Sony has had a rocky start with the launch of PlayStation 5 being released in the middle of a pandemic. But Sony took their time, and sold through 93 Million units of PlayStation 5 over the course of 6 years (PS5 was released November 12, 2020). Sony touted that PlayStation 5 is the best selling, most profitable console since inception in 1997.
[Source: Sony’s 2025 Investor Report for PlayStation]
In the recent investor report, Sony said “In FY25, sales were essentially flat year-on-year at 4 trillion 685.7 billion yen, as the decline in PlayStation 5 (PS5) hardware sales was offset mainly by foreign exchange rates and higher revenue from network services and third-party software.” This means, that the current economic troubles are affecting Sony when PlayStation 5 consoles leave manufacturing plants. The current United States president, has imposed tariffs on many countries, and Japan is affected.
[Source: Sony’s 2025 – 2026 Investor Report]
This also means, PS5 is currently on the cliff, where Sony can sell more PlayStation 5 consoles, but most people who wanted a PlayStation 5, have it already. What they want now is to grow the business beyond the core PlayStation fans. If the sales are flat, this is the case. The biggest offset to Sony in these trying times, is their network services, and third party support. In the same two reports, Sony highlighted third party games to grow the brand.
Electronic Arts’ Play subscription was highlighted because some of their blockbuster games are casual games like IFC, which itself is a rebrand of Fifa. EA sells UFC games, College Football, Madden, and more. Roblox is growing in popularity, that rivals Minecraft. Call of Duty is still a strong brand, despite the waning popularity. 2K sells sports games like NBA2K, and is doing very well. Genshin Impact is growing, and is a profitable driver for Sony’s backend network efforts. Ubisoft+ Classics label is apparently popular for Sony’s backend. Fortnite is still strong for Sony’s backend, too. Fortnite’s popularity is waning, but when you purchase stuff on PlayStation Store, it actually supports Sony’s Network services.
Now, the biggest game on the list is Grand Theft Auto V. It has been 13 years, and Sony sees how much money it drove to Sony’s PlayStation Network. Sony secured the marketing rights to Grand Theft Auto VI which is scheduled to be released on November 19, 2026. Barring any delays, and it has been delayed once before. Strauss Zelnick has stressed that Take-Two intends to release GTAVI on November 19, 2026. Furthermore, the game went on PlayStation Store with a definite release date of November 19, 2026. Something big is going down soon.
However, that is not without the bad news: Marathon sold pretty well, and did not meet Sony’s expectations. However, Sony stated that “Player reception to Marathon is strong, with the game receiving a Metacritic score of 82 and more than 90% of the player reviews on Steam being positive. Engagement metrics such as retention also remain at a high level.” Furthermore, more support for Marathon is forecast: “Going forward, we aim to improve the performance of the game by working to retain highly engaged core users through the introduction of additional content, further improvements in the gameplay experience and expansion of the user base.”
And now, for the main event of this article: Sony hosted a investor call, that was also a livestream. There is no transcript of the call, nor is there a written press release or anything of that sort. I am now relying on recaps on websites. I will now describe what they had said about the livestream. If you want to learn what they said, here you go.
Back when PlayStation 5 was released, Sony had to struggle to get consoles made, manufactured for sale at a pace where everyone wanted to buy PS5. There were supply constraints at the time. As COVID-19 locked down the world, there was also a global semiconductor chip shortage. So, the recent shortage of RAM chips is not exactly new to Sony. However, these shortages caused prices to rise to exorbitant levels. Prices for “off the shelf” RAM chips went from normal to $400 to $500 for the best RAM chips. These shortages were caused by AI Data Centers ordering, precuring these RAM chips. Sony raised the prices of PlayStation 5 consoles by $100-$150 depending on the exchange rates.
That being said, Sony said that they don’t know when they will release the next PlayStation console. Sony said that they are monitoring the memory prices, and that they are considering or reconsidering reducing the cost in areas that have nothing to do with the semiconductor(s). Sony may consider new ways of selling the new PlayStation console. What that is, we don’t know.
…..Officially.
Rumors are swirling that PlayStation 6 will have two models: The normal PlayStation “6” console, and the smaller PlayStation “6” console. Much like how Microsoft shipped Xbox Series consoles – Xbox Series X – the main console, and Xbox Series S – the more affordable console of the two. Another rumor is a PlayStation “6” portable in the vein of Nintendo’s Switch consoles. A dock and a handheld.
Rumor is PlayStation “6” was to be released in 2027 to compete against the new Xbox Project Helix console. Again, Sony doesn’t know when they will release it, but that is speculation at the moment.
At this point, Sony is taking a “wait and see” stance with PlayStation “6.” Stay tuned for more.
