In a newly released announcement, Sony has presented the company’s financial results for Q1 of 2018. The Japanese tech giant managed to ship an impressive 82.2 Million PS4 consoles and upgraded its forecast for the financial year 2018 from 16 to 17 Million. This would inch the PS4 to the magical number of 100 Million shipped consoles. Only few consoles have managed to surpass that milestone.
Sales are expected to be significantly higher than the April forecast primarily due to higher-than-expected PlayStation®4 (“PS4”) software sales including sales through the network, the impact of foreign exchange rates, as well as an expected increase in PS4 hardware unit sales. The forecast for operating income is expected to be significantly higher than the April forecast primarily due to the impact of the above-mentioned increase in sales.
The PS4 is undoubtedly a huge success for Sony. After practically giving away their title as top dog among console gaming with during the PS3 era, Sony managed to bounce back strong with their fourth home console. No longer aiming for exotic and most important, expensive hardware, the PS4 was notably built around well-known PC architecture, making the lives of game developers easier while saving precious funding for Research & Development.
Backed up by the immensely successful first-party developed exclusive games, the PS4 has dwarfed its most direct competitor, the Xbox One. Now, the PS4 is likely going to overtake the lifetime sales of its predecessor, the PS3, in a few months. The PS3 sold roughly 84 Million consoles. With the PS4 having sold 3.2 Million in the last three months and standing at 82.2 Million consoles at the moment, it’s a solid bet that it’s gunning for the even the mighty PS1 which sold 102 Million consoles.
Wether the PS4 will manage to dethrone the legendary PS2 which sold over 155 Million times is a more tricky question. After all, rumors about a PS5 are already swirling on the internet and there are only that more years left for the PS4 as the current-gen console. Nonetheless, the PS4 has already cemented itself as one of the most successful and dominant consoles in gaming history.
Not all is peachy with the Playstation however, as the number of monthly PS Plus subscribers has slightly went down from 34.2 to 33.9 Million. Difficult to clearly say what the reason behind this is. Could it be effects of the cross-play controversy surrounding Fortnite/Minecraft maybe?
