Sony Aims for PS5 to Become Its Biggest-Ever Platform & PS4 to Have The Longest-Ever Tail

Today Sony Corporation hosted its Investor Relations Day following yesterday’s Corporate Strategy Meeting. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan had plenty to share about the PlayStation business.

Below you can read a summary of what he shared:

• Sony wants to make PS5 Sony’s biggest ever platform and PS4 to have the company’s biggest ever tail.
• PlayStation’s record earnings year was achieved during a generational transition.
• Demand for PS5 remains “Insatiable” with stock selling in seconds.
• There have been several changes in the demographics of the PlayStation audience. PS1 players have stayed with Sony and now their children also have PlayStation consoles. The age demographics is now much more balanced. The ratio of female players has gone from 18% during the PS1 era to the current 41%.
• According to Ryan the launch lineup for PS5 was the strongest ever for a PlayStation console and this is going to continue in 2021 and beyond.
• The PS5 standard edition will break even from next month and then will gradually become profitable.
• The importance of the profitability of hardware is becoming lower and lower compared to software and services.
• Sony predicts fiscal year 2021 to be its strongest ever year, and 2022 to be even stronger. The goal is to sell more consoles than ever before in a fiscal year.
• PS4 remains a key driver of revenue and Sony expects it to account for 70% of sell-in revenue (to retailers) in the fiscal year 2021 (between April 2021 and March 2022).
• New growth vectors for PlayStation are the focus on China, PlayStation Direct (the direct distribution channel for hardware, which is coming to Europe following the American launch), the expansion of PlayStation Studios (including multiplayer and original IP), the expansion beyond consoles (PC and mobile), and Games as a Service,
• Uncharted 4’s logo was included in the slides in the PC section, but Ryan did not confirm it in his speech. At the moment, we don’t know if it should consider it as a confirmation. Yet, Ryan did mention that more releases on PC are coming in fiscal year 2021 and beyond.
• PlayStation Now has 3.2 million paid subscribers.
• PlayStation Plus now has 48 million paid subscribers.

Below you can see all the slides of Ryan’s presentation, with plenty of interesting data.