Sony Drops Full Year PS5 Sales Target to 21 Million Units, Expects Shipments Decline From Next Year

Sony CFO and COO Hiroki Totoki talked about the PlayStation Business and announced a revision to the PS5 sales prediction for the full fiscal year. The company also doesn't expect to release any game from major existing first-party franchises until April 2025.

[-Foxtrot]

“ The company also doesn't expect to release any game from major existing first-party franchises until April 2025”

The actual f***

What the hell have some of these studios been working on? I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and say this is because of their GaaS plans being scaled back and the studios have went through a knock on effect but still

[Abriael]

Major *existing* franchises. They're quite possibly working on new franchises. We know that Naughty Dog and Insomniac are both working on new franchises for instance.

Santa Monica is likely still working on GoW, but it's not very realistic to expect the next GoW before April 2025.

[Eonjay]

Exactly... and we already know the next Marvel game in the Spiderman universe isn't coming till 2025. This is actually good to hear. I want to play something new.

[RaidenBlack]

Cory Barlog is likely working on a new franchise.
Also,
"PlayStation Wants to Improve Operating Profit with a More Aggressive PC First-Party Games Release Plan" :
v
https://wccftech.com/playst...

[Abriael]

@RaidenBlack: Didn't say "more." That's just the writer's invention while trying to sensationalize something they're already doing to make it sound like news and grab some clicks.
In reality, it was just a comment in passing in response to a question on how they can improve profitability, not really something you should interpret as an announcement of a change in direction.

[Eonjay]

Any new existing major first party titles. This means we are only getting new IP this year. I don't know about you but I'm actually glad they aren't releasing another TLoU , GOW or Spiderman in the next year. Give it a break and give me something new.

[-Foxtrot]

I highly doubt we’re getting a new big IP released this year

They would have revealed it last year to build up hype as it would be a new IP with nothing behind it.

Even sequels to big franchises get revealed a little earlier and the hype is already there for them.

I mean it would be nice for them to start revealing games when they are ready but I doubt it with a big new IP.

[Eonjay]

What do you mean by big? If it's new it could still be big... once it releases.
Like look at Helldivers... it may be 'big' IP now but it wasn't 2 weeks ago lol.
I totally get your point about 'build up' but then again we know Concord is coming this year and yet we have seen literally zero gameplay thus far lol. Could still be big. But I can't read the future and I'm fine admitting I just don't know. My preference is to get games within 6 months of being announced. I (personally) really don't like waiting years for a game.

"I mean it would be nice for them to start revealing games when they are ready"

This 100%

[Abriael]

The fact that Totoki-san made sure to say "existing" major franchises feels like something major from a new franchise is coming, otherwise he wouldn't have specified that IMHO.

[blackblades]

Same, some times you just want something new

[-Foxtrot]

I mean “big” as in the difference between having something smaller “AA” wise to something big as in, for example, Sony Santa Monica’s new Sci-Fi IP

Basically when the company like Sony doesn’t know how big it will be on release

The bigger the IP, in terms of resources and budget, the more they will want to hype it up for as much exposure as possible

[__SteakDeck__]

@Abriael There’s rumors that Firespirte’s new IP is coming next year.

[outsider1624]

Well this gives me time to complete somenof my backlog of games..lol. Too many games to play so little time.

[darthv72]

Some of those new titles this year will be remakes/remasters. Par for the course

[Jin_Sakai]

“What the hell have some of these studios been working on? I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and say this is because of their GaaS plans being scaled back and the studios have went through a knock on effect but still“

I think most of this boils down to the Jim Ryan effect. His ambitious GaaS plans put setbacks on all the major studios. He’d also been better off acquiring Arrowhead Game Studios than Bungie that cost $3.5 billion.

[RaidenBlack]

Looks like most internal studios' next projects are being developed with the PS5 Pro in mind and will launch either along with Pro's launch or after ...

" PS5 Pro Price Could Be Around $500 Without Disc Drive; Specs Partially ‘Confirmed’ " :

https://wccftech.com/ps5-pr...

[RaidenBlack]

And don't have to worry coz, MS will instead port some of their franchises to PS during this interim 'dry' period

[gold_drake]

yeeh this is definitely because of the gaas stuff.

[EvertonFC]

Pandemic didn't help and I'm sure timelines and GaaS didn't help either.
I'm guessing a few factors at play, also it takes 5 years to make a AAA game so always gonna have a dry period when timelines sometimes don't add up.
It's not rocket science it just takes a long time and there is ONLY so many AAA employees out there to make these games.

[Cacabunga]

Well nothing is being announced which is normal we do not see any thing major before next year.it is different times we are in it is really disappointing how Sony is handling their 1st party games and communication.

