PS5 Shortage Weighs on Sony’s $26.5B Quarter

Supply chain issues took a bite out of Sony’s biggest segment — gaming — in the company’s fiscal third quarter.

The Tokyo-based company posted $26.5 billion in revenue in the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2021, up 12.5% year-over-year despite an 8% drop in gaming sales to $7 billion.

Semiconductor shortages constrained the supply of PS5s. Sony has begun ramping up production of PS4s to help cover the demand.

• Trimmed revenue in gaming was almost entirely attributable to hardware sales, which fell 22.3% to $2.3 billion.
• Sony shipped 3.9 million PS5 consoles in the quarter, bringing its total to 17.3 million since the device launched in November 2020. The company delivered 20.2 million PS4s over a comparable period.
• Software and in-game purchase revenue held steady at $3.8 billion, despite a tough comparison with the last three months of 2020, when Sony released “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales” and “Sackboy: A Big Adventure.” 
• The company was buoyed by its Spider-Man IP in December 2021 with the theatrical release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

‘Destiny’s Parent

Sony added a major title to its gaming portfolio in January with the acquisition of “Destiny” maker Bungie in a deal valued at $3.6 billion.

The company is planning to create a subscription game service that would allow access to a large catalog of titles, similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass.