“PS5 is the most successful generation in PlayStation history,” says Sony’s CEO, but most of us would disagree

Sony’s PS5 success numbers don’t tell the whole story. What’s really driving that result definitely isn’t the first-party game lineup.

Console giants are really shaking things up these days. Earlier this year, Microsoft said they’re moving away from exclusive games since that approach isn’t really paying off anymore. Sony released a PS5 Pro without a disk drive, and even though there haven’t been that many first-party titles this console generation, they still call it the most successful in PlayStation history.

PS5 – profits up, games down

Geoff Keighley shared on X today that Sony’s CEO, Hideaki Nishino, is boasting about the PS5’s achievements compared to previous generations. Personally, and judging by the comments under the post, I think others agree there are reasons behind that success they’d probably rather not admit.

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That graph is pretty unclear about where exactly that $136 billion in just four years came from. We actually saw it back in June when Sony published a presentation with their statistics, calling it their “Most Profitable Generation To-Date.” So let’s clear this up: most of that money came from PS Store content and subscriptions. Besides, over 30 years, inflation has gone through the roof, so comparing PS2 launch earnings to the PS5 is just kind of funny.

Sony even recently raised console prices in the US, blaming a “challenging economic environment,” so next year’s revenue could even beat FY 23 and 24. But what’s really worrying is that there are fewer and fewer games coming from Sony’s own studios. I’m not too bothered personally, my gaming backlog is already insane, but it’s still a fact.

It’s kind of funny that their biggest flop of the decade, Concord, didn’t really dent those revenue numbers. Then again, maybe Sony just canceled a bunch of projects and let enough people go to balance things out.