The PlayStation 4 continues to play a significant role in Sony’s financial resurgence, as the company attributed its increase in sales and operating revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015, to the new console.
According to Sony’s newly released financial results, sales and operating revenue saw an increase of 5.8 percent year-on-year, thanks largely to a “significant increase” in its Game & Network Services division.
The Game & Network Services segment, which includes Sony’s PlayStation brand (hardware and software sales), saw its sales increase a whopping 33 percent year-on year (25 percent on a constant currency basis). Again, this significant increase was attributed to “an increase in PS4 hardware unit sales,” as well as “a significant increase in network services revenue.” Of course, now that Sony requires PlayStation 4 owners to have a PlayStation Plus subscription in order to play games online, the increase in services revenue is to be expected. Sony also noted an “increase in PS4 software sales, partially offset by a decrease in PlayStation 3 hardware and PS3 software sales.”
Getting a bit more specific, Sony revealed that 14.8 million PlayStation 4 consoles were sold during the financial year ending March 31, 2015, meaning the life-to-date sales for the PS4 have passed the 22.3 million mark worldwide. The latest figure we heard was 20.2 million back in March. Before that it was 18.5 million as of the beginning of January 2015. So clearly, there’s no sign of slowing as the PS4 continues to show the “fastest and strongest” growth in the history of all PlayStation hardware.
Looking ahead, Sony expects to sell another 16 million PS4 consoles before March 31, 2016. Seeing as how Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Star Wars Battlefront, along with the PlayStation exclusive Uncharted: A Thieve’s End (pushed back to spring 2016), have all only been announced for current-gen systems, it’s not unreasonable to expect PS4 sales to continue at this rapid pace.
