Sony Is Successfully Attracting Non-PS4 Owners to PS5

Either that or it's existing customers who've Created new accounts for whatever reason

Unlikely I know but it does happen

I'm assuming this is mostly made up of younger players that never owned a console before as they were too young previously, mixed with some amount of Switch "upgraders" that were looking for more.

@Member_the_game
Just what I was thinking. I had to make a new account moving from PS3 to PS4 as I completely forgot my log in and email address used 🤷‍♂️

Every time I think about it, it baffles me that there are kids in junior high that are experiencing the ps5 like I was enjoying sega Megadrive at their age.

And how many accounts have been inactive for longer period of time? Maybe I didnt understand something, but that would be strange if company wouldnt get new accounts on regular basis. And high % number of "New" PS5 accounts is maybe because of lot of PS4 ownerd cant easily upgrade to PS5. Lots of smaller, non region countries, aren't able to get enough PS5 from official RRP sellers. For example I am coming from has Sony branch, waiting list has been for over 1 year since release of PS5 of couple thousands at each given time beeing in queue

@NEStalgia Probably the CoD effect.

Posted this in the previous article: 112m MAU is just 1m higher than Q3’21 figure of 111m. Given 30m PS5s sold, I hoped their total customer base would increase, but it looks like Sony’s gamer base might have peaked. Would be interesting to revisit this prediction in 2024)

@Member_the_game Exactly! Happened to me, actually. My PSN from PS3 days was registered in an EU country. When I moved to another place with a different currency, there was no way to change my address and wallet currency, so I had to set up a new profile for PS5.

@Feena Right!? I see my kids playing Astro’s Playroom, remember myself playing Burger Time on the ol’ Coleco and think to myself, “you have no idea…”

@thefourfoldroot1

I had exactly the same issue when upgrading from 3 to 4

My original account was tied to an email address that I no longer have access too and I'd forgotten my PS password

I mean, this doesn't seem that unusual. PS4 owners can still play the vast majority of games on PS5 so there's less of a need for them to upgrade, on the other hand PS5 buyers get a system that can play both PS4 and PS5 games, so it's instantly better value for money than the previous 2 generations (I personally had a PS3 but skipped PS4 - not on principle, just never got around to buying one, but when it was clear that PS5 had backwards compatibility of a sort, that was the decision made for me). I'd say this was more unsurprising than fascinating

Interesting to see that PS+ subscribers are mostly made up of old PS4 players. I do think it’s a great value for me who has been in the ecosystem for 4 generations, but it’s greatest value is with the new player who gets a treasure trove of older titles they missed out on last generation (especially at the Extra tier)

I am one of those 30%. Before this generation i was mainly a PC mmorpg player with a few single player games here and there. When i wanted to upgrade my pc prices went through the roof for parts, so i decided to look at consoles as a replacement for gaming. Started out this generation with an Xbox and gamepass, since that gave me instantly access to a large amount of games (ps plus extra wasn't a thing back then). Just before Horizon Forbidden West came out i decided to start looking for a PS5 as well since that game looked so amazing and it was a game i had to play. I was pretty lucky of scoring one on my first real try and I am a happy double console owner since about a year now.

@Lavalera I think you're like one of the .05% that moved from PC to console though

@uptownsoul Sony Japan undermining Jim's complaints to all the regulators...it's kinda funny. The more I see this the more I get the impression Sony Corp really has no real involvement with the whole debacle and it's all on SIE/Jim. Totoki's comment pretty much screams "we need stronger competition now more than ever"....which is definitely going to have Jim gnashing his teeth.

@Grumblevolcano I'm both nodding, laughing, and crying all at once

Though, TBH, the Fortnite Effect is probably bigger. How many kids were playing Fortnite on Switch and iPhone and wanted a PS5 to play it "betterer?" Even over CoD.

I'm curious how much scalper consoles play into this total. I'm sure there are several thousand still in scalpers hands.

@NEStalgia I was thinking more in the sense that with most FTP games (including Fortnite), it doesn't really matter between PS5 and Series X. You may even choose to get the Series S bundle which is cheaper and comes with some skins and vbucks. But if you're at all interested in CoD, you'd be most likely to pick PS5 because of the exclusive content.

I'm part of that statistic lol. I bought an Xbox One when I was younger for Forza but got fed up with the slow hard drive and lack of other things to play on it. Waited for the PS5 and absolutely love it. First PlayStation I've bought myself.

@NEStalgia i was one who jumped from the 360 to ps5 skipping last gen and i know many who did the same

Probably helps a bit when your main competitor keeps saying you have much better 1st party games than them.

@uptownsoul Until now both have been in a competition to convince regulators they're the poor underdog without a chance against the competition. Today Sony Corp just boasted how far beneath them Xbox is, undermining all the "woe is us" drama from Jim....not exactly helping their case here...

