Meanwhile, Sony has also made new firmware for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita… which has further reduced the features of both platforms.
Sony has also released its quarterly financial report. It shows that 19.3 million PlayStation 5s have shipped to stores so far by March 31 and that only two million have been shipped in the first quarter of 2022. The PlayStation 4 is at 117.2 million (and we think it’s fair to say that the Nintendo Switch will still overtake the PS4 by the end of the year, despite the lack of chips!), with only a measly 0.1 million shipped. Both the PS5 and the PS4 are showing declines. Compared to Q1 2021, PlayStation 5 is down by 1.3 million (from 3.3 million), and PlayStation 4 is down from 1 million to 100,000 (a loose 90%, however you do the math…).
Sony has also announced its expectations. They want to ship 18 million PlayStation 5s in the fiscal year that starts on April 1 (and like the Switch, it’s not split into PS5 Standard Edition and PS5 Digital Edition…), and the company says this is “a number based on their current view of parts procurement”.
We won’t go into the PlayStation Plus figure (we’ve already done that here), so we’ll mention the game sales figures. PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 combined pulled in 70.5 million game sales in the first three months. That’s up 9.1 million from 61.4 million a year earlier. Of the 70.5 million, 14.5 million were first-party titles, 6.6 million up from 7.9 million last year. However, there is a decline! Last year, digital (PlayStation Store) game sales were 79%, but this is down to 71%…
Let’s jump back to Sony’s two previous hardware releases. The PlayStation 3 got firmware 4.89, and the PlayStation Vita got firmware 3.74, and on Twitter, we read that Sony has TAKEN FEATURES OFF their devices! Now you can no longer create an account on either PS3 or PS Vita, some account management settings have been removed, and you need a device password to log in (i.e. two-factor authentication is required). Accounts created on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 or the PlayStation Network website will work without restriction.
The PlayStation Stores on PS3 and PS Vita can now only be accessed directly from the hardware (not over the web!), plus you can no longer buy anything for them with a debit/credit card (you have to activate PSN cards), Sony is making us switch…
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