Wait, is wolverine now pushed beyond April 2025?

[NotoriousWhiz]

Isn't Wolverine still coming this year?

[-Foxtrot]

Late 2025 or sometime in 2026

Especially after the leaks

[RaidenBlack]

nah ... it was always 2025+ game ... and if GTA VI gets fall-2025 release, then I doubt Sony will contest that release space.

[CrimsonWing69]

If o have to guess this is due to the Jim Ryan situation forcing studios to do GaaS games. They might be changing some of those into traditional games.

If I’m being honest I think the industry is harming itself. Raising game prices and pushing a design model people aren’t interested in. Making more Remakes and Remasters than necessary.

This gen has been the worst generation I’ve ever experienced. It was almost pointless to get a PS5 at launch when games were coming out cross-gen and cheaper on the PS4. I mean, now we’re seeing more PS5 only games, but this gen is coming near its end. Next year is the new Xbox… very underwhelming generation.

[itsmebryan]

They missed projected sales by 4 million and operating income is down 26%!

Like I have been saying things aren't as rosy on they Playstation side as people here think. The lack of 1st party games was the first sign. Then, their whole showcase being 3rd party games they bought.

I'm curious to see how they turn this around.

[Chevalier]

Oh yeah they only sold 21 million units in a single calender year how will they cope. When even the Switch has broken 20 million only twice and Xbox has never done that much sales in a single year ever.

[itsmebryan]

@Chevalier
Those sales mean nothing if there operating income DROPPED 26%!
Do get that? Operating income funds games, infrastructure, and R&D for new consoles. Sony lost over 1/4 of theirs and have no 1st party games coming this year to fix that.

Now they have to pay for their 3rd party exclusives and that's even more money going out.

[victorMaje]

Not great, but It was to be expected after the whole GaaS debacle...but like others have said, "existing" may be a hint here (hopefully :) ). New IPs are always welcome. If it takes the others until 2025 to release quality titles then so be it, I'd rather they don't rush anything. I know 1 thing though, ND better make something crazy good.

[Lightning77]

Concord and fairgames are on the horizon. Hopefully those turn out great.

[Kyizen]

I'm okay with this unlike Xbox and Nintendo we don't need a God of War 7 and Last of Us 5. Xbox milked Halo, Gears of War and Forza it was all they were releasing. Nintendo is changing them enough to make them fresh but still Zelda and Mario is all anyone talks about for release on their systems

[itsmebryan]

@Kyizen
I can't believe you said something about "milking games " how many versions of "The last of us" have been released ? How many remaster, re-release, reboots?

Also you don't need 7 "God's of war" because you already have 10.
In chronological order
1. GOW : Ascension
2. GOW : chains of Olympus
3. Original GOW
4. GOW: Ghost of Sparta
5. On mobile GOW:Betrayal
6. GOW 2
7. GOW 3
8. A call of the wild a Facebook messenger prequel to GOW (2018)
9. GOW (2018) father and son
10. Gow : Ragnarok
That's not even including all the remaster, re-release, etc.. Is that considered milking? Or does it not apply just to Sony?

The internet is your friend before making statements.

[darthv72]

Not to worry... MS will have some supplemental titles in the interim.

[babadivad]

This is what complacency looks like. Expect this and MUCH much worse if Microsoft ever does leave the gaming industry.

[Zeref]

2nd year they got beat by Xbox 1st party.
More to come.

[BehindTheRows]

What are the sales of Xbox 1st party games? What about critic reception?

Stop embarrassing yourself.

[Vits]

Sales metrics are pretty much meaningless for Xbox, and I think most people can see that. But in terms of reviews, Xbox actually did pretty decent last year. They had hits like Hi-Fi Rush (87), Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (86), and Forza Motorsport (84) all making it into the top 20 best-reviewed games for their platform. PlayStation had Spider-man 2 with a higher score of 90, but that was the only first-party title to crack their top 20.

But let's not kid ourselves, the Switch and Nintendo were the real MVPs. With games like Pikmin 4 (87), Super Mario Bros. Wonder (92), Metroid Prime Remastered (94), and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (96), Nintendo showed why they're on top. And if we're talking sales, Tears of the Kingdom probably outsold everything Sony put out. Reports from September already had it at 20 million units, while Spider-Man 2 is only just reaching half of that now.

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

Me when I'm delusional:

[Lightning77]

How is it delusional? MS released more first party last year. So far they have more announced games on Xbox that are releasing this year than PS SO FAR. We have to wait till Sony's showcase this year.

[Elda]

Delusional comment.

