A slowdown in sales while waiting for brighter horizons
Between God of War Ragnarök, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, The Last of Us and its remasters, there were several sagas that launched the PlayStation 5 well in its first years of marketing. But it is clear that, despite a State of Play held a few weeks ago, the schedule for 2024 is still a little thin for games developed internally, especially for the second half of the year. A feeling which will undoubtedly be accentuated with the manufacturer's recent press release.
Indeed, if we are to believe the latest declarations of Sony in the company's latest financial results, the firm will not release any sequels or updates for “major existing franchises” before March 2025. If we believe the words of the president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, this would only concern PlayStation exclusives. Third Party games are therefore not affected.
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“When it comes to first-party titles, we will continue to focus on creating high-quality productions and producing service games. But while major projects are currently in development, we do not plan to release major new titles from existing franchises in the next fiscal year such as God of War: Ragnarok and Marvel Spider-Man 2.”
Given a lean period for Sony in terms of software, the company expects a decline in PS5 sales in the future. It had set an ambitious target of 25 million PS5s sold for the fiscal year ending March 2024. However, in the most recent quarter it sold 8.2 million consoles, bringing the total for the year to 16 .4 million at the moment. The company said it now expects to miss its original target by nearly 4 million units (which is 21 million PS5s based on their estimates).
“Partly due to entering the second half of the console's life cycle, we aim to optimize sales with a greater emphasis on balancing with profits. We therefore expect a gradual decline in unit sales from the next fiscal year. »
With the increase in costs and duration of game development, faced with a life cycle of consoles similar to that of previous generations, we could see this as a sign of failure, due to a reduced production of first party games for this generation. However, PlayStation can still rely on significant third party exclusives, such as the highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Let's also not forget the arrival of new licenses, such as Concord. However, it is likely that consumer criticism will begin to emerge in the coming months. That said, the company still has something to delight its fans with promising titles such as the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part IIIwithout forgetting the much speculated remake/remaster of Bloodborne. But for that, we will have to wait a while longer.