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Tom Warren “Sony’s PS5 sales down 29% yoy in the recent Q” (forecast FY24 to be lower than FY23)

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
They are not forecasting the Q1 drop to hold. All the information is actually there in the OP if you ignore the commentary.

GNhZDsgWQAAdB79
I wouldnt trust the forecasts of people who were off by a whopping 4.2 million in their last forecast.

But I suppose we will see what happens in the next quarter. Ive seen this before with MS. if sony drops 30% despite shipping their best selling exclusive of all time PLUS an FF7 game then its time to worry.

If I was their CEO and saw their GaaS push resulted in 30% fewer consoles sold, that their moneyhatting resulted in 30% fewer units, and their PC push has destroyed their console margins, i would revert all three policies and go back to making console only single player only first party games and invest the moneyhat money back into retaining first party talent.
 

Mr Moose

Member
If people are that horrified (they should be), maybe they should look into eating vegetarian more often. This is on people's plate every day and those lives are only worth pennies.
Tried being vegan for a few months. I learned I don't like veg and Papa Johns is disgusting. Bring on the chicken parmos.
 
Oh thank goodness. Like c'mon I'm just about to eat breakfast!!



I do think the PC strategy is starting to show its impact on console sales, but I'd also say for right now, the bigger factor for missing sales target were the price increases for the model refresh and the ongoing economic situation in various markets.

That said, the PC ports are 100% not helping them sell PS5s, when at least back at the very beginning, that was the intended goal. To tantalize some PC gamers to pick up a console. And considering the majority of PC gamers interested in console-style games came from console at some point, they could obviously be swayed to pick up a console again if the value proposition were there.

Exclusives are a big part of that value proposition. But in SIE's case, the stagger windows became too short, the frequency of ports way too many, and the QOL additions to console not enough to compete with certain PC storefronts like Steam (let alone the PC platform as a whole).

They could be up by 1 million or down by 1 and you would have the same conclusion because you came to the conclusion before you even had the data.

Who said the goal of PC ports was to help them sell PS5s? I think some people are buying PS PC ports and getting PS5s as a result, just as some people are moving from ps5 to PC. The question is whether either are happening in significant numbers, and the answer is clearly no, and you can see that from record MAUs on PS5 in tandem with PS4. That's evidence that you're ignoring entirely. 2nd most monthly active users in PlayStation history (only bested by the pandemic). This means that people are still actively using their PS4s and remain in the PS ecosystem rather than having moved to PC.

That flies in the face of every argument you're making here. That these people are still active on PS4 suggests that price is likely the largest factor.
 
The fact that they just released their most successful first party game of ALL time and STILL dropped 30% should raise alarm bells. Those insane helldivers 2 PC sales did not help their business. It only hurt it. Just like it did Microsoft's. This should be clear for everyone to see.

I'm not sure whether you're referring to Spider-Man 2 or Helldivers 2. Neither is the most successful first party game of all time, but I digress.

Helldivers 2 is ONLY so successful because of PC. And it absolutely helps their business as their business is making money not just selling PS5s. In fact they expect their operating income to IMPROVE as a result of selling slightly fewer PS5s this fiscal year.
 
30% when you ship the biggest first party exclusive of all time is nuts. Not to mention FF7 Rebirth and Rise of Ronin. FF7 >>>>>>>>> Forspoken. Helldivers = Hogwarts. Literally, they both sold 12 million. Only, Hogwarts sold the vast majority of copies on PS5 and helldivers sold a small majority on PC.

But i guess we will see what the drop is next quarter but that quarter has no games. I would expect a similar drop. Bookmark this post if you want.

It's nuts when you ignore basically every piece of context attached to that drop. They sold more than 6 million PS5s in a qurater that typically only manages 2-3 million.

You expect too much from a single exclusives individual performance and it's direct impact on sales. Horizon didn't bolster the PS4s sales in 2017 that way. Helldivers 2 wasn't going to do that here.
 
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This is the best answer here so far, but you’re also missing a critical factor: the younger generation don’t care for dedicated video game devices and the older generations.


Appreciate that and that is true. As an aside, I can say that my own children haven't really said anything about me getting them a PS5(they both have PS4).

They have expressed a serious desire for a Switch, though. The only reason I haven't done that for them I'd because they have tempers and I worry about it undocked and I'm hesitant to get them with Switch 2 arguably less than a year or so away.


Nintendo just always finds an audience and I think they always will. The Wii U was a mistake, sure but they are always successful with younger generations.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
It's nuts when you ignore basically every piece of context attached to that drop. They sold more than 6 million PS5s in a qurater that typically only manages 2-3 million.
Thats fair. Maybe you are right and things go back up to normal next quarter, but i wouldnt say im ignoring every piece of context when im actually adding MORE context by pointing out helldivers 2, ff7 rebirth and rise of ronin launching in the same quarter. To add even more context, you had Microsoft self imploding this quarter with announcements of games going multiplatform. So their main competition literally just conceded and they still had a drop.

regardless, next quarter is what i will look for. if the sales continue to drop by 30% yoy then we can talk. if not, we can put this as an outlier based on the 6 million outlier quarter from last year.
 
