Sony Revenues Up 8 Percent in Q2, But Annual PS5 Sales Target in Doubt

Sony’s revenues were up 8 percent in the most recent quarter, but the firm is unlikely to hit its annual PlayStation 5 sales goal.

Sony reported that it earned an operating income of 263 million yen (about $1.74 billion USD) on revenues of 2,828.6 million yen ($18.74 billion) for the quarter ending September 30, 2023. Sony’s biggest business unit, Game & Network Services, delivered 954.1 million yen ($6.32 billion) of that revenue, a gain of 32 percent year-over-year (YOY).

Sony had previously stated that it expected to sell 25 million PS5s during its current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2024. But PS5 sales are slowing, and it would need to have a historic holiday quarter to come even close to that number: Sony sold 4.9 million PS5s in the previous quarter and a total of just 8.2 million units so far in this fiscal year. So it will need to sell over 16 million more units in the current and next quarters.

Sony declined to adjust its annual sales target for the PlayStation 5 (PS5), but it did admit that the console had peaked and would experience sales declines going forward.

“We recognize selling more than 25 million PS5 units this fiscal year remains a challenging goal,” Sony COO Hiroki Totoki said during a post-earnings conference call. “It’s not something we can attain very easily. It will depend on how sales do in the year-end holiday season. We won’t pursue expanding the PS5 installed base alone, but will keep profitability in mind.”

Sony is launching a cost-reduced PS5 soon, and the firm is hoping that it will drive a new sales surge. But it’s hard to imagine this product selling strong enough to meet the company’s annual sales goal. If and when it misses that target, the resulting embarrassment could translate into further problems involving its stock price and market value.