PS5's Meteoric Rise Underlined by Staggering German Sales Graph

I remember the days where I struggled for months for get a PS5.. I knew this would happen once they sorted supply issues as there was no doubt millions like me trying everyday to purchase a PS5

As I’ve said before, I can foresee MS become a platform provider like Valve with steam.

They simply cannot beat Sony and PlayStation brand strength.

@PSme True, PlayStation is just too strong.

I mean, as a player on all 4 platforms (low mid PC included), that chart looks like it should. MS is really not producing much to deserve better market placement.

@Powerplay94 question is whether this should be tolerated by gaming community - considering they were not able to do something meaningful for the last decade...
And GP is nothing more than a cheap tactic.

Man, they lost a lot of ground with the component shortages!

@Powerplay94 how are they gonna dominate console hardware space? They have fallen behind again this gen massively!

They may make games for console but it won’t be an Xbox in the future. Think Sega.

Buying lots of studios and publishers and turn themselves into a steam like provider for both console and pc with massive mobile presence.

Along with cloud gaming, smart tv’s etc. Easy to see where they want to go.

Sony and Nintendo got the console market locked down. Both have very different strategies and that's why they survive in the same environment. Microsoft trying to compete directly with Sony is more likely than not going to be their downfall.

@Powerplay94 Agree with most of your statements. BUT they are not the only company which can afford 69 billion. Okay, Sony is relatively poor, but Nintendo sits on 40 (?) billion cash from the golden Wii+DS days, they could manage it. But the real competitors for MS in financial aspects are Tencent and Savvy. And I am mich happier if MS has a shopping spree than Savvy.

I like my PS5 and love my PSVR2 but I find these figures kind of baffling. What pancake PS5 games have been truly mind blowing? What huge improvements have we seen? What generational leap have we seen nearly 3 years into the system's life?

It seems to me that Sony have done an 'Apple' and can now rely on massive sales with little to no effort.

Paving the way to have another massive userbase ready for the PS6!!!

@__jamiie almost every gen has had big games at various points NOT continuously. Most of the really jaw dropping games have come near to the end of a console gen, as studios have really pushed what the said console is capable of. And that takes time.

@Futureshark Agree, I will be there 👍🏻

@PixelDragon They were outsold by Sony and Nintendo in the 360 generation too - despite having at least a year head start, too. It's always been an illusion that they were doing well at any point. The first one lost MS billions and is one of the worst selling consoles ever. Their greatest success is being outsold by Sony's worst selling console - with a year head start! And I say all this as someone who had an original Xbox and a 360.

@Max_the_German sorry, but I’m not sure if that is accurate. Nintendo’s market cap is $55b; Sony (as a whole) is about $104b. Of course Sony are a larger company, they do more than gaming etc, (with all the electronics hardware they do). Not that it matters when compared to Microsoft anyway.

Neither Sony or Nintendo could ever afford ABK or anything that size - big tech companies like Microsoft are trillion dollar companies that can, and are in a completely different ball game. Tencent possibly could though. This is why Sony/Nintendo acquire smaller dev teams who are often starting out. The Bungie acquisition is the largest Sony have done and to my knowledge, I don’t think Nintendo have acquired a company that size either.

@Jamesblob if they are not in the hardware space maybe they can? IDK

Amazing sales figures for the PS5. Shows how much pent up demmand there was that, luckily, the scalper weren't really able to tap into.

On the future of this market though that is uncertain. Microsoft are playing their usual game, when they can't compete they starve their competition and then mop up the remains. It's obvious they want to move the market to a cloud based license only model where you only have access to games if you can pay your subscription. And that they want to be the cloud vendor who controls all this.

@add286 Market capitalization of Sony may be higher, but Sony is much more liquidity constrained than Nintendo. These guys sit on massive cash (or investments that can easily converted to cash) from back in the day. So in case that these facts are true (I‘m not an analyst, but tell what I‘ve heard), than in theory banks would be much more willing in support Nintendo at such a massive takeover.

Remember this is after covid and food and energy prices on an all time high, it's even more impressive.

@add286 And why Nintendo only take over smaller studios (like Sony): The way Nintendo works seems to be so specific and important for the brand that they cannot afford to damage that. PlayStation is less constraint, and Xbox even less.

