Push for Sony's games biz, over 19 mn PlayStation 5 units sold in Q4CY21

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Japanese tech giant Sony said that it has sold just 2 million PlayStation 5 (PS5) units in the fourth quarter of 2021, bringing its overall total to 19.3 million.

According to the Engadget, that's down considerably from the same quarter last year when it sold 3.3 million units.

The company did manage to boost game sales, though, with 70.5 million PS4/PS5 titles sold compared to 61.4 million a year ago, including 14.5 million first party games compared to 7.9 million in the third quarter.

Overall, its Game & Network Services (GSN) division earned 665 billion yen ($5.1 billion) this quarter, up slightly over last year. Sales for the full 2021 year were flat, up just 2 per cent over 2020, and profits also changed little.

As per the report, those numbers mean that the PS5 is falling even further behind the PS4 in sales, having now sold 3.1 million fewer units than the PS4 at the same point in time.

Sony warned that this was coming, blaming the lack of sales not on customer demand but its inability to build enough units due to the ongoing chip shortage, the report said.

The report mentioned that Sony has forecasted a 34 per cent increase in sales next quarter to 929 billion yen ($7.13 billion) due to better parts supply and higher sales of third-party games.

The tech giant is also launching PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, its take on Xbox Game Pass, in June.