PS5 Misses Ambitious Sales Target, Now In "Latter Stage" Of Its Life Cycle

We're now several years into the current generation of consoles, and according to Sony, the PS5 has now entered the "the latter stage" of its life cycle. Sony senior vice president Naomi Matsuoka has predicted sales of the console to start slowing down in the next fiscal year, which runs from April 24 and concludes in March 2025, which will result in Sony adopting a more flexible strategy.

"Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle," Matsuoka said (via Bloomberg). "As such, we will put more emphasis on the balance between profitability and sales. For this reason, we expect the annual sales pace of PS5 hardware will start falling from the next fiscal year."

According to Sony, 8.2 million PS5s were sold during the third quarter of its current financial year ending on December 31, 2023, but these numbers were lower than expected. The company has revised its sales forecast from its ambitious goal to sell 25 million PS5s during the current financial year ending March 31, 2024, and it now expects to reach 21 million sales.

54.7 million PS5 consoles have been sold since November 2020, and the gaming system will be four years old by the end of 2024. Sony has begun phasing out the original model with a slimmer version, but it hasn't commented yet on a next-gen PlayStation 6 or a rumored mid-gen refresh, similar to how the PS4 generation saw the launch of the more powerful PS4 Pro a few years into the lifespan of that console.

On the software side, Sony has also confirmed that no major existing PlayStation franchise games will be released before April 2025, with the company pointing specifically to series like God of War and Spider-Man during its financial call.