The PS5 release is expected for Christmas 2020. However, for Sony, other factors such as sales numbers and the price of the PS5 in 2020 are likely equally important.
At the Corporate Strategy Meeting Day on May 19, Sony’s CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, spoke about Sony’s success over the past year and the future of the company.
This also included the figures for the year 2019. They showed a very successful year. And there could be reasons behind these numbers why the sales figures of the PS5 are not as critical as many gamers think.
Why the PS5 sales numbers are not so important
Especially two things currently show how successful Sony is and why the sales figures of the PS5 are likely not as decisive as they often seem to gamers.
The success of PlayStation Plus
That’s why PlayStation Plus is so important: PlayStation Plus is a subscription service for the PlayStation Network. PS Plus is needed for online gaming, as PlayStation users cannot play online without a subscription.
Of around 94 million monthly active users on the PlayStation Network, about 41.5 million are PS Plus subscribers.
These users are willing to pay 10 euros per month for their membership. For hardware, buyers can usually only be charged once.
We have taken a look at how much the PS5 and the Xbox Series X would cost as a PC:
The strong growth of PlayStation Now
During the meeting, Yoshida also spoke about PS Now. This service has grown tremendously in the last 12 months:
- In March 2019, the number of users was around 700,000.
- As of April 2020, there are now around 2.2 million active subscribers.
PS Now is a subscription service that allows you to access over 650 games. You can stream PS2, PS3, and PS4 games to the PS4 or PC. The service now also works offline, with games stored as downloads on the console.
Why is PS Now so successful? Sony restructured PS Now last year:
- Sony first reduced the price from 15 euros to 9.99 euros per month (standard monthly price) and added a large number of games to the offer. Those who buy the annual subscription pay about 5 euros per month.
- Top titles such as GTA 5, God of War, and Persona 5 are among the 650 other titles available for subscribers.
PS5 Price – the implications of successful subscription services
What does this mean for the PS5? Strong subscription services are often a reason why one might sell new consoles below value.
At that time, Andrew House, then head of Sony Computer Entertainment (via Forbes.com), stated that they incurred losses of 3.5 billion dollars with the PlayStation 3 in 2007 and 2008. Nevertheless, in the end, the console was profitable thanks to strong games and online services.
Other developers also earn a significant portion of their revenue through microtransactions or subscription services.
What do the numbers say and what does that mean? Behind the bare numbers lies a very successful business year 2019 for Sony. And this could also impact the PS5:
- The willingness to sell the PS5 below value to have a price advantage over the competition is significantly higher.
- Both the PS3 and PS4 were sold below value, recovering their losses through games and subscription services.
- With subscription services, Sony binds its users much longer than through the mere sale of hardware, which only generates one-time profit.
- Therefore, the sales figures of the console are not as important as the number of users engaged by subscriptions or good games.
Would you like to learn more about the PS5? We have summarized the most important information about the PS5 for you and present the key features and facts about Sony’s new console.
