Sony misses PS5 sales target, as stock struggles continue
But forecasts better year ahead.
Sony has now shipped 19.3m PlayStation 5 consoles worldwide to date, with another 2m shipped during the last financial quarter.
However, those figures are lower than expected - by 3.3m consoles - following warnings by Sony it was struggling to get hold of components.
Sony had hoped to shift 14.8m PS5 consoles this past financial year (the 12 months ending 31st March 2022) in order to match - if not outpace - the number of PS4s sold at the same point in its lifecycle.
Operating profit was 138.6bn yen for the past financial quarter (£862m), lower than estimated. In response, Sony said it would buy back up to 200bn yen (£1.25bn) in shares over the next year.
On a brighter note, game sales for both PS4 and PS5 were up, with 14.5m sold in the last financial quarter compared to 7.9m last year.
Looking forwards, Sony said it expected to ship more consoles during the current financial year - with 18m further units pegged.
Sony saw a slight decrease in PlayStation Plus subscriber numbers, versus its total 12 months ago (47.4 million users in March 2022, down from 47.6 million in March 2021).
PlayStation's monthly active users were also down slightly - 106 million users, compared to 109 million users last year.
It's likely last year's figures were boosted at least by some degree due to ongoing lockdowns. Sony will likely be keeping a close eye on the upcoming launch of its PlayStation Plus Premium service to see if it can regain revenue there.
And, it's worth noting, PS5 remains in extremely high demand - the issue isn't consumer interest in the console, but Sony's ability to manufacture it.
Last month, numbers company NPD noted that Xbox and Nintendo were leading US sales in terms of consoles sold and money made during this year's first quarter, as steady sales of the Xbox Series X/S and Switch sold briskly as stock became available. Microsoft boss Satya Nadella also boasted Xbox had "taken share globally" in the console market for the past two quarters.