Sony’s chief financial officer, Hiroki Totoki, has this week confirmed that the company’s $499 PS5 console is no longer selling at a loss.
Typically, when a new games console launches its price point is below the actual cost of manufacturing. But over time, through a combination of bulk component orders and the refining of the hardware design, the cost falls below the retail price. The PS3 was sold at a loss for nearly four years, the PS4 was profitable within six months of its launch, and the PS5 has taken eight months. Considering the novel new design and global chip shortages, that’s quite impressive.
As Bloomberg reports, Sony made the announcement alongside raising its fiscal-year profit forecast. However, there’s still some work to do to make the cheaper, $399 Digital Edition of the PS5 profitable. Right now, Sony says any loss made on that console is being offset through peripherals and continued sales of the PS4 console. This situation may also be helped by the fact Sony is making a lighter version of the PS5 Digital Edition.
In other good news, Totoki confirmed that Sony has managed to order enough chips to hit its console sales target for March 31, 2022. As VGC reports, Sony already set a goal of selling 14.8 million PS5 consoles during this fiscal year, which would take the installed user base to over 22 million. If the chips are guaranteed, there’s no reason Sony won’t hit that goal due to continued high demand for the hardware. Then in 2022, we’re expecting a new PS5 console to launch with a 6nm AMD chip, which should certainly help both with sales and profitability.
Microsoft doesn’t share Xbox hardware sales figures and has recently stated no Xbox console has ever turned a profit for the company. It would be interesting to know if the Xbox Series X and Series S are being sold at a loss or if Microsoft has managed to turn a profit for the first time.
