Sony Quarterly Results (July-Sep) 2018, PS4: 3.9 Million

Deleted member 19767 · Oct 30, 2018

Troll said:
Sony should seriously consider a late start to the ps5. Current gen is way to good for them right now and the pro is acceptably powerful.

I have been thinking about this. I am ready for a new generation, but this generation seems pretty healthy still. I think Pro/X have helped the tech side of things - just this year we've seen RDR2, FH4, Spiderman and God of War. All absolute power houses in terms of visuals.

On the other hand, from a marketing standpoint - I'd want to strike while the iron is hot. People love PS4 at the moment - so that may help build success and hype for a PS5.

shark97 · Oct 30, 2018

Jarod McChicken said:
It's really important to emphasize again how ridiculously important the video games segment has become to Sony Corporation.

yeah. they dont have a lot of other successful products besides playstation anymore. like sony phones barely exist anymore, their tv's kinda struggle along, their movie division afaik perpetually releases high profile bombs etc.

eyeballing that chart i guess a bit surprising to me their phone image sensors dont generate more. that is at least one other successful area for them, afaik sony image sensors dominate (theyre in most smartphone cameras from any brand afaik)

90/~240 of sony's operating revenue is gaming. at a glance it's tempting to call that almost half, although it's maybe closer to 1/3 technically.

MrTired · Oct 30, 2018

Philly Cheesesteak said:
I'm saying by March after the releases of KH3 and DMCV.

They don't announced shipment number but that will happen in Q1 FY19 May probably and Sell through in Early Q2 FY19.

Penny Royal · Oct 30, 2018

Noobie said:
a quarter of their entire business. More than 1/3rd of their profit.

But it has also to do that they failed on their Mobile Division. Which they wanted to be one of the pillars of the revamped Sony. and its really mind-boggling that how spectacularly they succeed in their Gaming Division and how spectacularly they failed in their Mobile Division.

They should shuffle the mobile game developer that currently sits under music to mobile to make the numbers look better

MrTired · Oct 30, 2018

Jarod McChicken said:
It's really important to emphasize again how ridiculously important the video games segment has become to Sony Corporation.

shark97 said:
yeah. they dont have a lot of other successful products besides playstation anymore. like sony phones barely exist anymore, their tv's kinda struggle along, their movie division afaik perpetually releases high profile bombs etc.

eyeballing that chart i guess a bit surprising to me their phone image sensors dont generate more. that is at least one other successful area for them, afaik sony image sensors dominate (theyre in most smartphone cameras from any brand afaik)

Lol, well that not true as can clearly be seen in the table above.

Callibretto · Oct 30, 2018

shark97 said:
yeah. they dont have a lot of other successful products besides playstation anymore. like sony phones barely exist anymore, their tv's kinda struggle along, their movie division afaik perpetually releases high profile bombs etc.

eyeballing that chart i guess a bit surprising to me their phone image sensors dont generate more. that is at least one other successful area for them, afaik sony image sensors dominate (theyre in most smartphone cameras from any brand afaik)

Jumanji and Venom has done really really well for Sony. big hit with modest budget too, if I'm not mistaken. upcoming Spider-Verse also looks amazing and they still have MCU Spider-Man movie coming. I thought they're doing pretty good in movie businness lately.

Deleted member 19767 · Oct 30, 2018

N.Domixis said:
Imagine if Sony was even half as price competitive as MS is with Xbox. Literally $50-$100 price drops and multipl free game bundles with everything they can get their hands on and promotional giveaways every month. Got Damit Sony.

We'd have a chance at beating ps2 if they did that.

I don't know that it works like that. The PS4 is reasonably priced product with plenty of demand. Price elasticity no doubt exists, but I'd question whether constant promotions would actually drive significantly more demand - because that implies that after 5 years, there are people still sitting back waiting for a specific price point to get on board. I'm sure that's the case, but hard to quantify.

