Chip shortage hit PS5 sales last quarter, but people bought more PlayStation games

[midian182]

In a nutshell: Sony has released its financial results for the last quarter. While game sales were up compared to the same period a year earlier, PlayStation 5 sales were down by 1.3 million units—an effect of the chip shortage that still plagues the tech industry.

Sony sold two million PS5 units in the fourth quarter of its financial year 2021. That brings overall sales of the console to 19.3 million, but it's still down from the 3.3 million units it sold in the same quarter a year earlier. Additionally, Sony reports that 11.5 million PlayStation 5 machines were sold throughout the financial year, significantly fewer than the 14.8 million it had originally planned—an amount that would have seen the PS5 match or outsell the number of PS4s at the same point in its lifecycle.

The problem isn't lack of demand, of course; it's the global chip shortage that continues to hamper Sony's efforts at securing components for its console. Nintendo has warned that the Switch could suffer the same issues later this year.

Sony can take some solace in the fact that it was a good quarter for PS4 and PS5 game sales with 70.5 million titles sold, up from 61.4 million one year ago. That figure includes 14.5 million first-party games. However, full-year game sales fell to 303.2 million units from 338.8 million a year earlier, but the 2020 lockdowns did give the gaming industry a massive boost.

PlayStation Plus subscriber numbers were down YoY slightly to 47.4 million in March 2022 from 47.6 million in March 2021, and the PlayStation Network's monthly active users dropped from 111 million to 106 million.

Sony does believe things will improve in the next quarter due to better component supplies and more third-party game sales. It will also be launching its Xbox Game Pass-rivalling PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium services.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/94531-chip-shortage-hit-ps5-sales-last-quarter-but.html

 

[Burty117]

Gotta say, I've been pretty impressed with my PS5, I've been buying more games on it since the PlayStation Store has actually been putting up some pretty good deals lately, got Borderlands 3 for £12 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for £11.

Recently got a new TV that supports 120Hz VRR and man, consoles have come a long way this gen. Games finally feel snappy and responsive. I jump back on my PC and sure, fps games will just always work better on PC but consoles no longer feel significantly less snappy or laggy than their PC counterparts.

 

[dangh]

Gotta say, I've been pretty impressed with my PS5, I've been buying more games on it since the PlayStation Store has actually been putting up some pretty good deals lately, got Borderlands 3 for £12 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for £11.

Recently got a new TV that supports 120Hz VRR and man, consoles have come a long way this gen. Games finally feel snappy and responsive. I jump back on my PC and sure, fps games will just always work better on PC but consoles no longer feel significantly less snappy or laggy than their PC counterparts.

Fully agree, while on ps4 experience was bit all over the place due to loading times and unstable (and low) frames, ps5 is an excellent, well rounded machine which reignited my excitement for gaming. Sure, I still have and love my PC with 6900xt, but Sony exclusives have nothing to be ashemed of, and good and plays wonderfully on their latest system. Ghost of Tsushima is extremly difficult to play, because instead of pushing the story forward I'm staying in various places and enjoying beautifull views or spending time in photo mode... something I was never doing before...

 

[DrewTheBrave]

Gotta say, I've been pretty impressed with my PS5, I've been buying more games on it since the PlayStation Store has actually been putting up some pretty good deals lately, got Borderlands 3 for £12 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for £11.

Recently got a new TV that supports 120Hz VRR and man, consoles have come a long way this gen. Games finally feel snappy and responsive. I jump back on my PC and sure, fps games will just always work better on PC but consoles no longer feel significantly less snappy or laggy than their PC counterparts.

I couldn't agree more. My PC runs great with a 3060Ti, but it was a $1,000 build. The $500 PS5 offers nearly as good of an experience in terms of loading times and now incredibly smooth framerates with the VRR update. Plus the controller is fantastic in the games that utilize it well (Ratchet & Clank, Returnal, Spider-Man, & especially Astro's Playroom).

 

[shark975]

The massive hordes of sony fanboys (remember the massive, massive hordes of fanboy groups are Sony, Apple, Nvidia, and Steam) will try to spin this positively but there's no way too.

Xbox is in the same market and seems to get better supply. It's admittedly conjecture on my part, but I have to wonder if Sony having to overclock their paltry 36 CU GPU (Series X is 52 CU's) so highly to save face and rescue PS5's dismal graphics performance (Returnal just 1080P), may be affecting their chip yield? Again otherwise ask why these same constraints are not affecting Xbox quite as much.

 

[dangh]

The massive hordes of sony fanboys (remember the massive, massive hordes of fanboy groups are Sony, Apple, Nvidia, and Steam) will try to spin this positively but there's no way too.

Xbox is in the same market and seems to get better supply. It's admittedly conjecture on my part, but I have to wonder if Sony having to overclock their paltry 36 CU GPU (Series X is 52 CU's) so highly to save face and rescue PS5's dismal graphics performance (Returnal just 1080P), may be affecting their chip yield? Again otherwise ask why these same constraints are not affecting Xbox quite as much.

... insecure much?
Constraints affecting xsx same way (please go to a shop and buy it out of shelf), just XSS can use failed chips from stronger version, and is much simpler to build, and people keep tripping on them in any gamestops, so they just buying it as they can't get a stronger system atm.
... as for the ps5 graphic perrformance and returnal... you do realise, that many (if not most) new gen games like AC Valhalla or Elder Ring have better performance on ps5, right? And - who cares, really, except some insecure owners of gaming box.
... my massive (other) horde member - there is always one who starts console war

btw going back to CU count argument and not about actual performance is a clear sample of raging fanboy. I'm surprised someone still using such weird argument after available showcase.

 

[Burty117]

Plus the controller is fantastic in the games that utilize it well (Ratchet & Clank, Returnal, Spider-Man, & especially Astro's Playroom).

Forgot to mention the controller! It's arguably the best update of this generation. The triggers in particular actually allow for more ways to interact with stuff.
Ratchet and Clank being a good example, you pull trigger till it "stops" which brings up the aiming ark and then properly pull on the trigger to throw.

Before that would have been a two button or trigger ordeal. I love it and hope Microsoft and Developers take note and keep supporting it.

btw going back to CU count argument and not about actual performance is a clear sample of raging fanboy. I'm surprised someone still using such weird argument after available showcase.

It is weird people still argue this. Digital Foundry go into crazy Pixel Peeping territory and even they can't find any differences in 99% of cases with only some games performing ever-so-slightly better or worse on each console.

It's admittedly conjecture on my part, but I have to wonder if Sony having to overclock their paltry GPU...

They don't overclock anything? What are you on about? They did a whole presentation on this, they asked developers if they would prefer more CU's at a lower clock speed or less CU's at a higher clock speed and developers voted for the higher clock speed.

I think you need to check out Digital Foundry on YouTube, they go to pretty extreme Pixel Peeping to try and find differences in performance between the consoles and honestly, there's nothing in it.