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[jroc74]

The gap widens in the US and Japan.

However, The PS5 is 5 million units behind PS4 sales in Europe due to the shortage of available consoles during the pandemic.

At this point, the PS5 is ahead of the PS2

PS5 54.8 m
PS2 51.2 m



PS5 would have obliterated the PS4.


(Nov 2022 - Apr 2024)



(Nov 2015 - Apr 2017)





PlayStation is more dominant than ever

Feb 2024
#1 PS5
#1 Helldivers 2
#1 PS Portal


Sadly, Jim Ryan, probably Sony Group's top-performing CEO in four decades, will retire next week.

Which means that "the accountants" could run wild and kill all PS5 momentum.

The "accountants"

Yeah.




Their profit margins are fine. Successful asset-light strategies will usually have low margins, but high capital turns and ROIC:

Since 1994 6.1%
FY23 6.4%

Sacrificing long-term performance for short-term profits would be catastrophic (Walkman, Trinitron), but C-Suite compensation is tied directly to Sony's stock price and EPS.

The elephant in the room: The "accountants" have wasted $18 billion on buybacks, dividends, Music and Pictures. Their poor strategic decisions about capital allocation had a detrimental effect on Sony Group's ability to generate sufficient cash flows.

The "accountants" are projecting their own flaws onto others (G&NS)

Love mic drop posts like this.

Kudos.

 

[nosoynadie22]

Don't believe him, a guy told me that there are 15 million unsold PS5 consoles in warehouses

 

[Metnut]

Pretty cool that FF7 Re beat Persona 3 Remake and Yakuza 8 despite only being on LS5. We know that Yakuza 8 sell well over a million, probably closer to 2 million, so FF7 Re at least did ok. Add in whatever Sony gave them for the exclusivity and you’re looking at a profitable game.

 

[Auto_aim1]

Helldivers 2 is a big surprise.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

Helldivers 2 is a big surprise.

As the recent news mentioned, this was only the way it is because someone at Sony saw the potential and deliberately injected funding into it. The original is a cult classic, but the studio didn't have enough resources to make the sequel big until they got unexpected help.

 

[twilo99]

Another full year of Sony winning, Xbox loosing 2:1 in their main market, we love to see it.

Just curious, why is that a reason for celebration?

 

[Porticus]

Because incompetence actually seems to have a consequence, is good to see that.

 

[yazenov]

Don't believe him, a guy told me that there are 15 million unsold PS5 consoles in warehouses

From the table above
Total US+EU+JPN:

PS5: 1,057.5k
Switch: 624.8k
XBS: 293.4K

Switch outsells the XBX by 2x in its 7th year. PS5 by more than 3.5x . This year will be rough for Xbox and the years to come will be even worse when the PS5 pro + PS5 regular gets a permanent price cut.

 

[nosoynadie22]

From the table above
Total US+EU+JPN:

PS5: 1,057.5k
Switch: 624.8k
XBS: 293.4K

Switch outsells the XBX by 2x in its 7th year. PS5 by more than 3.5x . This year will be rough for Xbox and the years to come will be even worse when the PS5 pro + PS5 regular gets a permanent price cut.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Just curious, why is that a reason for celebration?

I wouldn't say celebrate it but hopefully its gives Microsoft an incentive to make changes so they can do better.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

I wouldn't say celebrate it but hopefully its gives Microsoft an incentive to make changes so they can do better.

Like when Phil Spencer took over and saved Xbox?

 

[MasterCornholio]

Like when Phil Spencer took over and saved Xbox?

Well it's up to them to make those choices. Hopefully the bad performance of the Series makes them change their minds.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Well it's up to them to make those choices. Hopefully the bad performance of the Series makes them change their minds.

The only thing they know to do is buy up studios and publishers. The longer Sony and Nintendo dominate them the more they'll spend.

 

[YukiOnna]

Pretty cool that FF7 Re beat Persona 3 Remake and Yakuza 8 despite only being on LS5. We know that Yakuza 8 sell well over a million, probably closer to 2 million, so FF7 Re at least did ok. Add in whatever Sony gave them for the exclusivity and you’re looking at a profitable game.

And I believe development cost should be less than 7 Remake's due to pre-production, game design and all foundational assets & systems being completed with the first game (hence the quick turn-around).

