PlayStation 4 continues to lead the thriving console gaming market. Sony Interactive Entertainment’s gaming box surpassed 100 million consoles shipped to retailers. It reached that milestone faster than any other home console (but that does not include handheld consoles). Nintendo’s Wii and PlayStation 2 are the next fastest. But they required several more months than the PS4 to reach that milestone.
Sony shipped 3.2 million systems during the quarter ending June 30 to push it over 100 million. Shipments of the PS4 were flat compared to the same quarter last year. At the same time, the publisher notes that it actually expected to sell more PS4s than it did.
“PS4 hardware unit sales in the first quarter were slightly below our expectations primarily due to the news regarding our next-generation console,” reads Sony’s quarterly financial statement. “Taking this into account, we have decided to prioritize profitability going forward and have revised downward our forecast for hardware unit sales by 1 million units to 15 million units.”
Did PlayStation 5 news slow PlayStation 4 sales?
In April, at the beginning of the quarter, PlayStation architect Mark Cerny did an interview with Wired about what to expect from the “next PlayStation” or PlayStation 5. It’s clear that PS5 is coming soon. When the system does launch, it’s going to have a lot of significant improvements. Then in June, Microsoft confirmed that the next Xbox is launching holiday 2020. The current generation is coming to an end, and fans can start to look forward to what is on the near horizon.
While PS4 came in under its expectations, it’s worth noting that the system is still doing exceptionally well. Sony even pointed that out.
“The fact that we plan to sell 15 million units this fiscal year, which is the seventh year since launch, demonstrates that the PS4 platform is still garnering support from many users,” reads Sony’s financial statement.
Nintendo shipped 2.13 million consoles last quarter, and it is on the same general sales trajectory as the PlayStation 4. But Sony shipped 3.2 million PlayStation 4s. Nintendo hasn’t introduced as many variation of the Switch across multiple price points, which Sony has done a lot of. And that’s coming soon with the Switch Lite in September. But the point is that PlayStation 4 still has huge sales momentum.