Sony reduced its profit forecast from the gaming business because sales of its PlayStation games were not as large as previously thought.
This estimate is issued by Sony after announcing shipments of 2.4 million PS5 units in the last quarter, up just 4% from the 2.3 million units shipped in the same period in 2021. In total, there have been 21.7 million PS5s shipped since the first released.
While its console shipments are still growing, sales of software -- or games to be precise -- slumped 26%. In its investor call, Sony blamed fewer major game titles released in 2022 compared to 2021. Also reduced overall game time.
This data is supported by the decline in active users of the PlayStation Network by 3% to 102 million accounts. The fate of Sony's 2022 flagship game is not too good either. For example, Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7 got tough competition from Elden Ring, which stole the attention of gamers.
From these data, Sony also lowered its estimated annual profit by 16% for its gaming business. This is done to anticipate the decline in game sales in the next quarter, as well as the costs that must be incurred by Sony to acquire Bungie.
The decline in Sony's game sales is a sign for the game industry, whose growth is slowing after experiencing a huge increase at the start of the pandemic.
While on the Xbox side, Microsoft did not disclose the number of shipments of its Xbox devices, but they did report that revenue from the Xbox business decreased 11% in the last quarter, as well as a 6% decline from the content and services business, and an overall decline from the gaming sector by 7 %.
Although the game sales are not that great, Sony has not changed its PS5 shipment forecast for 2022, which is 18 million units for the 2022 fiscal year. From a gaming perspective, maybe Sony will have high hopes for their two flagship games that will be released on November 9. , namely God of War Ragnarok, and September 2, namely The Last of Us Part I remake.