Being 25% higher in price than ps4 at this point in thevlifecycke (adjusted for inflation) probably doesn't help make casuals want to buy it.

Adjusted for Inflation the PS4 launched for $536 dollars.

Two years after launch it dropped in price to 350 or $459 adjusted for inflation.

The next year it dropped in price to 300 dollars or $388 adjusted for inflation.

So yes. The PS5 is absolutely more expensive than the PS4 even when accounting for inflation.

Even the PS4 Pro that launched for 400 dollars was still only 18 dollars more expensive than the PS5 when adjusted for inflation...

Imagine being so wrong...
 

GHG

Member
Thats fair. Maybe you are right and things go back up to normal next quarter, but i wouldnt say im ignoring every piece of context when im actually adding MORE context by pointing out helldivers 2, ff7 rebirth and rise of ronin launching in the same quarter. To add even more context, you had Microsoft self imploding this quarter with announcements of games going multiplatform. So their main competition literally just conceded and they still had a drop.

regardless, next quarter is what i will look for. if the sales continue to drop by 30% yoy then we can talk. if not, we can put this as an outlier based on the 6 million outlier quarter from last year.

The thing is though most of the people who remain on the Xbox platform aren't necessarily rushing out to buy PS5, a lot of them are people who have a deep affinity with Microsoft. It's far more likely that they will go and build/buy a PC instead of getting a PS5 when they've been told to see playstation as the enemy/bad guys for so long (see most of Phil Spencer's comments on Playstation in recent years).

Even anecdotally as someone who used to have an Xbox as a multi-platform owner, when I decided it was time to get rid I didn't go and buy an extra PS4, I simply put that money towards upgrading my PC.
 
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BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
A. Economy in EU is shit and the US aint doing much better. Literally was just in a grocery store looking at $29/lb for skirt steak.

B. They never dropped the price. Have to expect they will after PS5 pro.

C. PSVR2 flopped and was a massive waste of time/ resources that could’ve been used elsewhere.

D. All the BIG games like Fortnite, Apex, FIFA, GTA and CoD all work just fine on a ps4. Casuals who only play these games account for most of the spending on consoles and they’re not being forced to upgrade, so why run out and spend $500 + tip on a new console?
 

pasterpl

Member
Xbox is not the industry. Both PS5 and Swtich (for it's age) are doing fantastic. Pro+GTA 6+Switch 2 will boost the market yet again.

It's bad to be Xbox though, so the silly spin from Warren is understandable.
Sony knows more about ps5 pro and gta6 than any of us, and took this estimates while projecting sales. Companies usually are trying to show best possible scenario, so if Sony itself shows projections like this they know better that any fanboy on this forum.

And re. Spinning - Guy is presenting Sony published numbers and people are attacking him. Wtf? He is not spinning anything.
 

tmlDan

Member
Sony knows more about ps5 pro and gta6 than any of us, and took this estimates while projecting sales. Companies usually are trying to show best possible scenario, so if Sony itself shows projections like this they know better that any fanboy on this forum.

And re. Spinning - Guy is presenting Sony published numbers and people are attacking him. Wtf? He is not spinning anything.
Wait, you expect console sales to continually increase 4 years in the market?

They estimate another 18 million this fiscal, that's not bad lol
 
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pasterpl

Member
Wait, you expect console sales to continually increase 4 years in the market?

They estimate another 18 million this fiscal, that's not bad lol
where did I say that I expect continuous growth? Many Sony fans in this thread expect that. I do expect spikes when ps5 finally will get permanent price cut and when the pro releases along with some traditional Sony games, but nothing substantial. we are now closer to end of this gen so sales will be slowing down. I seriously expect new gen announcement in the next 2 years.
 
Sony knows more about ps5 pro and gta6 than any of us, and took this estimates while projecting sales. Companies usually are trying to show best possible scenario, so if Sony itself shows projections like this they know better that any fanboy on this forum.

And re. Spinning - Guy is presenting Sony published numbers and people are attacking him. Wtf? He is not spinning anything.

GTA VI is not even coming out this fiscal year, Sherlock
 

Woopah

Member
How is the xbox only selling 800k units this year, not the bigger story?
Because that's just an estimate, we don't know the real sales.
Someone would need to crunch the numbers but shrinking overall console platform is going to worry 3rd parties. Hopefully Switch 2 will help.
Switch sold far more third party games than 3DS/Wii U and I expect Switch 2 to sell more third party software than Switch.