[Zeref]

Call it what you want. It's nothing but facts 😂

[BehindTheRows]

Of course you don’t want to have a sales discussion and I get it. It would crush your narrative. Doesn’t take a “fanboy” to see the current trajectory of things.

You also conveniently ignored the critical part of the discussion. 😉

[Chevalier]

@Vits

"Tears of the Kingdom probably outsold everything Sony put out"

Well Tears came out in March so it's been out longer than anything Sony released so this is an idiotic comment to make honestly.

Spiderman 2 has sold 10 million copies in 3 1/2 months versus Tears 20 million in what 10-11 months?

Plus 10 million copies sold to about 50 million PS5s is almost 20% of PS5 owners. 20 million copies of Tears to 120 million Switch owners.

Both games will have legs though. Spiderman 1 sold 30+ million so this Spiderman will be up there with Zelda too

"Sales metrics are pretty much meaningless for Xbox"

Here's another idiotic take. Lol. If sales didn't matter then there would be ZERO reason to port any games to other platforms because they would be happy with their sales. If the rumours turn out true that they are going to port games then yeah they do care about sales and the severe lack of them.

[TheTony316]

lol wut? And doesn't even matter anymore since MS is going third party tomorrow :D

[northpaws]

@Zeref lol...

[Elda]

Your fanboyism of XB has caused you to make up delusional comments. LOL! Smh.

[Lightning77]

I'm confused what's delusional about what he said. Xbox released more first party last year and it seems they might do it again this year.

Until we see Sony's showcase that's an accurate statement. Talk about hard time grasping with reality.

[Hofstaderman]

More to come...to PS5 after todays "business event"

[RedDevils]

@Zeref Why are you keep embarrassing yourself? Sometime you need to STFU and you might doesn't sound like a tool.

[EazyC]

They're great numbers of course, and this will get downvoted to high hell ... but I have to admit, this console gen has failed to truly "launch" for me.

I really didn't think that Astro's Playroom was going to be THE highlight of the PS5 "new gen" experience.

[stupidusername]

They also mentioned thay wanted to focus on making live service first party games. Not a surprise considering that they bought bungie and dabbled with making Tlou multiplayer a live service game. But I don’t like hearing every major studio and game company focusing so much on making live service games. There’s too much of them already imo.

[dveio]

If you re-watch Mark Cerny's key adress in late 2020 of the Playstation's 5 hardware today, I think, especially regarding First Party games, it probably boils down to three things:

1. Getting the most out of the new hardware only by a complete re-framework of the engine. (If you re-watch it, it's insane how different and more powerful the hardware really is compared to PS4).

2. It takes time (to give players the quality they are used to get from Sony's Frist Party games). Even over the course of a 7 year lifespan, it has become much more complex to build two, even one AAA game from scratch.

3. Probably some re-shifting in the business strategies.

I am putting out a bet:

PS5's late lifecycle will be nothing but amazing.

With at least six First Party titles going to get released within the last two to three years.

We will be blown away.

Of course - Sony knows about 2024 going to be dry. They rather tell the truth now. But they know they have to deliver.

And I bet my left butcheek they will.

The shift from HDD to SSD, to RDNA2 or 3, 3D sound, etc., is technically so huge, opening up so many new possibilties, that you have to do a complete re-work in design.

The late PS5 First Party games will probably also pave the way for early PS6 titles.

[purple101]

I am with you, They are cooking

We have seen nothing yet

The backend of a console life cycle, Sony always produce masterpieces, and this time it will be even more so with new architecture, ssd, double the memory etc

[ApocalypseShadow]

This man gets it. Others here are blowing their loads and speaking nonsense about GaaS or Jim and making wild assumptions.

The truth is that it takes longer to make these huge games of high quality. But gamers want everything right now with their usual entitlement. They also forget their history where Sony released many heavy hitters at the end of a console cycle. To Sony, it doesn't matter when a game is actually released. They just want to make sure there's enough consoles sold to sell millions of guaranteed copies.

As you said, when the PS5 only developed games show themselves, these individuals will shut their mouths. Just like they were all blabbing about GaaS games. But Hell Divers 2, which supposedly took 8 years years to develop, turned out to be a banger game for online play. You don't hear a peep out of the naysayers about Jim Ryan or GaaS or any of the nonsense they were spewing.

"But but but the Jim Ryan effect."

These guys have no clue what's going on and are just looking for any reason they can come up with. The reality is that Sony has been quiet about their plans this Gen. And why wouldn't they? Their competitor copies their hardware, tried to use the courts to find out more details of their plans, uses congressman to try to force their way, spend billions buying up huge parts of the industry that affects Sony's bottom line. If I were them, I'd be silent but deadly too against a 3 TRILLION dollar competitor or should I say, "predator."

