Question for you – as much as I dislike the direction Sony went this gen, don't sales numbers conclusively prove that the broader market has no issues? It obviously wouldn't continue doing as well as it has if it wasn't a continually appealing product, surely.
In terms of overall sales numbers I think they're riding high off the momentum and goodwill of PS4: "PS4 was great so I'll give PS5 a shot [as a matter of course]".
As for overall revenue, a lot of it is services / microtransactions which is more attributable to either a wider bunch of casuals who spend a little but are very fickle and could disappear if the wind changes -or- whales who make up a small chunk of the market but spend a lot.
Sony have also been aggressive on margins too. PS Plus is up by quite a bit and it's kind of a necessity for most players while all of their hardware is being pushed for profits -- not just peripherals where they traditionally marked things up -- but the consoles themselves where they used to favour moving more units at a small loss or break even to get people into the ecosystem. They're all about getting every penny upfront now. Even PSVR2 got marked up enormously when they could've settled for a small-moderate profit, recouping R&D over a longer period but in turn establishing a stronger platform and wider base who could buy more VR software.
PS5 is absolutely successful financially but my experience with pretty much everyone I know (and I know lots of gamers from all walks of life) is that this generation has burned them, that Sony barely showed up and they're just gonna stick with PS5 until it peters out and either forgo gaming altogether or move to PC; this is, if they haven't already. I sold my own PS5 after 18mths as it become a paperweight and I'm the last person in the world to sit out on tech, I only considering jumping back in 3yrs later for DS2/GTAVI. I've now sold 4 PS5s on eBay for friends/relatives and built 3 PCs for folks who dumped their PS5.
I'm not sayin it's gonna be some crash and burn catastrophe, but I think Sony need to convince a sizeable chunk of PS5 gamers that PS6 is worth it, as the good will from the PS4 gen is wavering and I think PS6 will see a notable drop off relative to prior gens after the initial hype/early adopter period settles.
Despite the impressive financials I don't think it reads as a recipe for continued success at that level. I reckon Sony have to really show up going into PS6.
I don't get a sense that this a company thinking long term. It seems like a company in money extraction mode, getting every penny they can with little regard for long term brand health..... I know that sounds naïve when we're talking about a company which is inhabited by folks with the main priority of making as much money as possible for themselves and the shareholders. But I believe the "old guard" (perhaps with exception to latter day Jim Ryan and his GaaS love affair) who were there in the early days had a genuine love for the brand, for gaming and for the platform; and they expertly-balanced profit-making and cut-throat business against the long term health of the brand in all but a few brief periods. Late PS3 through to mid PS4 headed up by Andrew House & Jack Tretton was a masterclass in a measured approach to save a brand.
Now Sony have had opportunity after opportunity to really knock it out of the park on a foundation of success and they've spent most of the time doing the bare minimum while chasing trends, mainly with an excessive GaaS-focus, to the detriment of their bread and butter: the AAA single player line up. The only real fruit of that labour so far has been Helldivers II.
On top of all their own issues, Xbox barely showed up this gen, so that's only contributing to the complacency.
