The PlayStation 5 has, indubitably, proven to be a dominant player in not only the console gaming market but within Sony as well. Last year, it became the fastest-selling PlayStation console and has offered tough competition to its rival consoles.
With gaming on the rise and becoming quite a prevalent industry, even more so than in the previous decades, one can be sure that being a dominant player in the market would award particular merits to the PS5.
This, however, does also come with its fair share of problems. Increased demand also necessitates increased production of units to keep up with the demand, which has been a cause for concern for quite some time. COVID severely affected the global market, coupled with problems arising from supply chain issues and hardware shortages.
However, this may soon change, at least in the US as PlayStation imports have supposedly gone up by 400% year on year.
Major Takeaways:
- Sony imports have increased by 400% YoY in the USA according to Senior Analyst.
- Sony seems to be prepping to reach its FY2022 and Holiday Season goals.
Although PS5 sold 100,000 more units than last year, it is no secret that Sonny has faced various supply chain issues which have made keeping up with the demand for PS5 units quite a challenge.
Sony is well aware of this and in a financial earnings report previously, stated that they hope it will be less of a challenge to acquire a PS5 this holiday season, thanks to a “significant improvement” in the supply chain.
“Taking this situation into account, we intend to take action to increase user engagement in the second half of the fiscal year, during which major titles including first party software are scheduled to be released, primarily by increasing the supply of [PS5] hardware and promoting the new PlayStation Plus service.”
Over the past few months, there have been many reports of improved PlayStation 5 supply, such as in Germany recently. Back in June, Sony executive Veronica Rogers, speaking to Bloomberg, told that PlayStation 5 had reached 20 million units sold, and promised that they were planning on a significant ramp-up of production.
“To those fans who have yet to get their hands on a console, please know that we are planning on a significant ramp-up in PS5 production this year and we are working endlessly to make sure that PlayStation 5 is available for everyone who wants one.”
This may indeed be true, at least for the USA in addition to the previously mentioned Germany. David Gibson, a senior analyst at MST Financial reported on Twitter that Sony’s sea shipments to the US increased 400% in September 2022 compared with September 2021.
Lots of reports of improved PS5 supply in the past few months, but no data until now. Import data into the US confirms that Sony Interactive (PlayStation) shipments in Sept were +400% YoY. Yes you read that right. Some of that will go into inventory for GoW launch for sure. #PS5 pic.twitter.com/SvC6xTPQxs
— David Gibson (@gibbogame) October 11, 2022
An increase of 400% is no small feat considering the fact that there indeed were supply chain issues. It should also be noted that the recently revised “1200” PlayStation 5 that was recently released in Australia first is lighter than the previous ones.
Taking that difference in weight into account means that PS5 imported units are even more than one would first assume, and this probably had a hand in fixing production issues as well.
It should be noted that of, what appears to be about 7.5 million kgs of Sony import, not all of it is consoles, but it still is a strong indicator of how much the production has increased.
Another thing of note is the PS5 with a detachable disc drive as first reported by Insider Gaming. Although it has yet to release and won’t till next year, it will significantly affect PlayStation 5 sales in a positive manner and will also significantly enhance the console’s sales.
As Gibson suspects, some of the inventory can truly be expected to go towards God of War Ragnarok‘s launch. The game is set to launch on November 9, 2022. God of War is one of Sony and PlayStation’s premier AAA IPs and considering the hype alone for it, many would expect that the game will sell like hotcakes upon launch next month.
With the upcoming release of much-anticipated titles in October (No More Heroes III, Dragon Ball: The Breakers, A Plague Tale: Requiem, NHL 23, Gotham Knights, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2), November (Sonic Frontiers, God of War: Ragnarok), and December (The Calisto Protocol, Marvel’s Midnight Suns) we can only hope that Sony will be prepared.
Previously, Sony announced that PlayStation 5 prices would be increasing but that does not apply to the USA where the price will remain the same. This is due to the fact that the USA is one of the most important, if not the most important, markets for the console.
Couple that with the fact that the upcoming Holiday Season is a major retail period in the USA when an abundance of sales take place as people rush over to stores to buy gifts for themselves or other loved ones. Video games and consoles in particular also reach peak sales during this period and to market that is a great opportunity for any business.
To compete with the other consoles and not be hampered in any way by an increase in price is probably why the PS5 is priced the same in the USA.
David Gibson also provided the same statistics for PlayStation’s competitors.
So Nintendo? Not so good it appears with Sept -59% YoY BUT company is ramping production and is using airfreight (this data is sea freight), hence may not be as bad as shown #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/X7OYWTSIxK
— David Gibson (@gibbogame) October 11, 2022
As can be seen, Xbox imports increased by 89% YoY. This includes both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Nintendo imports were down by 59%. Gibson states that Nintendo is ramping up production and also using air freight in addition to sei freight so things may not be as bad as they appear to be for them.
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