The graph says that as of March 2024 they almost (must be already achieved by now) generated more revenue than in any previous generation. And more profit than in all combined. So they are better than ever.
Revenue isn't profit. With the high price of everything, generating more revenue is natural and expected.
Better than ever for the share holders or the gamers? Get some perspective.
"disastrous past two years" -> fantasy debunked by that graph
"monumental drop-off" and stagnation" -> fantasy debunked by that graph, revenue keeps growing evey year
How many exclusives have been launched in two years? Yes, disastrous and stagnation
If you mean the drop in profit, according to what Sony said these two years it's because of the costs of their acquisitions (which includes growing their studios) plus also the rise hardware component costs. But still, in half of the generation they made more profit than in all previous generations combined.
They have not made more profit in half a generation than all of the rest combined. That's cope.
Regarding the price drop, they said that in all the previous generations the hardware components got cheaper over time, so even if they starting selling consoles at a loss, over time they ended selling it at a profit, with enough marget to apply price cuts. But in the PS5 happened the opposite, these components got more expensive over time, to the point that they couldn't apply price cut and instead forced them to increase it (in addition to inflation, currency exchange etc) to don't keep the loses from each unit sold too high. They also took several aggresive actions to improve their profitability and compensate that and continue working on it.
Components don't get more expensive over time. Again, Sony cope. They're hoodwinking you and people are believing this shit.
They've made profit per unit since day one, then increased the price of consoles.
How do you think they're recouping the losses for flops and cancelled games? They're not just eating that.
Concord flops, price of PSN goes up. What a coincidence.
Regarding PS5 sales vs PS4, despide having had the shortages issues, not being able to price cut it and the global economical crysis, in terms of units PS5 is outselling PS4 in USA, Japan, China and some EU countries. But not worldwide by a little margin because in some other EU countries is behind. In terms of revenue is outselling PS5 worldwide. And the revenue from accesories, software, subscriptions and off-PS first party revenue is also in all time high, better than in any generation.
Read this again, then engage your brain to see why it's bullshit. PS5 is outselling PS4 world wide but is selling worse overall because small EU countries who buy 100,000 per generation? Imagine believing that.
Regarding PS5 hardware sales slowing down in units, it's normal because it's what happens in all consoles when they past the peak of their sales cycle curve. As you can see in this other graph, the yearly sales make a somewhat curve for all home consoles, having their peak normally between somewhere their 3rd and 5th year and after that they normally keep declining every year. Switch is different because the curves of portables is different, with a later peak and a longer life than home consoles:
You say it declined, when the PS4 did the exact opposite. PS5 sales have stalled because there's no demand. There's no demand because there are no games worth paying the extortionate price for.
As Sony mentioned, PS5 yearly sales peaked last fiscal year. Which means that going worfard its yearly sales should be decreasing every year, as normal in a console's life cycle.
Except this didn't happen with PS3 or PS4 so...not so normal.
And well, launch aligned PS5 is super close to PS4. At the current point of the graph for PS5 (last march, when the most recent FY ended) was super close to PS4 and Switch and above them there was only the Wii exception, which had a crazy early peak and then faded, barely reaching slightly above 100M units sold at the end of its life. Sooner or later PS5 will pass Wii.
There's that magic buzzword again, "launch aligned". Corporate cope that fudges the numbers for the shareholders.
PS5 will not pass the Wii.
Use your brain man, good Lord. How can the PS5 sales be stalling yet expected to beat the Wii and PS4? You're high as a kite if you believe this shit.
Regarding potential units sold during the second half of the PS5 generation, we have to consider that around half of the active PS userbase still is in PS4, meaning there's a ton of users who will upgrade later (pretty likely with GTA6 or when games like FIFA, AC, etc stop being crossgen or when big GaaS like Fortnite, Minecraft etc stop getting supported in PS4). And that around half of PS5 sales comes from users who are new to PS5. Meaning they come from Xbox, PC or because of the movies/tv shows.
People aren't upgrading a console for GTA6. GTA6 will be a long-term disappointment. It may sell well to start but it isn't possible for GTA6 to be bigger than GTA5. Line doesn't always go up.
The rest of this is cope. After four years, if the casuals haven't jumped on the console, it's dead in the water.
PS5 sales were front loaded due to COVID, now most people who wanted one, have one, while most either bought one and no longer play it (and issue nobody addresses) or they're just not buying one because gaming has stagnated.
So no, there's no stagnation or lack of demand at all. PS5 is one of the best performers in gaming history and is behaving as expected at this point of its life cycle.
Of course there is. You type all of this fucking word salad and just contradict yourself at every new paragraph.
You say consoles hit their peak and sales slow, then say there's no stagnation, then show a graph showing stagnation which you handwave away then agree there's no stagnation according to nothing
Pick a lane already.
If you can't see that gaming industry sales have stalled, then I question your mental capabilities of correctly processing information.
Xbox has sold the worst it has ever done. IF Xbox series was selling 360 numbers, playstation would be the next sega.
But Microsoft aren't, because demand and interest for consoles across the board is dead.
See the bigger picture and take the blinkers off.