Sony Projects PS5 Standard Edition Will Break Even In June Amid Record Demand
However, the most exciting revelation is that Sony forecasts that the standard edition of the PlayStation (the $499 version with a Blu-ray drive) will reach the break-even point next month. That's an incredibly short time on the market for Sony to break even with such a high-performance console. The PlayStation 5 packs in an AMD Zen 2/RDNA 2 APU, 16GB of GDDR6 memory, and blazing fast 825GB PCIe 4.0 SSD.
Sony has even managed to achieve this feat while amid a global chip shortage as it struggles to keep up with immense demand. The company’s projected costs of goods [PDF] will continue on a downward trend during the PlayStation 5's lifecycle as the technology it uses matures. We'll be interested to see how this graph will change once the inevitable PlayStation 5 Slim and PlayStation 5 Pro enter the fray.
"Right now, the standard edition represents the very great majority of PlayStation 5 sales," said Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) President and CEO Jim Ryan. "We do not see that proportion changing greatly in FY21, but we anticipate that as time passes, as we move further into the cycle of PS5 that there will be some slight increase in the ratio of the digital edition, but not significant."
Interestingly, Sony hasn't given any cost projections for the $399 PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, which lacks a Blu-ray drive.
Another key takeaway is that back during Sony's fiscal year 2013, when the PlayStation 4 launched, console hardware accounted for 48 percent of SIE revenue. Software, Services, and Peripherals accounted for the other 52 percent. But following the launch of the PlayStation 5 in fiscal year 2020, that mix shifted drastically to the point where console hardware only contributes 20 percent to SIE revenue.
Sony's PlayStation 5 remains challenging to purchase for many gamers and results in quick sellouts whenever retailers manage to secure new inventory.
