A rumored new version of thePlayStation 5could lead to Sony selling an extremely high number of PlayStation consoles in the coming year. Sony’s earnings report comprising Q3 FY22 stated that the Japanese electronics firm had its best quarter since the launch of thePS5.
A few months ago, it wasreported that Sony is predictinga total of 30.5 million PlayStation 5 units to be sold in FY23. For context, this means that the company expects to sell almost the same amount of consoles during the coming financial year, as the number of units sold since the console’s launch in November 2020, (32 million). The sales forecast also shows that it expects August 2023 to be the slowest month in terms of units sold at 1.5 million. Whereas, it’s expecting to sell almost 4.8 million units in November of this year, which would make November the most lucrative month according to the forecast. Its predicted total number of units shifted across October, November, and December, amount to a whopping 10.5 million.
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Therelease of Insomniac’sSpider-Man 2towards the end of the year will undoubtedly drive up sales, as will the release ofFinal Fantasy 16.The upcoming release of the PS VR2 may also help Sony shift consoles. However, the main factor driving these lofty predictions is a rumored new version of the PS5, first leaked via a report from Insider Gaming. The rumored release date of this smaller PS5 model is September 2023, which would line up perfectly with the predicted console sales figures listed above.
This new modelwill allegedly come packing a detachable disc drive, which will allow it to be made thinner and lighter. Additionally, this new version of the PS5 is also forecasted to sell 18.5 million units in FY23. A bit of basic math shows us that this means that Sony only expects to sell roughly 12 million of the launch model PS5s, before it entirely ceases production by the end of this year.
At the time of writing, there is no way to predict when this new version of the PS5will be announced, though we can certainlyrule out E3 2023, given that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have all confirmed that they won’t be attending the expo. With that said, production of this new console is rumored to begin in April 2023, so odds are that an announcement will be made around that time.
If these sale predictions do prove to be accurate, it will mean that the Japanese electronic company will have sold roughly 68 million PlayStation 5 consoles by the end of FY23. While it is impossible to deny the popularity of the machine, these are significantly high figures. Even still, the PS5 may never quite catch up tothe PlayStation 2’s recordas the best-selling console of all time.
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