Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

PS5 closeup

News

Standard edition PS5 will become profitable next month, Sony says

Consoles usually sell at a loss for a while, but the PS5 could be raking as early as 7 months into its lifespan.

It’s fairly well-known in gaming circles that the video game consoles themselves are sold at a loss, with the publisher’s confidence that the sales of individual games and gaming subscription services over the console’s near-decade lifespan will eventually recoup the high costs of production and research and development (here’s a good article about the economics of gaming consoles for those interested in learning about more). For instance, according to Investopedia, “in 2006, at the time of PS3’s launch, each console was sold at a loss of around US $240 per console, while the Xbox 360 lost around US $125 per console when it launched in 2005.”

The song remains the same with Sony’s latest console, the Playstation 5, which launched in November 2020, and despite price points of $500 for the standard edition PS5 and $400 for the digital edition, have reportedly been selling for a loss. That could be changing very soon however — and even more quickly than previous generation consoles, according to Sony.

PS5 standard edition will become profitable

“Another area that we focused on is our console economics,” explained SIE president and CEO Jim Ryan in an investor relations presentation on Thursday. “I’m pleased to say that the PS5 standard edition will break even from next month’s production. And from then on, we project that it will gradually become increasingly profitable.”

Ryan added in a Q&A session after the presentation that, “Right now, the standard edition represents the very great majority of PlayStation 5 sales. We do not see that proportion changing greatly in FY21 but we anticipate that as time passes, as we move further into the cycle of PS5, that there will be some slight increase in the ratio of the digital edition, but not significant.”

Standard edition PS5 will become profitable next month

Sony

Another note of interest in Ryan’s presentation touched upon the importance of video game consoles in Playstation’s business model actually diminishing in importance as peripherals, services and software now account for the majority of SIE’s sales. According to Ryan, consoles earned only 20 percent of the company’s revenue in FY20, a number which was over double in FY13, at 48%.

RELATED:  The best cars in Forza Horizon 5 for unlocking Super Wheelspins

Does the news that the standard edition PS5 will become profitable next month surprise you? Do you think the declining importance of video game console sales in the overall Playstation business model was inevitable or a sign of the times? Let us know in the comments.

Written By

Ninja Gaiden was my rite of passage at an early age. After finally beating that game (and narrowly dodging carpal tunnel) I decided to write about my gaming exploits. These days I enjoy roguelikes and anything Pokemon but I'll always dust off Super Mario RPG, Donkey Kong Country and StarFox 64 from time to time to bask in their glory.

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Trending Games

News

Diablo 4 is set to release tomorrow on June 6th and will take about 150 hours of gameplay for the average player to reach...

News

“What year is it!?” The next installment of Mortal Kombat is going back in time. Instead of following up the franchise best-selling Mortal Kombat...

Playstation

MediEvil, a third-person fantasy action game first released for the original Playstation is still remembered affectionately to this day, thanks to it being one...

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Want the latest gaming news, guides, musings and cosplay delivered straight to your mailbox? Sign up for the Retbit newsletter and let us keep you connected.

More from Retbit

News

Deep Rock Galactic, an indie co-op shooter which features bad-ass space dwarves shooting up hordes of enormous insects in procedurally generated caves might have...

News

Warning: Spoilers ahead for God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök. When you hear God of War, the first name that springs...

News

Although its predecessor, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was released on previous-gen systems to favorable reviews, its sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor won’t be...

News

Gamers who were lucky enough to cop a Playstation 5 not long after the next-gen system’s release also had the good fortune to become...