Yesterday, Sony revealed that the PlayStation 4 would enter its final phase as the company expects hardware sales to decline in the coming future. However, the company also shared that any negative impact concerning profits will be offset by the revenue that Sony’s services will continue to rake in. Sony announced this week that the number of active PSN users risen to 80 million, which is a 10 million increase from last year’s 70 million.
Most importantly, the number of people who subscribe to PlayStation Plus has risen from 34.2 million, which is a significant rise from last year’s 26.4 million. Furthermore, PS4 users are reported to be spending almost 800 million hours on the system every week, which also increased from last December’s figure of 600 million hours per week. Also, PS4 players have been asking Sony for backward compatibility support ever since the console's release in 2013. However, given that Sony's online game subscription service called PS Now recently added PS2 games in their library, it is likely that Sony will head in that direction and just release games from previous consoles to the PS Now.
All of the information came from Sony’s recent Corporate Strategy Meeting, where the company announced the PS4’s entry to the end of its lifecycle. The PS4 has been in the market for almost five years now, and within that time, Sony was able to sell 79 million units according to the company’s latest tally. Despite the company’s prediction of the console’s decline, the PS4 is still expecting many exclusives from different developers such as Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II, or Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man.
Currently, Sony still hasn’t revealed any plans for the PlayStation 5, and Sony’s CEO Shawn Layden confirmed that no hardware announcements will be made at E3 2018. So if you’re hoping for a PS5 reveal, you may be disappointed. However, the company will be focusing on four games at E3 and revealed their plans for the event, which you can read in detail here.