 

[nosoynadie22]

 

[H-I-M]

Just curious, why is that a reason for celebration?

I hope you're not bothered cause we WILL definitely keep on celebrating Sony's wins and Xbox's loss.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

And I believe development cost should be less than 7 Remake's due to pre-production, game design and all foundational assets & systems being completed with the first game (hence the quick turn-around).

Quite hard to say, because as you say the investment made into Remake as you point out would have saved them a ton of time and costs for Rebirth. It has had a much smoother development with the dev pipeline carrying over. Remake on the other hand a bit of a rocky initial 2-3 years of development

But then I guess we consider that Rebirth is magnitudes bigger and from an asset perspective has so much more than Remake. It's quite nuts how much bigger it is.

Either way I suspect Rebirth will be very profitable for them. It's not just the sales from the software, but also the exclusivity deals and merchandise sales. The excellent critical and fan reception for it will make more pick up part 1 too. I think both games will have gradual legs over the lifecycle of the PS5 and PC. Then the final part if as good or better than Rebirth will again boost sales for the trilogy.

 

[Tsaki]

It's interesting to compare the Portal and Edge. Both are accessories and take the top spots in generating revenue but have different profit-making goals.
The Edge sells for about $200 but is very cheap to make, making it an active profit generating device. The Portal costs the same but is not cheap to make (meaning generating immediate profit is not the primary objective), with its goal being to generate passive profit with the buyer hopefully spending more time and money in the ecosystem (e.g. if you prefer to play JRPGs in bed the Switch would be the previous choice but now Playstation becomes an option for many).

 

[twilo99]

I hope you're not bothered cause we WILL definitely keep on celebrating Sony's wins and Xbox's loss.

The fanboy dynamic is exactly why all of this is so entertaining, so yes, please continue to celebrate those wins!

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

The gap widens in the US and Japan.

However, The PS5 is 5 million units behind PS4 sales in Europe due to the shortage of available consoles during the pandemic.

At this point, the PS5 is ahead of the PS2

PS5 54.8 m
PS2 51.2 m



PS5 would have obliterated the PS4.


(Nov 2022 - Apr 2024)



(Nov 2015 - Apr 2017)





PlayStation is more dominant than ever

Feb 2024
#1 PS5
#1 Helldivers 2
#1 PS Portal


Sadly, Jim Ryan, probably Sony Group's top-performing CEO in four decades, will retire next week.

Which means that "the accountants" could run wild and kill all PS5 momentum.

The "accountants"

Yeah.




Their profit margins are fine. Successful asset-light strategies will usually have low margins, but high capital turns and ROIC:

Since 1994 6.1%
FY23 6.4%

Sacrificing long-term performance for short-term profits would be catastrophic (Walkman, Trinitron), but C-Suite compensation is tied directly to Sony's stock price and EPS.

The elephant in the room: The "accountants" have wasted $18 billion on buybacks, dividends, Music and Pictures. Their poor strategic decisions about capital allocation had a detrimental effect on Sony Group's ability to generate sufficient cash flows.

The "accountants" are projecting their own flaws onto others (G&NS)

You didn't have to go this hard. But true. Specially those game lists.

People forget what a wasteland PS4 era was for the first few years. Sony is doing much better currently than from 2013/2016.

 

[Radical_3d]

The fanboy dynamic is exactly why all of this is so entertaining, so yes, please continue to celebrate those wins!

The fanboy stuff is fun but I’d wish PS fans were more critical with the post-PS3 Sony. Not that I’m surprised that the same GAF that loved the uninspired 360 dominance with cover shooters is now in awe with the PS4-5 uninspired “we’ve even make GoW a cinematic experience” Sony, but kinda disappointed that even in a niche forum like this there is not a shred of criticism to the lack of creativity that once made PlayStation what it is today. But judging by the numbers I don’t think we’ll see that coming back: it’s at its peak sales-wise and in its low in diversity and quality. And I’m not without guilt: I buy every console they release and I’ll be there day one for the Pro. But, you know, I just wanted to acknowledge that fuck post Kutaragi’s Sony.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Quite hard to say, because as you say the investment made into Remake as you point out would have saved them a ton of time and costs for Rebirth. It has had a much smoother development with the dev pipeline carrying over. Remake on the other hand a bit of a rocky initial 2-3 years of development

More than that I think. Based upon the Dec 2015 trailer, people thought Remake was coming out in 2016, lol.

