Even after more than 3 years in the market, the PlayStation 4 continues to impress with its numbers, this time by achieving Sony’s less-than-certain goal of shipping 60 million consoles by the end of March 2017. The company held steady in its forecast for months, while many were not sure their target could be accomplished given that it really needed an absolute lack of unexpected economic bumps in the form of failed software launches, or lower than expected numbers from certain territories. But here we are, with Sony’s Fiscal Year 2016 report in our hands, which could very well have a big “Mission Accomplished” tag at top of the gaming division report.
By selling 20 million consoles in the last 12 months, PlayStation 4 has managed to outperform itself in each of the years since its release at the end of 2013, reporting 7.5 million in FY2013, 14.8 million in FY2014, and 17.7 million in FY2015. Without any hardware release comparable to the PS4 Slim or Pro models or PlayStation VR, the sales for FY2017 are expected to be 18 million.
The milestone means that PlayStation 4 continues to be ahead of the sales numbers of PlayStation 2 at this same point launch aligned, and if it achieves to ship 78 million consoles by March next year, it will be close to pass PS3’s lifetime sales of about 85 million in under 5 years in the market.
PlayStation 4 continues to be ahead of the sales numbers of PS2
As expected, the game division is one of the pilars of Sony’s current state of the business, reporting an operating profit of 135.6 billion yen, the highest since 1998. The PlayStation Network alone generated 715 billion yen, which is already more than Nintendo’s full FY2016 revenue of 489 billion yen.
The operating income of the company as a whole is reported to be 288 billion yen, which is even higher than the forecast they revised upwards earlier this week.
The summary of the gaming division states that the business was able to overcome the price reduction of PS4, the decline in PS3 sales, and the high exchange rates by achieving higher hardware and software PS4 sales and reducing the cost of production for the console.
But it’s no secret that the console’s excellent performance in the recent months is due to the constant release of game exclusives in the form of Gravity Rush 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, the two Kingdom Hearts compilations, The Last Guardian, Nioh, Nier: Automata, Persona 5, Tales of Berseria, or Yakuza 0. And the stream of releases doesn’t seem to slow down with Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Ni No Kuni 2, or Uncharted: The Lost Legacy all confirmed to come in the next months.