[CrashMania]

Great post.

Also lets not forget they have just released Helldivers 2 which is doing well, Steller Blade is coming and Rise of the Ronin, IPs they have funded and own. I know xbox fans these days like to pretend only first party exclusives only count for some reason. But right there there have 3 Playstation owned IPs being released in the next few months. And in a couple of weeks FF7 Rebirth, one of the biggest games of the year for sure, not releasing on their main rival platform.

Now matter how they try to spin it, games are still coming one way or another. Including potentially from their direct competition this year as well haha.

[Lightning77]

"I know xbox fans these days like to pretend only first party exclusives only count for some reason. "

Wait what? Sony fans collectively yelled that's what all that matters was exclusive games. Don't re-write history. "xbox has no games" sound familiar? Or do you have amnesia now? That's all Sony fans cared about and always will. Now Xbox fanboys are chest pumping because they finally have games after 13 years of nothing. Of course they're bragging about the same way Sony fans have for a decade +

[ApocalypseShadow]

What a lot of these guys don't get is staring them right in the face.

Sony's developers are top dog but even they have to **learn the hardware** just like every other developer. But some of these gamers think they use magic or already know how to develop for new hardware right off the bat. It takes time to develop.

Sony is footing the bill but the developers still have to make money while learning the hardware. How to do that? By porting a game to PS5. Sucker Punch, Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, etc, all ported games and learned how to implement 4K textures, performance and high quality modes, ray tracing, etc. They also released dlc of games already out to give the other developers enough time to make their games. Horizon, Spider-Man, GOW, GT, etc all have dlc to to keep the games fresh while giving the other developers more time to finish.

It's not that they aren't working on projects besides the ports. But that's how they learn as well and make money on the side. I can't wait to see those other projects which, again, will shut a lot of gamers mouths.

And, these gamers didn't even listen to Mark Cerny about BC before launch. Any games developed now are guaranteed to work on PS6 as we know Sony has already signed deals with AMD to make their next console.

But the fact that some can't comprehend what the CEO is saying tells me they can't even understand game development either. And just spew nonsense.

[CrashMania]

@Lightning

I'm specifcially referring to the '1st party' argument that xbox fanboys spin these days, not exclusives a a whole. FF16 gets conveniently ignored in the PS5 2023 lineup when it shouldn't have done. They often dismiss FF7, Helldivers, Stellar Blade just because it's not from a first party studio specifically. At the end of these day these are all games not launching on Xbox, first party or not, and it's ridiculous to pretend like they don't exist and that there are no notable exclusives coming to PS5 this year.

[jznrpg]

@Crashmania you are correct. They talk about Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey like they were made by MS but they weren’t they were paid for. Can’t have it both ways. Sony has 2nd party games like Stellar Blade, Rise of Ronin Helldivers etc for when their first party is in development.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

So me and 3 of my friends who I grew up with in the 70s and 80s all are playing games on PS4 , including me and all 4 of us are planning on buying a PS5 in the near future . So I think Sony will sell a lot of PS5s over the next 12 months .

[purple101]

I am hearing on twitter Sony made more money than Xbox in December

And that’s WITH Activision numbers included

[InUrFoxHole]

Lol at the 1st party 2025. Let's be honest... yes that sucks but sony has also had a stellar track record. I can give them a pass till 2025

[InUrFoxHole]

Lol someone agreed? I was jk these bums will give sony a pass for anything.

[Lord-John-Steele]

Plenty of games coming, cant wait for FF7.

[Demetrius]

2 years we most likely get the ps6 reveal and some of these mfs have not been taking advantage of the hardware Sony&Microsoft has offered smh, most games still look ps4 era imagine when the ps6 come out mfs will have games on it lookin like ps3 gen titles smh its ridiculous sony offered all this hardware power and mfs still playin round while releasing trash a** only online bs that's dead on arrival

[Stevonidas]

It's almost like SOFTWARE moves HARDWARE. Nintendo gets this. Sony used to. AND (believe it or not), until about 2011, Microsoft did, too.

This console generation has sucked absolute balls, which is a shame because both Series X and PS5 are excellent consoles, hardware-wise.

Gaming is headed the way of the movie industry, sadly. Releasing only bloated, big-budget "AAAA" and GAAS titles that require 5-year development cycles is simply not sustainable.

[Hofstaderman]

What we need is a reset. The cost of developing these AAA games is simply not sustainable and something has got to give. To this day I still play PS1 games because of their diversity and developers back then took risks on niche titles that their publishers of today would dare not greenlight.