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One of the key details from Sony’s quarterly financial report today – which also confirmed that the PS5 has shipped 21.7 million consoles – is that PS5 and PS4 owners are playing less than they were a year ago. The manufacturer noted that total gameplay time is down a sizeable 15 per cent year-over-year for the three month period ending 30th June, 2022.

Now a lot of this decline appears to be focused on April and May, with the platform holder pointing out it saw a three per cent month-on-month increase in June, which itself was down just 10 per cent year-over-year. However, it admitted “this is a much lower level of engagement than we anticipated in our previous forecast”.

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The company blamed the deceleration of the overall industry as the reason for the slide, “as opportunities have increased for users to go outside due to a reduction in COVID-19 infections in key markets”. But, unsurprisingly, it’s something the firm aims to address: “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 and promoting the new PS Plus service.”

Sony saw a two per cent reduction in revenue during the aforementioned quarter, which isn’t a terrible result in isolation – although increasing costs meant profit declined by a more significant 37 per cent, with a slump in software and add-on sales to blame. The reality is that the pandemic had a massively positive impact on PlayStation, and the numbers were always going to have to come back down to Earth.

[source sony.com]