In contrast, Xbox has struggled this generation and likely relies on promotions to drive demand and/or maintain momentum. That's not to say they're not doing well, but the demand is clearly not at the same level - so they need to be more aggressive with pricing.

No real surprises in any case, but I wouldn't expect Sony to get too crazy with pricing outside of the standard sale periods.

Neonep · Oct 30, 2018

I would like a nice deal on the Pro for the holidays this year.

Philly Cheesesteak · Oct 30, 2018

MrTired said:
They don't announced shipment number but that will happen in Q1 FY19 May probably and Sell through in Early Q2 FY19.

Well see. Remember this was just Jul-Sep. They could easily add another 10+ million sales over the holidays which if we are talking about 100 million units shipped, that's the kind of news you kinda want to shout from the mountains. Have to wait and see if they are subdued with the announcement.

bane833 · Oct 30, 2018

>__ said:
I think there is still a possibility of PS5 launching in 2019. While cutting the PS4 short is costly, giving a competitor 1 year head start to themselves at the start of next gen is even more costly.

Microsoft is not going to launch in 2019. They just released a new console.

jawzpause · Oct 30, 2018

Sony need to ditch their mobile unit tbh

Imitation Of Life · Oct 30, 2018

>__ said:
I think there is still a possibility of PS5 launching in 2019. While cutting the PS4 short is costly, giving a competitor 1 year head start to themselves at the start of next gen is even more costly.

Scarlett isn't launching next year.

Jarod McChicken · Oct 30, 2018

PS4 vs Switch shipments for 2018, in case you need to picture if the PS4 is aging well. The Switch should be able to take the lead after Q4 but that is still impressive to see.

PS4
Q1 2018 : 2,5M
Q2 2018 : 2,8M
Q3 2018 : 3,9M
9,2M as september 30 (and 167M software)

Switch
Q1 2018 : 2,93M
Q2 2018 : 1,88M
Q3 2018 : 3,19M
8M as september 30 (and 58M software)

shark97 · Oct 30, 2018

N.Domixis said:
Imagine if Sony was even half as price competitive as MS is with Xbox. Literally $50-$100 price drops and multipl free game bundles with everything they can get their hands on and promotional giveaways every month. Got Damit Sony.

We'd have a chance at beating ps2 if they did that.

ms has to be cheaper with the s because it's less powerful (this is why building a less powerful but cheaper core console is fools gold in terms of profits, you are going to have to slash and burn to move units)

ms may also be saving a good deal with ddr memory in the s instead of gddr helping allow cheaper pricing

finally, far and away the #1 reason sont may not cut ps4 hardware pricing, unlike forum posters, corporations make and love profits. we like to play market share games, it isn't our money (not saying i'm not guilty of this just like the next).

if it was dollars in your pocket you would be no rush to cut ps4 either. imagine just if ps4 is cut you (you, personally) get $5000 this year. if it's not you get $10,000. you'd opt for the latter :)

Bung Hole · Oct 30, 2018

Benji said:
I'm not sure how anyone can look at Sonys business and think a successor is launching next year

Yeah man based off this they can wait it out. They have no need to rush to PS5.
I just hope they dont slip on PS5 quality. If they match Xbox One X in quality of hardware then they're onto a winner. A noisy, hot console went go down so well.

Kenzodielocke · Oct 30, 2018

What did they sell Q4 2017?

Coloursheep · Oct 30, 2018

shark97 said:
yeah. they dont have a lot of other successful products besides playstation anymore. like sony phones barely exist anymore, their tv's kinda struggle along, their movie division afaik perpetually releases high profile bombs etc.

eyeballing that chart i guess a bit surprising to me their phone image sensors dont generate more. that is at least one other successful area for them, afaik sony image sensors dominate (theyre in most smartphone cameras from any brand afaik)

90/~240 of sony's operating revenue is gaming. at a glance it's tempting to call that almost half, although it's maybe closer to 1/3 technically.

