Sony on sales of PlayStation 5 and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Admits delay of live service games

They will celebrate in ten days PlayStation 5 three years on the market. Sony has finally managed to produce enough units and is ready to meet the demand for its latest console. At the same time, it comes with a new, smaller model that will gradually replace the current one. Anyone who wants to buy a PS5 now should have no problem getting one.

Sony is expecting one of its strongest Christmas seasons yet. The gaming division is already reporting that it had a record second quarter. In three months, it managed to deliver 4.9 million units of PlayStation 5 to stores worldwide, which is a 48% increase compared to the same quarter last year. All in all, PS5 has it 46.5 million units shipped.

In the first half of the fiscal year, 8.2 million consoles were shipped to stores. But by March 2024, Sony wants to sell a total of 25 million units. President, COO Hiroki Totoki called the goal a difficult one, but he sees the Christmas season as the most important time of the year. It should also help Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

Speaking of the latest spider adventure, the novelty from Insomniac Games sold 5 million copies in 10 days. It sold 2.5 million units in its first 24 hours, making Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 the fastest-selling title from PlayStation Studios. Just for idea, action adventure God of War: Ragnarök had 5.1 million copies sold in a week and The Last of Us Part 2 more than 4 million in the first three days. The first Spider-Man by Insomniac, it took 3.3 million in its first three days.

Sony sold 67.6 million units of software on PS5 and PS4 in the quarter (up 5.1 million year-over-year). Digital sales accounted for 67%, up from 63% last year. The Japanese company still reports a year-on-year increase in active PlayStation Network users. In the last month of the quarter, PSN had 107 million unique accounts, down from five million previously.

On the financial front, Sony’s gaming and network services reported revenue of 954.1 billion yen ($6.35 billion) for the second quarter of 2023. That’s up 32% year-on-year. Operating profit was 4.89 billion yen ($324 million), up 16% year-on-year, but down from previous years (21, 20 and 2019).

In recent weeks, unflattering news about the development of live service games in the PlayStation Studios. When presenting the financial results, Sony executives were not very detailed, although we did learn a little.

At the beginning of this year there was a studio Bungie, where the Destiny series originated, tasked with a thorough review of the live service game portfolio. At Sony, they realize that their teams don’t have experience with multiplayer games, having previously worked purely on single-player story titles. This review led to the postponement of some games. The extra time is to ensure that players enjoy and love these games for a long time.

Sony’s current plan is for six titles out of 12 to be released by fiscal 2025 (ends March 2026). The remaining six will be later. For Sony, quality should be important. He is apparently among the postponed ones online game The Last of Us by Naughty Dog. There were even layoffs in the team and the project was supposed to be de facto put on ice, although this was later denied by the head of development, saying that it was still being worked on.

A PvP multiplayer event is set to launch next year for PS5 and PC Concord from Firewalk Studios (ex-authors of Call of Duty, Destiny and Titanfall) and is also being developed online experience in the world of Horizon. Then there’s PvPvE heist action Fairgame$ by Jade Raymond and Haven Studios for PS5 and PC.

If you’re wondering what games Sony has in store for next year, the only one announced is a shooter Helldivers 2 for PS5 and PC, arriving on 02/08/2024. Let’s hope the Japanese surprise us and bring us more next year. The only purely single-player game announced so far is an action-adventure Marvel’s Wolverine by Insomniac Games.