Making more isn't a great metric.  Money is worth a lot less today.  Needs to be offset via inflation.  

In the 60s, 30k a year was an amazing salary.  Someone making 40k today isn't making more than someone who made 30k back in the 60s.

Edit

Don't get me wrong, I agree with your point.  I'm just saying the gap isn't as big as it first appears.

There's no way Sony is stronger in the PS4 generation compared to the PS5. For one, they are able to sell their hardware, software, and subscription services at higher prices. The latter especially ensures the PS5 to be more sustainable than the PS4. Not to mention, Sony has already projected that the PS5 will be their most profitable console, so the temporary decrease in their profit margins doesn't seem to be a major worry over at Sony.

As for the points you cited, it can be interpreted in more ways than one: 

- Continued expansion of the installed base: 
Increase the userbase of the PlayStation 5. Not sure how this would relate to PC as I don't see why Sony would classify their software sales as an install base. They also didn't mention a hypothetical PC launcher in the mid term that would fit this description. 

- Drive consistent revenue from Content, Services, Peripherals:
While live service is going to be a major factor, I wouldn't underestimate how much more profitable PlayStation Plus can be as a supplementary service, as well as many of their peripherals that dominate the charts. 

- Thoughtful investments in key innovation areas: 
I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that there would be no studio acquisitions for sure. Buying smaller developers/support studios is not a major risk. I feel like this is related more to something like Audeze or Gaikai, specialized acquisitions that can help out a subset of SIE.

- Expansion of franchise reach: 
Could also mean more PlayStation Production films, toys, merchandise, or even theme parks that Sony has recently mentioned. 

- Continued financial discipline: 
I don't take this as changing the console business model significantly. If Sony was going to change the status quo, they wouldn't have reiterated their stance on their single player exclusives, once again. It could mean more surefire projects, safer acquisitions, less hiring, etc.

By strength, I was speaking of their ROI, those have dropped significantly over the last 2 years, and as PS4 support fades. Yes, they charge more per title and hardware but cost inflation has been brutal. That's why despite record revenue for 2022/2023 their profits are still significantly down.

If this refers to the doc in the OP they were referring to PS5 by years and mixing in PS4 2020+ profits, if not, please add a source and check if they didn't use the same trick of "PS5 gen". Also, they defined the most profitable in absolute terms instead of a ratio over their investment, but it's the latter that would give them strength to garner investment into PlayStation not the former. And define "major worry" Cause Sony is doing studio closure, and layoffs while also increasing PC support, I can understand those moves if they react to a situation they worry about, if not then that's a mess. 

You write here, for some reasons I thought consumer base in general but that said Playstation 5 is tracking under the PS4 right now, so if things continue this way the expansion in PS5 install base throughout the gen will result in a reduction of install base gen to gen.

I was focusing on the Content part with my previous post but I agree with your assessment for the Service front. The increase in peripheral revenue, IMO I'm not sure, it depends on what has driven those and who they were able to reach. PSVR 2 and PS portal sure have generated a lot of sales at their release but it remains to be seen if those sales will be sustained throughout the gen or if it can be replicated with other peripheral.

I think right now pretty much any risk is a major risk.

I agree, I thought I added mention to those in an edit but it was lost somewhere.

But they already have made significant changes, driving the most recent investment towards GAAS, and announcing more support for PC. Not to mention investments in GAAS are not surefire things they are high-risk high-rewards and there will probably be more failure than success there.

IMO some other upcoming changes will include:

• Longer support for Gen 9 after the start of Gen 10.
• Ps5 Pro / Gen 10 to avoid a subsidized model (sold at a loss)
• Further improvement of PC support 

Gratulation :) Since all xbox-games will be released on PlayStation 5 in the future and GTA 6 will certainly break new records, it could be the best-selling PlayStation of all time. That's what I suspect.

14 million/117 million PS4's sold were the Pro. Which is why I know the PS5 Pro won't boost sales much.

The difference with Xbox is that they've achieved significant revenue growth without major acquisitions.

I don't quite understand why the ecosystem matters in the context of this when I'm complaining about the fact that they got rid of several studios and fired a bunch of staff. Their profit is at an all time high at the same time that they decided to cut staff. Even if the PS4 has been a large contributer of this generation, the fact is that in 3.5 years they've earned as much as the previous 7 years. So they've earned more profit in half the time and STILL decided to make significant cuts. 

Sure, the argument can be made that they are thinking about the future and not wanting to take large hits, but it's doubtful that they are going to take such a hard hit when a huge portion of the profit is microtransactions and games continue to take longer to develop. What they need to do is keep a steady stream of games to get people to buy into their platform and spend their money on in-game purchases from things like Fortnite, Call of Duty, etc. 

They wouldn't make the profit off of the games themselves, they would put those as an investment into what really gives them the return. But that's not what they are doing, and I don't understand why. 

Heck, if the idea is to trim costs of games they could have kept the employees and made more games with smaller budgets. Increase their output and get more people to invest into the ecosystem. Yet, what we are currently getting is a situation where, for the second year in a row, Sony is releasing only one major first party game. Spiderman 2 was last year and this year it's Astrobot. 

I don't see the problem with mixing PS4 profits with the PS5 when COVID was the main reason it did so well. You also have to take into account that Bungie was on the books for the last couple of years. Most importantly, launch aligned, the PS5 is more profitable than the PS4, even if you want to take away FY13/FY14/FY20/FY21. People are spending and engaging more on PS5 compared to PS4. All this talk about declining margins and the PS5's most profitable years are still ahead of it lol. I also wouldn't overlook the tremendous growth of PlayStation's first party or even PlayStation Productions when discussing ROI. 

I define major worry as PS5 sales completely nosediving from this point forward. As I've outlined in another thread, Sony having a prolonged generation will practically ensure the PS5 surpasses the PS4's lifetime sales. Its also unlikely a global pandemic will disrupt the supply chain when the PS6 launches, and the PS5 will be able to enjoy a healthier end of life than the PS4, and with that even healthier profits. 

Their PC support has been telegraphed for years now. Their live service initiative has been telegraphed for years now. These initiatives aren't happening because Sony is worried about their margins for the last year lol. 

Yet it doesn't come close to the golden years of ps1 and ps2, in terms of exclusives

I'm hoping for a hardware price cut still - I hope Sony's higher ups and shareholders realize that there's a limit of how much money you can squeeze out of their userbase and that they also need to increase it eventually.