In Sony’s Q2 financial report, the company announced that it’s lifting its full-year profit forecast by 9 percent, 2.6 million PlayStation 5 units were sold this past quarter, and that it does not fear the ongoing memory crisis. Sony is, in fact, moving ahead with plans for next-generation hardware in the next fiscal year with confidence.
“Looking ahead to next fiscal year, we aim to continue to enhance user engagement and further strengthen monetization through the release of strong titles and the expansion of our service,” the financial report reads. “We also intend to make solid progress in preparing for the next generation platform.”
Later in the Q&A,which you can review here, one investor asked Sony CFO Lin Tao if the company’s next-generation hardware plans were still on schedule.
“So this is a next-generation R&D,” Tao answered. “We are progressing as scheduled. So for the next-generation investment, so the second half would be a large impact of the investment amount. And the development itself is on schedule.”
Another investor from BofA Securities asked how Sony is dealing with the rise in memory prices and the effect that will have on profitability going into a new generation. Tao also fields this question, stating that they have to assume that their production pipeline will be capable enough to produce units, with executive officer Naoya Horii chiming in that Sony has a deal with TMSC to assuage concerns of supply limitations.
The PlayStation 5 itself has reached a 97.9 million units shipped milestone, a virtual guarantee to cross the 100 million units threshold in the coming quarter.Marvel’s Wolverinesold 2.4 million copies in the two months since release, which puts it in dire straits when directly compared to games likeMarvel’s Spider-Man 2, which Sony reported asselling 2.5 million copies on its first day of release. A more recent comparison,Ghost of Yotei, sold 3.3 million copies in its first month,also according to Sony.
Mutant superheroes aside, the quarterly results paint a rosy picture for PlayStation, but the looming discussion of price for the next generation of hardware hangs over any excitement over upcoming plans. While Sony seems confident that the memory crisis won’t affect next-generation ambitions, it is difficult to see how that can truly be the case whenyou consider Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki expressing skepticism for just that reasona few months ago.
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