Sony avoiding PS5 price rise with new PS5 stock and PS Plus focus

Sony evaded a question on whether the PS5's price will rise in the face of weaker game sales, but has stated its hopes that renewed PS5 stock and an increased PS Plus push will make up for the poor Q1 performance.

Update:
Sony is hoping to avoid a PS5 price rise with renewed console stock and an increased PS Plus focus, and looks to be banking on the performance of its 2022's flagship PlayStation Studio titles like God of War Ragnarok and The Last of Us Part 1 to make up for a disappointing first fiscal quarter this year. The PlayStation company evaded investor questions on whether it would hike the PS5's price, remaining confident that the console would see increased sales after "significant improvements" in the company's supply.

Sony bringing more PS5 stock in time for holiday season

All aboard!

The update on the company's PS5 price increase stance follows gameindustry.biz's reporting on Sony's recent investor call, which has now been fully translated by Seeking Alpha. In the call, Sony CFO and executive deputy president Hiroki Totoki stated that Sony "intend to take action to increase user engagement in the second half of the fiscal year," while reiterating a focus on PS Plus and plans to "bring forward more [PS5] supply in the end holiday selling season."

While Sony has looked a little fractured lately with its comments on Microsoft's potential ownership of Call of Duty and further God of War Ragnarok leaks not exactly showing the company in strong light, it is heartening to see the company remain confident in the face of weaker sales. Let us know your take on Sony's latest financial report and whether you think the company's focus on PS Plus is the right move down in the comments below.

Original Story:
Sony shipped 2.4 million PS5 units in the first quarter of this year, insisting that it is still on target to sell 18 million units by the end of the year as manufacturing conditions slowly increase to pre-pandemic levels. However, at its first quarter earning call, Sony dismissed PS5 price hike questions despite weaker game sales and growing expenses internally and externally.

PS Plus lost 100k users when Extra, Premium tiers were introduced

That's one too many red arrows.

In the last three months, we’ve also learned (via VGC) that while PlayStation Plus has gained roughly a million users compared to this same period last year, it has also lost roughly 100K subscribers since the introduction of the PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium tiers. While numbers will have surely climbed again this month after the social media success of Stray, it’s still interesting to see our first hard numbers after the subscription service’s revamp launched in June.

Sony also saw overall game sales for the PS4 and PS5 drop to 47.1 million this quarter compared to last year’s 63.6 million. Sony attributed this to a decrease in first and third-party game sales, as well as a fall in third-party DLC sales. Contributing to raised expenses at the company was also the acquisition of Bungie finalising — a factor that came in ahead of schedule, apparently.

The above financial constraints contributed to Sony being asked whether they intended to raise the price of the PS5, to which Sony CFO and executive deputy president Hiroki Totoki replied, “about a potential price increase for the PS5, at this point in time there is nothing specific I can share with you about prices.” It was a fairly evasive answer, and given that Sony has raised prices on its other consumer products such as cameras and headsets, don’t be surprised if the PS5 does go up in price in the coming months when the company is prepared to respond.

What do you think about the news? These are trying times, it seems — will you still pay for a PS5 if its price gets raised? Has this incentivised you to the console before a price hike does kick in? Think the Yakuza series coming to PS Plus will turn the subscription service’s fortunes around? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Written by Lee Brady

Staff Writer Lee keeps one eye on the future (Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth), one eye on the past (PS Plus Premium, recent Sony news), and his secret third eye on the junk he really likes (Sonic Superstars, Final Fantasy XVI). Then he uses his big mouth to blurt out long-winded opinions about video games.