@Tielo yep. Also good when you take into account the MS emails about ‘out spending PlayStation into oblivion’ from the FTC courtroom squabbling.

PlayStation brand strength. Awesome to behold.

@Matroska They can be doing well despite not being in first or second place. If being behind meant automatic failure, then most companies would be seen as a failure, but that definitely isn't the case.

If they weren't happy with how Xbox has performed, they would have closed it down years ago, like every other previous failing Microsoft product.

@lightningbolt79 Hmmm… remember your words and watch this space…..

The Bank of Daddy only goes so far….

@lightningbolt79 I get the impression that if they were doing decently, they'd be at least reporting some numbers. They aren't, unless they want to prove a point that they're doing terrible.

@naruball Microsft does report Xbox numbers, with the data given being essentially the same as the kind of data given from other parts of its business. Does that mean their entire business is a failure? No, of course not.

They scrapped Windows phones because they didn't sell well. Xbox is still going and as they have said many times, brings them a lot of money.

I know some PS fanboys loved to pretend that Xbox is failing, but it clearly isn't considering the amount of money it makes and the fact Microsft hasn't pulled the plug yet.

But hey, ignore reality and continue the clearly biased "Xbox terrible, PS great" mantra that the comments on this site go on about all the time. And this is coming from someone who has played PS for much longer than I have Xbox so please don't go round calling me an Xbox fanboy or anything. I just stick to the facts, rather than the complete nonsense that is often spread about Xbox.

@Max_the_German Nintendo's cash on hand as of December 2022 is $12.049b down from a peak of $16.37b in 2021. They also can't just spend this money anytime they want, they will need to have a reserve to cover ongoing costs. Early gen they will lose money and mid gen gain money if successful.

The DS actually sold less software than the PS3 so no, they were never sitting on mountains of cash.

@lightningbolt79
“But hey, ignore reality and continue the clearly biased "Xbox terrible, PS great" mantra

Okay I will.
I play games to escape reality. And I personally think PS has better ones than Xbox.

Oh, just in case it passed you by, Push Square. PlayStation site. Never going to get ‘ Xbox better than PlayStation comments’

You would have thought with Microsoft’s Starfield, supposedly the “biggest” game of the year, that it would correlate with more Xbox sales…. Yikes

@mrtennis1990 Think about that for a second.

Biggest game. As in singular.

Not enough to boost console sales.

Ja, ja, sehr gut!

...and yet no euro prices on Push Square

@sop £1 is basically €1 today. And probably will be for years to come. Our UK economy is neck deep up s**t creek with its mouth open wide😂😂

@Max_the_German could not see banks supporting either Sony or Nintendo making acquisitions that size (ABK has a higher market cap than Nintendo, for instance). The market cap represents what the market assesses your value as - whether you have money saved doesn’t mean you can buy way over your cap limit. Nintendo allegedly do have a lot of saved (I don’t know how much, and no one does really), but I think they just want to sit on it and don’t seem too interested in acquisitions anyway. Also, they wouldn’t buy ABK because Nintendo would look at others way closer to them (probably Japanese devs/publishers - Square or someone like that?).

Sony, I don’t know. They seem to have money for acquisitions (maybe $5bill or so) but there is a limit on it (and Sony don’t just do gaming mergers there are also about other parts of the business): that money is for the whole business as well. No one likes because people want silly massive deals that will never happen but buying companies early and adding value is good strategy for Sony and has really worked out.

This is the least surprising news ever. All we need now is one massively improved Showcase and some smaller SoPs next year for what's to come. There has been rumour talk of another PS showcase a little later this year but I highly doubt that but wouldn't be surprised either

@lightningbolt79 what are you even on about?

I remember when they would celebrate xb360 hardware and software sales and when xb1 started to fail, they switched to "xb players played x game x amount of hours, killed x number of monsters, etc". There was a clear shift.

Anyone else see Souron's eye on the thumbnail?

@lightningbolt79 Gaming is probably the only business where the consumers literally want to see the competition fail and go away simply because they feel like their platform is better than the rest.

It's...odd.

I am all for fandom, but I hate the "sore winner" mentality.

I would argue that Sony continues to dominate because it still sees Nintendo and Microsoft as threats to its business.

