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PS5 Hits Midlife Crisis: Sony Admits Console Sales Slowing, Major Games Shelved Until 2025

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Sony just dropped a reality check on its gaming empire. The PS5—once the hottest console on the market—is entering what the company euphemistically calls “the latter stage of its life cycle.” Translation: sales are tanking.

Here’s the damage report:

The Numbers Don’t Lie

  • Sony originally targeted 25 million PS5 units sold by end of FY2023. Reality? Only 21 million—a 16% miss
  • Holiday 2023 was supposed to save the day. Didn’t happen, even with aggressive price cuts and promotions
  • Starting April 2024 (next fiscal year), hardware sales will go on the decline, Sony admits

The Game Drought Is Real Sony just announced: no major PlayStation franchise titles launching until April 2025. That’s a full year with no “God of War,” no “Spider-Man,” nothing major. The company is betting on live-service games and “second-party” exclusives instead (think Square Enix’s “Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth”).

Hiroki Totoki, head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, framed it diplomatically: “We aim to focus on producing high-quality works” while “major projects are currently under development.” What he really means: we’re buying time while building the PS6.

But Here’s The Plot Twist Despite hardware slump, Sony’s gaming division just posted record quarterly profits ($9.5B in revenue, Q3 FY2023). Why? Because over 89 million games sold across PS5/PS4 in the same quarter. Software and add-ons are carrying the hardware. Classic late-cycle playbook.

What’s Next? The PS6 whispers are getting louder. Hideo Kojima’s highly-anticipated “Physint” is rumored as a PS6 launch title, but won’t start development until after “Death Stranding 2”—meaning 2026 at earliest.

The Bottom Line PS5 still owns the hardware wars (54.7M units shipped since launch), but Sony knows its golden era is ending. The company is now optimizing for profit over market share, shelving blockbusters to control costs, and laying groundwork for next-gen. It’s not death—it’s managed decline. Welcome to console life cycles.

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