to be do you really think that the PS5 Pro will sell less than 3 million units between October and March? And do you really think that GTA6 can't out perform 2018's God of War and Spider-Man in terms of pushing units. Do you really think that in fiscal year 2026 that a price cut won't push more units for the year than sold in 2019?

The runway is long for PS5, but I've already seen the argument you guys will make when the PS5 outsells the PS4. That it just should have sold more no matter how many units more it sells...

 

[xollowsob]

How do the doomers explain this despite the PC ports and the lack of game announcements/events? Could it be that you're all just delusional and rabid fanboys living in your own echo chambers?

PS5 is also ahead in Japan launch aligned and until recently was in the UK as well... All despite the pandemic and despite being MORE expensive than the PS4 and not getting a price cut or a Pro model yet and all before GTA6 releases.

The only place where PS5 is running behind PS4 is in Europe, where *checks notes* the PS5 is the most expensive, but Sony will catch up on this once EA FC abandons the previous generation.

Sounds like cope.
I'm sure Sony are chuffed that, with less completion than before, they are launch aligned with a console made on a shoe-string, amidst bankruptcy rumours and the entire gaming media going against them.

Good job, Sony. The haters are definitely wrong.

But I'm sure Europe will start buying those millions of PS5s sat on shelves any day now. Surely.