A senior games executive stated that Sony is witnessing great momentum for its PlayStation 5 platform, with lifetime sales surpassing 50 million units and the business experiencing its best-ever Black Friday weekend sales for the gadget.
The entertainment giant hopes that the PS5, which is in its fourth year of release, will do well over the holiday shopping season in order to meet its sales goal of a record 25 million units in the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31.
“We’re feeling very good about sales overall, given the momentum we had in November and a lot of what we’re seeing in December,” stated Eric Lempel, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, sales, and business operations at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
In the previous fiscal year, Sony’s games division was its largest sales unit and the second-largest contributor to operating profit, after music.
Investors became uneasy when management revealed in August that PS5 sales had fallen short of expectations. As part of its efforts to find a healthy balance between sales volumes and profitability, Sony has stated that its aim of 25 million units is a “high target and not within easy reach.”.
This year, we’ve had several excellent promotions. In an interview, Lempel stated, “I will say that at this point in the lifecycle, we’ve done fewer promotions than we ever have in the history of the company.”
Early in the PS5’s lifetime, supply chain bottlenecks hurt sales. After lessening, those are now becoming stronger, especially with the release of the highly anticipated video game “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” on October 20.
The Japanese firm, well-known for its single-player games, is attempting to enter the live-service market by producing games that allow for continuous online play.
Last week, Sony’s Naughty Dog announced the cancellation of an online game from its “The Last of Us” franchise, citing the risk to the development of single-player games if it had been released.
The company’s sales effort coincides with industry discussions over consoles’ future as cloud computing advancements offer gaming without the need for large, cumbersome hardware.
Consoles are still popular with gamers for the time being, with Nintendo’s ageing Switch receiving a lift this year from the release of games like its most recent “Zelda” title.
The limited-edition PlayStation exclusive “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth” will be released in February, and “The Last of Us Part II Remastered” will debut in January.
“We are still pushing really hard and I think we will have a record-breaking year no matter where we end up,” Lempel stated.
