Sony’s game console performs worse than expected

The electronics and entertainment group Sony benefited from strong demand in its games and networking division during the important Christmas quarter. However, things with the PS5 gaming console were worse than expected. Instead of 25 million PS5 sales in the current financial year (until the end of March), the Japanese now expect 21 million sales.

Since its market launch in November 2020, the PS5 has been sold 54.8 million times. By comparison, Nintendo has sold 139.4 million units of its Switch since March 2017 and expects another 15.5 million units for the current fiscal year, even though a successor to the console is just around the corner.

Sony managed to sell no less than 8 million consoles in the Christmas quarter, but the strong Christmas activities could no longer compensate for the lower than expected sales in the first two quarters. For the entire financial year, the Japanese group therefore expects slightly less turnover than before: the target is now 12.3 trillion yen (76.3 billion euros), after the forecast was raised to 12.4 trillion three months ago. In the first nine months, sales rose by a fifth to more than 9.5 trillion yen, Sony announced on Wednesday.

The management has slightly more confidence in the operating result and surplus for the entire year. Accordingly, profit attributable to shareholders should now amount to 920 billion yen. However, last year Sony had made well over a trillion yen.

(oli/sda/awp/dpa)