Despite being a stunted console generation, the PS5 is Sony’s most profitable piece of gaming hardware, and by a considerable margin.
Between the lack of games which push the hardware and the unfufilled promises around its technical capabilities, the PlayStation 5 era might go down as the worst console generation ever.
The problems have been amplified by Sony’s push towards live service games, most of which have either been cancelled or removed from existence – leading to large gaps in the release cycle, amongst Sony’s first party studios.
Sadly, while the PlayStation 5 has been disappointing when it comes to actual games, it’s easily Sony’s most profitable console ever.
As revealed in the company’s business meeting earlier this week, and highlighted by analyst Daniel Ahmad, the PlayStation 5 generation has earned Sony $13 billion (£9.6 billion) in profits since the console launched in November 2020.
When you tally up the profits of prior generations, this is higher than all of Sony’s prior consoles combined.
The original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 took in $3 billion and $2 billion, respectively, while the PlayStation 3 lost Sony $4 billion, and the PlayStation 4 gave the company a $9 billion boost. When tallied together, including the losses, it comes to around $10 billion in cumulative profits.
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Another slide in Sony’s presentation breaks down where the PlayStation 5’s profits are coming from, with a key part being the increase in spend across services like PlayStation Plus and ‘game content’.
When compared to the PlayStation 4 generation, the average life-to-date spend per PlayStation 5 console on content (physical and digital games, and add-ons) has increased by 21%.
Spending on services, which includes PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Network, has increased by 63%, while peripheral spend has jumped up 27%.
As part of these service profits, Sony states 38% of PlayStation Plus subscribers are now paying for the Premium or Extra tiers, up from 30% two years ago.
This is rather discouraging, because it means Sony has little incentive to change its current strategy – even as it continues to fumble with games like Concord and Marathon, the latter of which was recently delayed indefinitely.
The big problem for Sony might be when it comes to convincing players to jump to the inevitable PlayStation 6, which Sony recently stated is ‘top of mind’ at the company.
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