 

[yurinka]

So Helldivers 2 launched at $40? Why so cheap?

As a multiplayer game, needs the biggest userbase possible, specially at launch. Lowering the price makes easier to get more players. Going F2P maximizes the amount of players that the game gets, but forces to have aggresive monetization to make the game profitable. Selling it a $40 is a middle point: gets more players and they make sure each player spent at least $40, what they need to make the game profitable, without needing to be aggresive with monetization.

So the in-game economy is very generous: you unlock enough game currency to buy the premium warbonds (premium battle passes), which don't expire when the next one gets releasaed playing only around 5-10 hours per week. Plus also unlock to get some extra cosmetics in the rotating stores.

And the really important unlocks (stratagems and ship upgrades) aren't included there and can't be acquired paying real money: you can only get them with loot and rewards you get by completing missions.

 

[yurinka]

The gap widens in the US and Japan.

However, The PS5 is 5 million units behind PS4 sales in Europe due to the shortage of available consoles during the pandemic.

At this point, the PS5 is ahead of the PS2

PS5 54.8 m
PS2 51.2 m



PS5 would have obliterated the PS4.


(Nov 2022 - Apr 2024)



(Nov 2015 - Apr 2017)





PlayStation is more dominant than ever

Feb 2024
#1 PS5
#1 Helldivers 2
#1 PS Portal


Sadly, Jim Ryan, probably Sony Group's top-performing CEO in four decades, will retire next week.

Which means that "the accountants" could run wild and kill all PS5 momentum.

The "accountants"

Yeah.




Their profit margins are fine. Successful asset-light strategies will usually have low margins, but high capital turns and ROIC:

Since 1994 6.1%
FY23 6.4%

Sacrificing long-term performance for short-term profits would be catastrophic (Walkman, Trinitron), but C-Suite compensation is tied directly to Sony's stock price and EPS.

The elephant in the room: The "accountants" have wasted $18 billion on buybacks, dividends, Music and Pictures. Their poor strategic decisions about capital allocation had a detrimental effect on Sony Group's ability to generate sufficient cash flows.

The "accountants" are projecting their own flaws onto others (G&NS)

Yup. Jimbo's PS performed super well since 2019 breaking records in all fronts. They made more yearly revenue than any console maker ever did, also has the biggest active userbase they ever did (there's still a huge active PS4 userbase), they also gaming history revenue record for software, accesories and game sub. Game sub that also has the biggest amount of subs any console game sub ever had.

They are also very successfully expanding to movies, tv shows and multiplatform generating hundreds of millions per year with 1st party games outside PS with Bungie, the PC ports of old games and now GaaS. They also have been very successful expanding to GaaS with MLB, GT7 or Helldivers 2.

They are growing a lot in almost all these areas, meaning in the near future they'll grow in the short/mid term even more. They have been doing a great job.

But it's true that pricing of hardware components and shipments skyrocketed hurting their profitability, to a point they can't price cut the console as did in the past. Which also means hardware sales won't produce profits in the 2nd half of the generation as normally happened before.

So it's true that they have/had to make an effort to improve profitability to compensate it. On top of this, the NATO vs BRICS war for economical hegemony created issues like covid related stuff and the economical block to Russia, a giant market, huge inflation, making EU poor and currency unstability. Which hurted their business. And seems NATO wants to scale the war in Ukraine and to create another proxy war in Taiwan, which could make things worse and block more giant markets, damage currencies and their business even more. So they better improve their short term profitability to save money just in case they need in the mid term.

 

[itshutton]

This will never not be funny to me. The funniest part, though, is that not even Sony knows why this thing is so popular.

Anyone who has a girlfriend who forces them to watch inanely boring series knows why the portal is popular!

 

[YukiOnna]

Quite hard to say, because as you say the investment made into Remake as you point out would have saved them a ton of time and costs for Rebirth. It has had a much smoother development with the dev pipeline carrying over. Remake on the other hand a bit of a rocky initial 2-3 years of development

But then I guess we consider that Rebirth is magnitudes bigger and from an asset perspective has so much more than Remake. It's quite nuts how much bigger it is.

