Next-gen consoles such as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S ushered a new era in gaming. While they may feel new, these consoles are actually three years old now.
The new era of gaming introduced a couple of drastic changes to the industry. One of them is pricing. While it’s already been three years, most next-gen games, especially triple-A titles, still cost around USD69.99 (~Php3,900), which is said to be affecting sales.
According to data from Sony for the PlayStation 5, the price increases have affected the gamers’ behavior for this generation. A closer look at those numbers shows that, while Sony was able to make record-breaking money on PS4 and PS5 console sales and software, the actual unit sales of games have dropped substantially.
The data shows that PlayStation users spent around USD6.367 billion for both digital and physical software purchases in 2022. However, the total game unit sales are down to 264.2 million for the said year, which is 39 million lower than the year before.
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Still, Sony did not only maintain revenue from software sales but is actually making tons of money. So, what does it mean?
It is said that, while players are buying fewer games, they are spending more money on the games that they already have. It is also an indication of the higher prices of PS5 games.
Other data from Sony backs this up. As per the company’s management, third-party game sales dropped in 2022, with the PlayStation Store showing a 38.6 million year-over-year drop in sales of third-party games.
Another evidence of this is the performance of Activision’s Modern Warfare 2, which was able to make USD1 billion in sales in just 10 days without a significant increase in total unit sales.
This means that, while the higher prices dropped the unit sales, revenue is still high. This could also be the reason why Sony doesn’t mind and isn’t dropping the price of their games.
Source: TweakTown