Sony says PS5 is launching in ‘great shape’ and targeting over 100 million sales

Sony is bullish about PlayStation 5’s short-term sales outlook and hopeful of outselling PS4 in the long-term.

Speaking during the company’s second quarter earnings call on Tuesday, executive deputy president and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki said Sony expects to “launch the PS5 in great shape”.

He said this is due to the console’s “appealing software line-up, the strength of the PlayStation brand, our pre-eminent game ecosystem and our cohesive gamer community”.

Echoing recent comments from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan, Totoki said the company expects to sell over 7.6 million PS5 units by the end of its fiscal year on March 31, 2021, outperforming PS4’s launch.

Given this forecast, Totoki was asked during a Q&A session whether it’s possible PS5 sales might exceed the 100 million units PS4 achieved.

PS4 has actually shipped over 113.5 million units as of September 30, 2020, according to Sony, and Totoki said the company is aiming to surpass the current-gen console’s lifetime total.

“Yes, it is a challenge,” he said, “but we are very eager and committed to succeed and surpass the aggregated unit sales of PS4.”

In an interview published on Tuesday, PlayStation boss Ryan said PS5 pre-order demand “has been very considerable”.

Sony took as many PS5 pre-orders in the first 12 hours in the United States as it did in the first 12 weeks for PS4, he said.

Further reading

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The first PS5 unboxing videos have been published

US media received the next-gen console last week