Then you know very little about their movie business, Jumanji, Spiderman did very well last year, as did Baby Driver and several others but not at the same level, Hotel Transylvania did well this year, Venom just passed 500 million worldwide and they have the animated Spiderman movie coming later this year that has a huge amount of buzz. The last two years have been very good for them and the titles they have on the horizon should definitely continue that. They are not as big as the rest of the major studios but they do not perpetually release high profile bombs, I'm actually struggling to remember the last time one of their movie really bombed.

The myth that Sony Pictures is a money pit have been greatly exaggerated.

Deleted member 19767 · Oct 30, 2018

Jarod McChicken said:
PS4 vs Switch shipments for 2018, in case you need to picture if the PS4 is aging well.

PS4
Q1 2018 : 2,5M
Q2 2018 : 2,8M
Q3 2018 : 3,9M
9,2M as september 30

Switch
Q1 2018 : 2,93M
Q2 2018 : 1,88M
Q3 2018 : 3,19M
8M as september 30

Okay that's pretty impressive. Thanks for the data.

Noobie · Oct 30, 2018

Stripper13 said:
I don't know that it works like that. The PS4 is reasonably priced product with plenty of demand. Price elasticity no doubt exists, but I'd question whether constant promotions would actually drive significantly more demand - because that implies that after 5 years, there are people still sitting back waiting for a specific price point to get on board. I'm sure that's the case, but hard to quantify.

In contrast, Xbox has struggled this generation and likely relies on promotions to drive demand and/or maintain momentum. That's not to say they're not doing well, but the demand is clearly not at the same level - so they need to be more aggressive with pricing.

No real surprises in any case, but I wouldn't expect Sony to get too crazy with pricing outside of the standard sale periods.

I think that the important point is that should they expand their user base at the cost of profit?
My point is yes, definitely. PS4 priced at $200 will generate a big interest and with the kind of ideal situation they are having with constant high profile and highly acclaimed game releases and not a very threatening competition and almost end of the PS4 generation consoles, i think it will not be wise to not try to attract this price-sensitive segment of the market with a lowered price PS4. Another benefit they will get is that the brand and ecosystem will strengthen as more people join Playstation and I personally believe this was one of the reasons which helped them to survive during PS3 days, that, Playstation brand was strong due to PS2 massive success which was in turn partially due to aggressive pricing.

Just my 2 cents

shark97 · Oct 30, 2018

Benji said:
I'm not sure how anyone can look at Sonys business and think a successor is launching next year

i know you're a sophisticated poster but, so far ps4 hardware is down (if slightly) every quarter vs 2017. down about 800,000 units so far for first 9 months of 2018 vs first 9 months of 2017. thats with spider mand and gof of war.

the numbers are good but a decline is evident is the point, meaning (probably) the hump has been crossed and downslope engaged, although the 4th quarter could change that still i suppose.

ps4 is semi-officially in the back half of it's life now is the point. 2019 though i never would have expected. i called those people crazy.

i always bet later in videogames. always. as late as you can possible get, video game related products are always delayed. as such, i'd guess 2020 isn't happening either.

Deleted member 10737 · Oct 30, 2018

Jarod McChicken said:
PS4 vs Switch shipments for 2018, in case you need to picture if the PS4 is aging well. The Switch should be able to take the lead after Q4 but that is still impressive to see.

PS4
Q1 2018 : 2,5M
Q2 2018 : 2,8M
Q3 2018 : 3,9M
9,2M as september 30 (and 167M software)

Switch
Q1 2018 : 2,93M
Q2 2018 : 1,88M
Q3 2018 : 3,19M
8M as september 30 (and 58M software)

really cool to see both do so well

Katana_Strikes · Oct 30, 2018

I hope we can get an update on Spidey sales.

Hamster Plugin · Oct 30, 2018

PS Plus increase seems very low. 3.9 million PS4s sold, only 300k new Plus subs? A lot of this has to be for Fortnite that doesn't require Plus to play.

