PS5 Caused PS4 Sales To Fall ‘Slightly Below’ Sony’s Expectations

Sony admitted it sold fewer PlayStation 4 consoles after the PS5 was made known to the public.

Sony, in an earnings report, said that global PS4 shipments have reached a cumulative high of 100 million units, making the PS4 the fastest console to reach that milestone.

“3.2 million units were sold during the current quarter, essentially unchanged year-on-year, and we reached 100 million cumulative units on a shipment basis,” Sony said.

A videogame analyst, claiming to have received information from both Sony and Nintendo, said the PS4 reached that milestone faster than the PS2 and the Wii, both of which also reached the 100-million milestone within 72 months from launch.

Below expectations

All of that good news regarding the PS4 reaching the milestone, however, is met with lower hardware sales during the same quarter.

In the same report, Sony admitted that PlayStation 4 sales figures were “slightly below” its expectations. The company said it believes that this is because the company’s next-gen console slated to release at a later date, the PlayStation 5, was made known to the public.

“PS4 hardware unit sales in the first quarter were slightly below our expectations primarily due to the news regarding our next generation console,” the Japanese game company said.

As a result, Sony decided to revise its sales forecast. Instead of expecting sales figures of 16 million units, the company now expects to sell 15 million units -- a 1 million-unit difference. Sony said this target figure “demonstrates that the PS4 platform is still garnering support from many users.”

Upcoming

Indeed, the PlayStation 4 still receives support, both from gamers and game developers. Titles like “Final Fantasy VII Remake,” “Death Stranding,” the “MediEvil” remake and more are coming to the console soon. These titles are sure to attract players to get the console if they haven’t yet.

The PS5, however, looks to be a real gaming behemoth with its own list of exclusive titles. Lead architect Mark Cerny previously revealed that it will feature a 7nm Zen 2 eight-core CPU based on AMD’s Ryzen chips, as well as a custom GPU based on the Radeon’s Navi chips. It also supports ray tracing, 8K resolution, and will also be compatible with PS VR.