PlayStation 5: Thread 05

[nonny]

Bit better than the 7m SeriesX sold though, and that's probably a generous estimate as well.

No doubt about that... but they still both dropped 30% and expect a further decline. Just painting the full picture that even with impressive total sales numbers they're still predicting very difficult times due to market forces.

Equally with Helldivers 2 doing impressive numbers on PC and close partners like Squaresoft announcing more aggressive multi-platform approach it just feels like we can expect more PS titles on PC and potentially earlier as well.

[Neon Ignition]

Based on the projections in the coming 12 months PS5 is roughly projected to outsell XSX by a ratio of 9:1

[Neon Ignition]

https://wccftech.com/ps5-sales-will-gradually-decline-sony-expects-ps-business-model-has-significantly-changed-since-ps4/

Sony to shift focus from hardware sales to user playtime length and engagement


Till it blows up in their face

[fishbowlhead]

Businesses enjoyed record sales during Covid and for a good while after. Now everyone is dealing with rampant inflation, fun stuff is gradually suffering, like consoles.

Hardly surprising stuff really.

[Neon Ignition]

There's a need for companies to think more dynamically as well about how they approach releases. It's like the £70 RRP everyone seems to have decided to adopt for major releases. Too often big releases are launching and just assuming that £70 is a perfectly fine price point to launch at only to later complain about underperformance.

It's like Square with Rebirth. They launched it on one format, just months after the prior FF major title. People may be willing to part with £70 for a big release but they only have X amount of money and will be discerning in their choices, especially if multiple installments come so close together. If the games were priced at £50 then people might be tempted to get both at a squeeze of £100 combined but £140 total makes it easy to hold off.

Companies will baulk at the idea of tentpoles at £50 but it's a damned sight better price to sell at than the £30 or less the games are at by the time people get around to picking it up down the line. More companies need to have a bit more humility about the idea that their AAA isn't quite as AAA as someone elses. That the biggest selling games this year so far such as Helldivers 2, Dragons Dogma II etc scaled their pricing to a degree should be a lesson.

Sony could probably charge £85 for Spider-Man 3 when it comes out and people would pay it. But I'd expect very bad news for anyone else launching within four months of it as a result.


That's before other factors. Like you say, the COVID layoffs bump was an issue they should have seen a million miles away and them bemoaning a lack of growth following artificially inflated figures is their own doing.

[dataDave]

I know a few people that bought Spider-Man 2 and have yet to boot it up because of a lack of time. They ain’t buying Spider-Man 3 any time soon, even for £10.

That’s a 20hr action game. There are only so many people that can play through multiple RPG epics in any given year, and most of those would rather just live on FFXIV.

[Neon Ignition]

That's the trouble, companies are expecting people to buy enough games at high RRP's to continue growth and sales figures whilst simulataneously pushing for games that attract and hold gamers for years and years rather than moving onto new titles. The more GAAS titles that do well, the less space in the market there is for other games full stop.

That's not counting long games also. I adored FF7 Remake far more than I expected to making Rebirth a no-brainer. I only picked up FF16 because I could get it at the time from the Turkey PSN store for £25 but I've not had time to go through it yet meaning I haven't bought Rebirth because it will cost £70 and I'm nowhere near playing it. End result, lost sale for SE and by the time I get round to it it'll be deeply discounted.

Devs and Publishers need to really rethink their strategies. Fewer massive AAA's, less GAAS projects, more shorter and cheaper mid-range AA's that are easier to bounce back from if they fail and act as a foundation to build toward being a AAA IP if they succeed.

[fishbowlhead]

That's the trouble, companies are expecting people to buy enough games at high RRP's to continue growth and sales figures whilst simulataneously pushing for games that attract and hold gamers for years and years rather than moving onto new titles. The more GAAS titles that do well, the less space in the market there is for other games full stop.

That's not counting long games also. I adored FF7 Remake far more than I expected to making Rebirth a no-brainer. I only picked up FF16 because I could get it at the time from the Turkey PSN store for £25 but I've not had time to go through it yet meaning I haven't bought Rebirth because it will cost £70 and I'm nowhere near playing it. End result, lost sale for SE and by the time I get round to it it'll be deeply discounted.

Devs and Publishers need to really rethink their strategies. Fewer massive AAA's, less GAAS projects, more shorter and cheaper mid-range AA's that are easier to bounce back from if they fail and act as a foundation to build toward being a AAA IP if they succeed.

This once again goes back to shareholders who expect exponential continuing growth. It just doesn’t work like that, you can still be a profitable company without non stop run away growth to fuel never happy shareholders.

We would see much more sensible practices without those quarterly shareholder reports ever looming.

[Neon Ignition]

They produce reams of financial data but the whole thing can be summerised into a single short sentence that highlights the insanity of it all.


Making $1bn every year, indefinitely, is seen as a bad thing

[fishbowlhead]

That wasn’t really my point, you can still be profitable every year and do well as a company, but shareholders expect unlimited exponential growth without fail, which just isn’t how life or the world works.

MS are just flinging poo at the wall to try and achieve this post covid, which again, does not work.

[nonny]

I don't think anyone should be expecting exponential growth in the current climate so it doesn't surprise me to see sales fail with such high forecasts.

The other factor is I saw a statistic yesterday where almost half the active users on PS are still on PS4. The must popular games are still COD, Fortnite, Roblox, FIFA etc... and it seems no-one is in a rush to upgrade.

It's probably going to take something like GTA6 to raise the bar and not be available on older generation hardware. Something that's immensely popular and a reason to upgrade.

That's all a long way off though and maybe one of the main reasons next gen console sales aren't shifting.

One other smaller factor may also be the cross generation support. It's a safe strategy to release across both PS4/PS5 but it's one less reason to upgrade so when a FF title comes along that is current gen only maybe most still decided it wasn't required or they'll pick it up and play later down the track.

[Neon Ignition]

It's probably going to take something like GTA6 to raise the bar and not be available on older generation hardware. Something that's immensely popular and a reason to upgrade.

That's all a long way off though and maybe one of the main reasons next gen console sales aren't shifting.

That wouldn't surprise me but it should also set high alert emergency lights off at Sony HQ. If consumers are holding on to their PS4's and it takes a third party release 5 years into the following generation to significantly gain ground with the newer consoles hardware sales they should take a very long and deep thought about how much value Pro models have but much more importantly whether PS6 should launch at all before PS5 hits 10 years old. GTA6 might prove a major enough title to pull up PS5 sales but there won't be a GTA7 to do the same for PS6.

[Neon Ignition]

Major doubt for this one but you never know as Sony loves throwing things out there

https://t.me/alogvinovOfficial/3695

The person who originally leaked Sony starting PC releases has said that they are developing a PSP3 which will be a handheld allowing you to play PS4 games on the go

[wakka]

Oh ****, a Sony Nomad? That sounds great if real I look forward to seeing the industrial design if nothing else because Sony usually rock that (except that execrable looking Portal).

[Tobal]

It's been a while since i went in to the PS store, when did they change the browsing filter for new games out to include every single freaking announced and ready to pre-order game, how the heck are you suppose to find anything new.