Deleted member 19767 · Oct 30, 2018

Noobie said:
I think that the important point is that should they expand their user base at the cost of profit?
My point is yes, definitely. PS4 priced at $200 will generate a big interest and with the kind of ideal situation they are having with constant high profile and highly acclaimed game releases and not a very threatening competition and almost end of the PS4 generation consoles, i think it will not be wise to not try to attract this price-sensitive segment of the market with a lowered price PS4. Another benefit they will get is that the brand and ecosystem will strengthen as more people join Playstation and I personally believe this was one of the reasons which helped them to survive during PS3 days, that, Playstation brand was strong due to PS2 massive success which was in turn partially due to aggressive pricing.

Just my 2 cents

I don't disagree. But their marketing team have way more data at their fingertips, with plenty of examples on uplifts/interest at various price points.
The question isn't whether a price cut would drive interest - but rather, how much more interest does it drive. I just don't know there is a huge set of consumers waiting for a specific price point to grab a PS4 - but Sony's pricing strategy seems to be working just fine so far.

Penny Royal · Oct 30, 2018

Noobie - but what's the average lifetime value of those customers? If all they do is buy a cheap console & spend money on pre-owned games and never buy DLC they're essentially buying an audience that doesn't make them any money.

Toni · Oct 30, 2018

jawzpause said:
Sony need to ditch their mobile unit tbh

The Sony Xperia XZ3 essentially outperforms the Galaxy S9, S9 Plus and Note 9.

So they better fucking not.

Sony has the best smartphones in the world and it's not even close.

A monumental world of difference compared to how Microsoft handled their Nokia smartphone line.

Deleted member 19767 · Oct 30, 2018

Toni said:
The Sony Xperia XZ3 essentially outperforms the Galaxy S9, So Plus and Note 9.

They better fucking not.

Sony has the best smartphones in the world and it's not even close.*

A monumental world of difference compared to how Microsoft handled their Nokia smartphone line.

*until you need warranty/tech support.
Signed, a 3 times Xperia buyer.

[Sigma] · Oct 30, 2018

Impressive numbers indeed. Im sticking firmly on team 2020 for PS5.

Penny Royal · Oct 30, 2018

Stripper13 said:
*until you need warranty/tech support.
Signed, a 3 times Xperia buyer.

Man, US retail is so weird. UK & Aus your sales contract is with the store, not the manufacturer and your first point of return is the retailer, the whole thing having to deal with manufacturers is so alien to me.

Deleted member 19767 · Oct 30, 2018

Kyser73 said:
Man, US retail is so weird. UK & Aus your sales contract is with the store, not the manufacturer and your first point of return is the retailer, the whole thing having to deal with manufacturers is so alien to me.

I'm in Australia. Still had to go through Sony for tech and hardware support when I was having issues. The telcos just aren't very good at that stuff outside of swapping you to a different/new device.

Callibretto · Oct 30, 2018

Stripper13 said:
*until you need warranty/tech support.
Signed, a 3 times Xperia buyer.

they must be doing something right if you keep coming back for more. :P

Little Old Man · Oct 30, 2018

Kyser73 said:
Man, US retail is so weird. UK & Aus your sales contract is with the store, not the manufacturer and your first point of return is the retailer, the whole thing having to deal with manufacturers is so alien to me.

After a certain point under UK law retailers are entitled to send you back to the manufacturer to deal with warranty issues. I had to send a nexus 5x back to LG rather than where I purchased it from due to the time from purchase.

gundamkyoukai · Oct 30, 2018

As expected they did good this quarter.
Also seem they not going to do a big price drop for this year compare to last year .

RestEerie · Oct 30, 2018

wait...there's no official spider-man sales announcement from the quarterly results?

Modest_Modsoul · Oct 30, 2018

RestEerie said:
wait...there's no official spider-man sales announcement from the quarterly results?

