| EpicRandy said: Yes, launch align PS5 drives more revenue than PS4, but then with hit the initial issue again which is that his cost of operation is way higher than in the PS4 gen, to maintain the same ROI the install base needed to grow gen to gen and it's not the case here. Also, Covid made things more complicated, not only did they invest in acquisition and expansion, but salaries in IT also rose significantly during this time. I'm in IT, not gaming mind you but still, my salary rose more than 50% since 2019. So imagine if the same applies to some degree for gaming industry workers. The rising budget was already a burning issue now COVID put gasoline on it. -- This is a gamer point of view concern, This is not a concern in itself for Sony/PlayStation, even if it were to happen if Sony can maintain its revenue/ ROI through another segment of the market than this would not be a concern. A major worry for shareholder would be to see their ROI decrease without any short-term prospect of readjusting them and that's exactly what is happening now. -- I don't think that's true, it has been discussed but Sony mostly resisted the idea preferring to keep things exclusive on the higher revenue PlayStation rather the losing 30% for the PC store. But now Sony faces the same conclusion MS faced in 2015-2016, that their console alone is not enough and they need to reach the consumer on PCs. -- This initiative was taken during 2020-2021 when Sony, like the rest of the industry, thought the market was going to expand substantially, that bet might not have been taken with the knowledge of 2022-2023, yet they have been taken and now they need to go by them. |
Revenue, operating income, and ROI are higher on PS5 than PS4 launch aligned. Its not just higher revenue because of higher prices. I wouldn't say the PS5 needs to outsell the PS4 to maintain the same ROI. PlayStation Plus, higher digital sales, stronger first party sales are all major factors that significantly benefit the PS5 over the PS4.
PS5 sales nosediving is definitely a Sony concern lol. Again, they didn't commit their single player exclusives Day One to PC, they didn't mention a PC launcher for the mid term, even their live service initiative needs PS5 to be successful. They're banking on PS5 owners for the majority of their ROI. As for their PC and live service plans, Shawn Layden has already said that PC ports got approved under his tenure, and not Jim Ryan as many speculated. Sony always wanted a slice of that live service pie, especially after a handful of F2P games like Fortnite, Apex, Rocket League, Destiny, blew up on their ecosystem.
Sony and Microsoft are in totally different positions. Microsoft needed PC but Sony wants PC to grow their profit margins.