Take them away and we'll be seeing Spider-Man 5 on PS[X] that's the same gameplay and engine as Spider-Man. The Last of Us Part I: Enhanced Edition on PS6 for $80 (no upgrade options). Days Gone Remastered on PS5 for $70 and $80 on PS6 (with no cross-gen save importing or upgrade option). Crazy tech controllers for $150 as the base price on PS[X].

The same fears people have regarding Microsoft monopolizing the industry would apply if Sony was the only platform holder in town.

I think Sony should be commended for accomplishing what it has accomplished, it's definitely a strategy that has gotten the PlayStation brand far (even if the PlayStation's existence is laid on a foundation of betrayal).

But I also think Sony needs strong competition.

I do think Microsoft needs to do better with regards to making polished games. I do think Microsoft needs to give the acquisitions a rest.

I think Nintendo needs to continue to go all in on the hybrid console. It's definitely a much better solution than the Cloud streaming option and much more flexible for busy adults than a box under a TV. I want more R&D in the hybrid gaming space, actually - narrow that gap between standalone and mobile tech capabilities.

At the end of the day, play what you want and don't worry about what others enjoy. I'd also argue, that, if you can afford it, don't shoehorn yourself to a single platform - you might miss out on some real gems.

@PixelDragon
You may be right, but they'll buy up every available publisher and completely wreck the industry before they go that route.

@PixelDragon Wow...that's just...dumb.

Maybe it's just "nerd culture" in general.

Star Wars vs Star Trek can get vicious despite the fact that Star Wars is more "space fantasy" where Star Trek is more "sci-fi".

Two completely different focuses and there is nothing wrong with liking either, neither, or both!

🤷‍♂️

@Matroska The 360 sales were also heavily inflated by the RRoD since a lot of them had to be replaced and the warranty in the beginning was crap.

Yeah the PS3 had YLoD, but it had like 10% failure rate, which is acceptable for any electronics. The 360 had a 55% failure rate at some point. By the end of the generation, sales were close (but in favor of the PS3), but make no mistakes, there was a lot more ps3 in the hands of actual people. Wouldn't suprise me if the install base of the PS3 was twice the one of the 360.

IMO, it didn't matter if the Xbox One launch was a disaster. It's just an excuse. Playstation is such a bigger brand than Xbox, that even if Microsoft had done everything right, it wouldn't have mattered because Sony did as well. The PS4 would still have crapped all over the Xbox One. We'd still be here today with the PS5 crapping all over the Xbox Series as well.

By the way, it's going to be the same results next gen and the ones after that until Microsoft finally gives up and become third party.

Wouldn't want to be in a world where Microsoft succeed with Gamepass. It's cheap now and they act like good guys, but if they become successful, watch them raise the price to $100 or $200 a month. They can put a good guy mask all they want, but it doesn't change the fact that they will always be the worst scums of the earth and the most anti-consumer company between all 3.

@GigaGaia 👍🏻👍🏻to every thing you said.

@GamingFan4Lyf
“Gaming is probably the only business where the consumers literally want to see the competition fail and go away simply because they feel like their platform is better than the rest.“

Not seen you say this on purexbox

You can argue the same for football , baseball,F1 racing, in fact anything that has a competitive nature.

Gaming is no different.

@PSme That's a rough analogy as sports are controlled by the same company. Hoping one team succeeds while another fails is irrelevant as the revenue obtained from your viewership goes to both teams. The goal isn't for a team to win, it's to get you to keep watching.

Keeping with your comparison, gaming competition is more like rooting for golf to end baseball. These companies are competing for limited viewership and their success isn't dependent on each other.

It's ok to like a specific company's product over another and Sony has done great work in Germany (and Europe as a whole) but it doesn't make sense to wish failure on companies that others find use with.

@PSme I've never had a reason to say that on Pure Xbox, but I would if it's warranted. Only thing I ever see there is for Microsoft to make moves to put Sony in check - a sentiment I do agree with.

I'm not into the sports scene, but I am sure no one is saying a team should just go away or for a specific league to stop existing. Sports are exciting because of competition - kind of the point of sports.

But people will argue that Gears of War sucks and Uncharted is better and Microsoft should give up trying to compete.

Two totally different games.
Two totally different focuses.

The only thing that connects them is they are third-person shooter titles, yet somehow, they are competing against each other. Why?