I know right... : /

everyer · Oct 30, 2018

amazing.

I really enjoy Astro Bot, GOW, Spider-Man, Detroit this year~

Philly Cheesesteak · Oct 30, 2018

Listening to the Sony Results call and basically movies are doing well, Gaming is doing well, and cell phones are not doing well at all. :/

Nuclear Muffin · Oct 30, 2018

Surprised to see that it actually outsold Switch this quarter (I doubt it will over Xmas mind you).

Very very impressive!

Kenzodielocke · Oct 30, 2018

RestEerie said:
wait...there's no official spider-man sales announcement from the quarterly results?

Sony seems to always announce sales numbers via PR.

DGS · Oct 30, 2018

An important pillar of the company, huh?

That puts Sony under pressure - delivering the real "next gen" deal too.

That can only be good #for the players. ;)

John Bender · Oct 30, 2018

65% increase in profits!
PlS+ up to 34.3M.

Jarod McChicken said:
PS4 vs Switch shipments for 2018, in case you need to picture if the PS4 is aging well. The Switch should be able to take the lead after Q4 but that is still impressive to see.

PS4
Q1 2018 : 2,5M
Q2 2018 : 2,8M
Q3 2018 : 3,9M
9,2M as september 30 (and 167M software)

Switch
Q1 2018 : 2,93M
Q2 2018 : 1,88M
Q3 2018 : 3,19M
8M as september 30 (and 58M software)

PS4 is a monster and it's so well deserved =) So now let's hope we will get some more Spider-Man sales infos today.

CozMick · Oct 30, 2018

jawzpause said:
Sony need to ditch their mobile unit tbh

Such a shame that this needs to be said.

I just bought an XZ3 and it's the most amazing phone I ever owned. :(

Philly Cheesesteak · Oct 30, 2018

In reference to games, an investor asked how did the % increase for PS4, for add-ons , was it due to one title or several?

"We can't attribute it to one title, but several. However, we were blessed with good titles including Spider-Man which is selling briskly and we believe it will continue selling well into the 2H."

Niche-Man did fucking work.

silva1991 · Oct 30, 2018

We will never get LTD numbers for Bloodborne and TLG will we?

zomgbbqftw · Oct 30, 2018

Sony is definitely on the road to $100bn market capitalisation.

This is probably the best set of results from Sony I've ever seen in the 10 years I've been in the industry.

I'm actually very impressed with how well management have turned it around, starting with unfairly lamented Howard Stringer.

Emilijo · Oct 30, 2018

So Sony upped their forecast for PlayStation to $2.7 billion profit for this FY? So far biggest profit was $1.7 billion.

Jaxar · Oct 30, 2018

Kyser73 said:
Man, US retail is so weird. UK & Aus your sales contract is with the store, not the manufacturer and your first point of return is the retailer

I think you'll find that only applies for a limited time and not the entire length of the warranty.

FIREKNIGHT2029 · Oct 30, 2018

PS4 is a monster!

Peek-a-boo! · Oct 30, 2018

I imagine that that $199 standalone PlayStation 4 deal last year was a complete one off if they are not expecting to push out any 'door busting' deals this year.

Their (gaming division) profits are really good, and the PlayStation 4 holds its value very well over the course of a year compared to the numerous 'price promotions' their nearest competitor puts out. Sony may well 'lose' November and December in the NPD this year however, I imagine they'll be the ones laughing all the way to the bank.

The fact that they passed both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is under five years is a staggering feat! That's nearly 17,500,000 units a year for the past five years.

Yurinka · Oct 30, 2018

henhowc said:
gonna guess spiderman and red dead bundles

Add Fortnite bundles too

Sony Quarterly Results (July-Sep) 2018, PS4: 3.9 Million

User requested account closure

User requested account closure

User requested account closure

User requested account closure

Unshakable Resolve

User requested account closure

User requested account closure

User requested ban

User requested account closure

Living the Dreams