Unperturbed by a scant holiday line-up, Sony has noted a “significant” uptake in PlayStation 4 hardware, taking the console’s lifetime sales beyond 25 million – 25.3M, to be exact.
As part of a division within the Japanese giant that includes the PlayStation brand, Game & Network Services witnessed a 12.1 per cent in sales year-on-year, pushing earnings up to $2.365bn. According to Sony, these figures account for the three-month period ending June 30.
Buoyed by a spike in software sales, the company noted that it was primarily the sale of new games and PS4 peripherals that helped ensure profit margins remain healthy, not to mention a favorable foreign exchange rate. Due to the reduced cost of actually manufacturing PlayStation 4 – which is likely because of the recently-unveiled 1TB edition of the console – operating income increased to $160 million.
But what are financial figures without context? Well, first off, Sony has revealed that a total of 3 million PS4s were sold during the first quarter, in comparison to the 2.7m sold last year. Microsoft, by comparison, shipped a total of 1.4 million Xbox Ones and Xbox 360s combined across the same period. Despite critics pigeonholing the software line-up, PlayStation 4’s trailblazing momentum shows no signs of slowing down.
Putting these numbers against Sony’s original forecasts and it’s difficult to falter the console’s hold on the market, considering that the Japanese publisher now expects to sell a total of 16.5 million PlayStation 4s in comparison to its 16m prediction – a prediction that many thought to be optimistic.
What do you make of these new figures, though? Indeed, do you feel this coming holiday season could witness a surge from Microsoft and Xbox One? Or do you believe the PlayStation 4‘s lead is too big a gap to close?