And yes, I would call out the same behavior if the roles were reversed.

Xbox is my preferred console for multi-platform games. I prefer the ecosystem there - Game Pass helped as well as the way Microsoft handle cross-gen and it just became the place I choose to buy my games. My PS5 and Switch are for exclusives.

During last-gen, the PS4 was my preferred console for a while until I got into Xbox at the tail end of the generation.

Heck, the Switch was my primary console for a while, too.

I move around based on what's being offered and what I perceive as being the most value for my time and money. For all I know the PS6 will become my primary or Switch 2 will.

PC gaming is just too expensive.

@GigaGaia I managed a store in games retail during the first 4 years of Xbox 360 and every single machine that failed was replaced or repaired for free by Microsoft. Nobody had to buy a replacement so the sales numbers would never be hugely inflated by the RROD. Whilst there was a huge failure rate, it was very easy to get a new machine delivered to your door. It didn't help me much though having to deal with angry customers wanting to smash my face in because their Xbox didn't work.

In my experience, it was far harder to get Sony to replace a YLOD PS3.

@GamingFan4Lyf oh man the hate between "Trekkies" and "Jedis" makes any console wars look like soft play. I dont understand it either. Lol.

@GamingFan4Lyf Just saw you mention Days Gone Remastered in your hypothetical situation and now I can't stop thinking about how awesome it would be to get a Remaster of Days Gone. But I know it'll sadly never happen.

@themightyant "Game Pass is going strong with huge profits in subscription services"

What figures are you using to state huge profits? We know about supposed revenue numbers because that's all they disclose, but they don't provide any information on expenditure costs to run the service, or what their profit margins are after things like that are factored in.

I'm sure it's doing well, but none of us know exactly what that translates to, and recent changes would indicate, at least to me, that "huge profits" might be a stretch. Price increases, shortened trials, their big triple a's now releasing early at a premium cost to the consumer. Remember when play it day 1 on gamepass was a slogan synonymous with the service, well now it's play it day 6 unless you want to pay us more money. I feel like that's a pretty big shift that a lot of consumers should be concerned about going forward, and was perhaps driven by an uncertainty that they wouldn't be able to recoup development costs or turn a healthy profit from subscriptions alone.

@Intr1n5ic exactly.
As for the argument that people bring up that if Xbox weren't successful, MS would have dropped it, weren't the TV and mobile division of Sony in the red for absolute ages and they kept them anyway until they decided to do something about it?

@naruball I'm honestly not that clued up on the performance of Sony's other divisions, I would need to read more in to it, but I completely agree with your sentiment. Companies don't just automatically scrap product lines or services because they're underperforming.

The argument that MS would have shut Xbox down if they weren't happy with its performance doesn't hold weight. Without question their hardware sales aren't meeting expectations, and subscription growth is consistently missing the targets they're setting for themselves year on year. I very much doubt anyone at the top is happy about that.

Xbox will surely become cloud and GamePass only within ten years. Game UK are selling PS5’s at a rate of 5/1. That’s just incredible and proves that where PlayStation are concerned, the brand is bigger than the product. Most people I know with a PS5 say they only really play retro games and little else. Yet it still slaughters the Xbox. xCloud will eventually be a product that is on every console but Xbox will just be a brand of the past. They simply cannot, even with their money, keep losing as much as they do on xBox consoles.

@bpomber Very underrated game!

@Beerheadgamer82 Sony's probably working on the Activision acquisition timeline like they announced the May showcase 2 days after the EU approved the acquisition. So the CMA will probably be the signal of when the next State of Play or PS Showcase is announced.

I’m sure it’s just all those German folks who want PS VR2 and they realized they need a PS5, too. 😋

A few folks have said the XBox will be just a cloud-based system in the next ten years. Whether it is or isn’t, Microsoft could make it happen just by calling the next system the XBox Nimbus.

@PSme Sterling is still worth 15% more against euro's.

@Max_the_German Thats really not that smart no company should get to much power. The Americans are quite great in destroying competition in underhanded ways. The Chinese and the Americans are quite dangerous as a European you should not get the illusion that any of them are better then the other.

@__jamiie It was a known issue they didn't have any other option. Or you play dumb and get a class action lawsuit on your hands and a devestation with your brand. I got my PS3 replaced for free it was three years old already.