PS5 won’t sell as well as PlayStation 4, predicts analyst

The PlayStation 5 isn’t even out yet and the thing seems to have become associated with bad news. There are fears that both it and the Xbox Series X won’t hit their targeted launch of Christmas this year, and now one analyst is predicting that it won’t sell as well as its predecessor.

According to Hideki Yasuda from Ace Research Institute, as translated by T3, the PlayStation 5 is expected to ship at least 6 million units by the end of March 2021, assuming that it releases before Christmas.

While those are certainly impressive numbers, they may be less than what Sony is hoping for, as the PlayStation 4 sold 7.5 million units between its release in November 2013 and the end of March 2014.

With the PlayStation 4 currently the second best-selling home console of all time (only falling behind the PlayStation 2), the PlayStation 5 has a lot to live up to.

Yasuda is vague as to why exactly the PlayStation 5 is predicted to sell less, but the runaway success of the PlayStation 4 is in large part due to the lack of competition offered by the Xbox One and Wii U. With Nintendo resurgent with the Switch and Microsoft undoubtedly set to be a much tougher rival next gen Sony’s job is made much more difficult before the PlayStation 5 ever launches.

One rumour suggests the PlayStation 5 will cost £449/$499, which may be off-putting to a number of people, though the possibility of it being backwards compatible with PlayStation 4 games should be a point in its favour.

Sony have stated that it will be skipping E3 this year and plans on hosting its own events specifically for the PlayStation 5, but it’s possible that these plans have been thrown into disarray by the coronavirus, though Sony has insisted that the virus hasn’t affected production. At least not yet.

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