The PlayStation 5 now stands at 59 million consoles sold, with 20.8 million in the last year, as Sony has announced that former PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan’s job will be divided between two new roles.
President of SIE Worldwide Studios Hermen Hulst will step up to be CEO of the new Studio Business Group, while Hideaki Nishino will be appointed CEO of SIE’s Platform Business Group, with his background as SVP of Sony’s Platform Experience Group. The pair will assume their roles on 1st June, while interim CEO Hiroki Totoki will step away from that role, though both will still report to Totoki-san.
Hulst and Nishino-san will have to tackle some significant challenges that face PlayStation in the next few years. In particular, while PS5 is now able to meet demand after its early years of supply constraint, and did sell over 20 million consoles in the last year, hardware sales fell short of the 24 million that had been expected. 20.8 million could well be the high water mark for PS5 sales, with the forecast being for 18 million console sales in FY25.
Sony is expected to launch an enhanced PlayStation 5 Pro later this year, which could spur on console sales a bit, though it will play to a niche high-end gaming market with a higher price point likely, and might not be as impactful as the PS4 Pro was in 2016. As we’re now past the mid-point of the typical 7 year console generation, eyes will start to shift to the next generation.
Of course, the company is still very able to produce big hits. Helldivers 2 has raced to 12 million copies sold, outpacing God of War Ragnarok through its first 12 weeks, full game sales are up from 264 million to 286 million, and monthly PSN users has increased to 118 million year-on-year – Sony no-longer reports the number of active subscribers to PSN.