So the overall industry should be fine.
Probably because when the market leader starts selling less, it indicates the entire market is shrinking?
The console market is cyclical. The PS5 has peaked and will now decline just like pretty much every platform before it.
Was this the year they forecasted 25 million or something? was is that much?
25 million was the first forecast, then revised down to 21 million.
I wouldnt trust the forecasts of people who were off by a whopping 4.2 million in their last forecast.

But I suppose we will see what happens in the next quarter. Ive seen this before with MS. if sony drops 30% despite shipping their best selling exclusive of all time PLUS an FF7 game then its time to worry.

If I was their CEO and saw their GaaS push resulted in 30% fewer consoles sold, that their moneyhatting resulted in 30% fewer units, and their PC push has destroyed their console margins, i would revert all three policies and go back to making console only single player only first party games and invest the moneyhat money back into retaining first party talent.
As other have pointed out, Q4 of their last fiscal was an anomaly that would not be repeated. I wouldn't be surprised if they never have that type of Q4 ever again.

What we are seeing from PS5 now is normal, successful console sales. Nothing to change strategy for.
 

tmlDan

Member
where did I say that I expect continuous growth? Many Sony fans in this thread expect that. I do expect spikes when ps5 finally will get permanent price cut and when the pro releases along with some traditional Sony games, but nothing substantial. we are now closer to end of this gen so sales will be slowing down. I seriously expect new gen announcement in the next 2 years.
they're crazy then lol

But i don't believe the new gen will start until 2027/28, it will only start for xbox because they cant sell a million in a quarter
 

DryvBy

Member
And the forecast from Sony will still have them trailing the PS4 at the end of the next financial year, and that includes the launch of the new Pro.

I'm not saying it will, but that is the forecast Sony put out.

Economy is in the toilet and groceries cost 4x more than they did under that angry Orange Man. I'm shocked they're even selling games at this point. People are poorer than they've ever been.

No company should be thinking things will increase during a bad economy.
 

pasterpl

Member
they're crazy then lol

But i don't believe the new gen will start until 2027/28, it will only start for xbox because they cant sell a million in a quarter
That timeline is similar to mine. Announcement within next 2 years with release around years you listed.
 
Not a big fan of GTA since it went 3D, so don’t track its release date. But based int this Sony is admitting that they have nothing to push sales In terms of blockbusters/system sellers.

You confess that you don't know what you're talking about but that doesn't stop you from putting out rubbish analysis.

Sony's numbers are first off probably more conservative now that they see the tailwinds of PS5 demand have cooled.

Their forecasts are generally conservative. They forecast the exact same number of PS4s in the equivalent year when the PS4 sold 19 million rather than 18 million.

You clearly don't know how forecasting works.

That they're only expecting hardware sales to be down 13.5% YoY without Spider-Man 2 and some of the aforementioned tailwinds, it's clear Sony is expecting considerable sales for PS5 Pro to bolster the otherwise fading PS5 sales. Their projections will become much more clear after Q1.

They were down 29% YoY from Q4 but aren't expecting to drop a further 29% YoY for the entire fiscal year compared to 2023. It's much more steady decline, despite Hogwarts Legacy and Spider-Man 2.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
I think it's time to face the reality that years of arguing warring fanboys have held onto the thought that a lost sale for Xbox is a sale gained for Playstation or visa versa. The reality is far from it.

It depends how you look at it. It's very possible Microsoft created a new, budget friendly market with the Series S that didnt exist in prior gen. In that case, it's more accurate to compare premium consoles and since Series X vs S split is ~50/50, you can get to a reasonsable conclusion that PS5 did successfully steal market share nearly 1:1 compared to last gen.
 

Zathalus

Member
Adjusted for Inflation the PS4 launched for $536 dollars.

Two years after launch it dropped in price to 350 or $459 adjusted for inflation.

The next year it dropped in price to 300 dollars or $388 adjusted for inflation.

So yes. The PS5 is absolutely more expensive than the PS4 even when accounting for inflation.

Even the PS4 Pro that launched for 400 dollars was still only 18 dollars more expensive than the PS5 when adjusted for inflation...

Imagine being so wrong...
Er, he agrees with you.
Wake up boys, new senjutsu pack dropped






I love SenjutsuSage. Nowhere else can I get such top quality delusional takes for free. Always entertaining to read.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Adjusted for Inflation the PS4 launched for $536 dollars.

Two years after launch it dropped in price to 350 or $459 adjusted for inflation.

The next year it dropped in price to 300 dollars or $388 adjusted for inflation.

So yes. The PS5 is absolutely more expensive than the PS4 even when accounting for inflation.

Even the PS4 Pro that launched for 400 dollars was still only 18 dollars more expensive than the PS5 when adjusted for inflation...

Imagine being so wrong...

You have the same number I was working with for this time period (3 years+ after release), $388 for ps4 vs $499 for ps5 currently, which is around 25 more. I'm not sure what your point it about being so wrong.
 
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