Sony sold 4.5 million PS5 consoles in its first quarter of launch despite the continued shortage of supply issues to meet the massive demand. The company revealed the information alongside its Q4 2020 earnings.
The impressive sales figures were expected after multiple reports from the company that indicated massive demand, pre-launch, and after launch.
The PS4 is still selling too, but demand has continued to contract as people seek to upgrade to the new PS5 console.
In the quarter, Sony sold 1.4 million PS4 units, a slight decrease from the 1.5 million shipped in the quarter prior despite the holiday period. The 1.4 million units is a massive 77 percent decrease from the prior year.
The October-December quarter is reportedly the company’s best in history. Revenue was up 40 percent YoY to 883.2 billion yen ($8.4 billion), while profits increased by half to 80.2 billion yen ($767 million) thanks to the PS5 launch and strong software sales in software and network.
The number of PlayStation®Plus (PS Plus) subscribers and Monthly Active Users on PlayStation™Network also increased to 47.4 million.
Despite the impressive business performance, Sony reveals it shed some of its profit gains for selling the PS5 at a loss. The new console is being sold for less than what it cost the company to make it.
It cited “strategic price points for PS5 hardware that were set lower than the manufacturing costs.”
It is remembered that multiple reports before the PS5 launch indicated the Japanese console maker grappled with pricing due to costly parts. The worst-case scenario is they waited for serial competitor Microsoft to reveal the pricing of its next-gen Xbox Series X first to price its PS5 console strategically.
In terms of profits, Sony is not enjoying the gaming boom alone. Rival Microsoft made $5 billion in revenue from its Xbox division in the same quarter, the highest revenue from the gaming business in a single quarter. Unlike Sony, Microsoft didn’t reveal Xbox Series X/S sales figures, but it said it sold all its inventory in 2020.
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