Shipments of game consoles during the holiday season should be booming. But for 2021, especially for Sony, the holiday season is not a good time.
During the end of 2021, Sony could only ship 3.9 million PS5 units, only a slight increase compared to PS5 shipments in the previous quarter, which reached 3.3 million units. Even if you add it up since the PS5 was first released, the shipping is pretty pathetic.
As of December 31, 2021, Sony has only been able to ship 17.3 million PS5 units, 3 million less than PS4 shipments in the same timeframe since it was first released. Of course, this is not because the PS5 is not selling well, but because the supply of components is very limited.
The PS4 at that time certainly did not experience the problem of component scarcity, so its availability in stores was maintained. It's different from the PS5, which is not only rare, but also the selling price is soaring due to the large number of PS5 stockpiles.
Sony's gaming division revenue decreased 8% from a year earlier, to 813.3 billion yen. But operating profit increased 12.1 percent to 92.9 billion yen.
Yet PlayStation is now Sony's most important individual division, where more than a quarter of Sony's total annual revenue comes from this division, and nearly a quarter of its operating profit.
The ongoing shortage of components has prompted Sony to revise the revenue target from their gaming sector by 6% to 2.73 trillion yen, mainly due to the PS5 sales being unable to meet the target.
For 2022, Sony estimates that it will be able to ship 11.5 million PS5 units, down from the previous estimate of 14.8 million units.
Fortunately, the Sony division that is really crucial can record good sales during 2021, namely the camera sensor division. Its sales increased 22% year on year to 57.8 billion yen, with operating profit rising 26% to 13.3 billion yen.
According to Sony, the increase in revenue from this division was helped by the high sales of image sensors for camera phones, the majority of which are premium cellphone products.