Either way I suspect Rebirth will be very profitable for them. It's not just the sales from the software, but also the exclusivity deals and merchandise sales. The excellent critical and fan reception for it will make more pick up part 1 too. I think both games will have gradual legs over the lifecycle of the PS5 and PC. Then the final part if as good or better than Rebirth will again boost sales for the trilogy.

I think part of why they are able to devote so much to game design & development is thanks to everything being completed beforehand, too. No need to worry about battle system from scratch, all main character models are done, etc. But I don't think cost will be astronomically high regardless compared to what you see elsewhere, so that's good. I think they even mentioned the team isn't as big as people think.

Overall, it will probably sell around similar to Remake and perform well enough. No way they didn't expect direct sequel drop either, but as you said, the IP is more than that + word of mouth.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

From the table above
Total US+EU+JPN:

PS5: 1,057.5k
Switch: 624.8k
XBS: 293.4K

Switch outsells the XBX by 2x in its 7th year. PS5 by more than 3.5x . This year will be rough for Xbox and the years to come will be even worse when the PS5 pro + PS5 regular gets a permanent price cut.

Sony has to make a really interesting decision and calculation.

Do they focus on price margins right now or do they release the PS5 Pro for 500, drop the price of the PS5 to 400, and the PS5 digital to 350?

If they do this with no Switch 2 on the market, they could position themselves really really well.

If the Switch 2 comes out at 400 dollars and isn't as powerful as a PS4 Pro, it may very well struggle to sell against a 350 dollar PS5 Digital and a 400 dollar PS5.

I still go back to thoughts on a PS5 handheld using PSSR to achieve desired resolutions (720p to 1080p for example, maybe even 480p or 540p). Sony is in a unique position to outmaneuver the competition.

 

[Radical_3d]

If the Switch 2 comes out at 400 dollars and isn't as powerful as a PS4 Pro, it may very well struggle to sell against

 

[PixelatedBeast]

We're past the Switch's honey moon phase. What the point of upgrading of your Switch Oled is still working fine and capable enough to run new games? Steamdeck, Legion Go, Rog Ally and Playstation Portal are all going to have something to say next generation my friend.

 

[Woopah]

We're past the Switch's honey moon phase. What the point of upgrading of your Switch Oled is still working fine and capable enough to run new games? Steamdeck, Legion Go, Rog Ally and Playstation Portal are all going to have something to say next generation my friend.

The point of upgrading will be to play the first and third party games on Switch 2 that aren't on the OLED.

 

[Radical_3d]

We're past the Switch's honey moon phase. What the point of upgrading of your Switch Oled is still working fine and capable enough to run new games? Steamdeck, Legion Go, Rog Ally and Playstation Portal are all going to have something to say next generation my friend.

Oh, my sweet summer child… The Vita was so much better than that joke of 3DS. The PSP was so much better than the DS it wasn’t even funny. To paraphrase Jerry Holkins “you create a product to compete with their product, only to find out that they are not selling a product. They are selling a narrative”. And here you are, talking about super specked portable machines and a glorified controller. None of which has a greasy Italian bloody plumber. Many good fanboys have tried and die in the GAF fields in an attempt to fight Nintendo dominance in the handheld market. Spare your energies. Enjoy the ride.

 

[Unknown?]

Oh, my sweet summer child… The Vita was so much better than that joke of 3DS. The PSP was so much better than the DS it wasn’t even funny. To paraphrase Jerry Holkins “you create a product to compete with their product, only to find out that they are not selling a product. They are selling a narrative”. And here you are, talking about super specked portable machines and a glorified controller. None of which has a greasy Italian bloody plumber. Many good fanboys have tried and die in the GAF fields in an attempt to fight Nintendo dominance in the handheld market. Spare your energies. Enjoy the ride.

Doesn't matter if it has that plumber if the hardware isn't desirable. GameCube and WiiU are proof of that.

 

[Radical_3d]

Doesn't matter if it has that plumber if the hardware isn't desirable. GameCube and WiiU are proof of that.

You have to be nuts to call this desirable:

Dated even by 2003 standards.