While the PlayStation 5 will celebrate its fourth anniversary in November 2024, Sony believes that the console is already entering the last phase of its life cycle. Is it too early?
The PlayStation 5 would have already entered “ the last portion of its life cycle “, according to the words of Hiroki Totoki, president of Sony, relayed on February 14 by Takashi Mochizuki, journalist at Bloomberg. They follow the publication of the latest financial results of the Japanese multinational.
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Should we understand that it is already pre-retirement time for the home console, launched in November 2020 in difficult conditions, with supply problems which have been slow to resolve? Yes, even if it may be hard to hear for those who have just purchased a PS5.
The latest figures for the PlayStation 5 validate Sony's reading of the situation of its console: Sony expected to sell 25 million between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024. The objective was lowered to 21 million due to of the console's current cruising speed. During the last quarter, the PS5 did worse than expected. As the journalist notes Oscar Lemaire“ it is rather a poor performance, with 8.2 million PS5s (+15% compared to last year), while the PS4 made 9.7 million at the same stage of its career. The Switch made 10.8 million and the Wii 11.3 million. »
Retirement soon for the PlayStation 5?
Sony therefore expects to sell fewer and fewer PlayStation 5s in the future. Nothing catastrophic though, just the reality of a product that is slowly, but surely, heading towards its twilight. In this regard, the Nintendo Switch appears to be an anomaly with its sales still remaining at relatively high levels, on the eve of its seventh anniversary. However, it too is experiencing a certain erosion in its commercial performance.
If we go back in time, we notice that Sony has the habit of renewing its consoles every 6 or 7 years:
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- the PlayStation was released in 1994
- the PlayStation 2 was released in 2000
- the PlayStation 3 was released in 2006
- the PlayStation 4 was released in 2013
- the PlayStation 5 was released in 2020
The PS5 will celebrate its four years on sale at the end of the year. “ The last portion of its life cycle » could correspond to two full years according to the lower range — or a third. From a business perspective, this makes perfect sense. We will also note that the PlayStation 5 received a “Slim” aesthetic overhaul in 2023, a year which would correspond to its living environment. We can, therefore, expect to see a hypothetical PlayStation 6 arrive in 2026 (2027 at the latest).
However, should we hope for a price drop for the PS5 in the coming months? The console, launched at €500 (normal edition), is now sold at €550, excluding promotional periods. “ Sony indicates that a drastic price drop for the PS5, similar to that of the PS4, seems difficult due to the limited room for maneuver on production costs of the PS5 compared to the PS4 “, proclaims Takashi Mochizuki. This maintained price did not prevent the PS5 from reaching a volume of 54.8 million units sold to date.