@Grumblevolcano I think, especially with younger gamers, purchases are made based on what's popular with less than zero research actually done as to what product you like more. Series S is the "uncool" console parents buy you because it does the same thing and is cheaper. PS5 is the one you see in all the ads and all your friends have, so it's the obvious only choice. When you're looking to buy that Fortnite machine to escape your iPad and get "real power" (just like your friends), the answer is always, easily PS.

You're not wrong on CoD's perks being relevant, but I think it underestimates how ingrained the brand is so as to make it the default. To choose an XB especially for a younger gamer means doing your research, going against the grain of "what all your friends have". It's a big uphill battle for any competitor to shift that inertia of being the default.

@mrpunisher I didn't even know there WERE people still playing on 360's other than for retro use for the last 8 years!! yeah, X1/PS4 were kinda....mediocre, but wow that's such a different market than I'm used to.

I guess Matrick was right when he said "we have a console for those people, it's called Xbox 360" lol

Technically I'm in that group; I subsisted on my Vita and Steam until the PS5 came along. That being said, I did play four games on other people's PS4s, so there's no telling whether Sony counts me as part of the 'new' player group.

My Fam is in that stat 😅

1. Random relative who buys a console because of a Show or Movie.

Keep saying I am happy to lend them mine for the one game, as they rarely use the thing again.

2. My Older Brother's Wife got this idea in her head that you only buy Nintendo systems for kids until they get older.

This nonsense has filtered down the Fam 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️ so now you get a bunch of kids that "graduated" to something else this generation.

Both camps end up with a PlayStation (or a videocard for their PC) because that is what everyone else has in the Fam.

@NEStalgia one thing you said is true in all these huge comments, is that xbox is the uncool console and they did it to themselves so don't blame sony for this

@mrpunisher lol, I mean, you're not wrong!

@uptownsoul market leader by gaming revenue, not hardware sales. and it's not a lie. Actually tencent is, followed by Apple, followed by Sony, then Nintendo, then Xbox.

People have been claiming Ms losses money giving games away though, so should the be a surprise?

Hardware sales, Nintendo is in the lead. But revenue is below Sony.

@uptownsoul don't forget that the subscription model that raised the monthly active users. iam curious to know the numbers on consoles only

@uptownsoul I do get your point but in terms of the actual regulators comparing market competition issues, "mau" means nothing and revenue means everything.

"Market" leader means revenue. Sales leader would mean unit sales. Plus they compared that abk would move them up to third only, which only applies to revenue, abk doesn't make hardware. Either way ms isn't number 1. But again that's not a bold statement, everyone already knew that. If we're talking hardware it's Nintendo, Sony, ms. If we're talking revenue is tencent, apple, Sony, Nintendo, Ms.

The whole debate isn't if ms is secretly the leader, it's if the deal would make them the leader in a way no one could compete or not. Sony highlighting that they're far ahead isn't helping their argument.

I just found it funny that Sony Japan seems to really just not care about the whole thing, they don't seem to have a problem highlighting their dominant position despite Jim and Co downplaying it. Guaranteed Jim is not very happy with a CFO he can't openly rebuke today.

@uptownsoul Agree in concept, but they'd have to believe they're talking about the same thing. Measuring success by users rather than revenue is the company's choice based on their own goals. Measuring their market position is an absolute though. They're not evaluating if MS is successful based on their own goals, they're measuring each company's market position.

@uptownsoul That was 7 months ago when they never thought it would be blocked to begin with and before the whole thing was this convoluted legal saga. It didn't become a contest of trying to demonstrate why the other guy is so much better until the past 3-4 months.

I am part of this group. I bought the PS5 in August. I didn't buy anything from the last generation. But I also am lucky enough to own the Switch and a Series X. After reading the comments in this thread, I am not sure why people pump their chests when one console is in the lead over the others. Does the gratification of owning of what they perceive to be the "best" console really make people feel that better about themselves? It is just mind baffling to me. I just do not understand this logic. All three systems are great in their own ways despite sales numbers, games, etc. All three systems doing well is best for everyone because in the end we are all gamers.

@cburg Welcome to internet fandoms, please leave logic by the door...

@uptownsoul Right, but at that time absolutely no one thought FTC would block, nor EU, it was assumed that it was just UK being edgy. The whole thing was kind of background noise that exploded more recently. Neither of them started attacking their own brand until more recently.

I'm one of the new PS5 owners without a PS4. I usually kept a generation behind for the past couple of decades with everything but Nintendo consoles. So when I went to shop for a used PS4, there wasn't a significant enough difference in price for the PS5, so it made sense to shop for one. Well low and behold I got an email about PS5's being in stock on my birthday and that's all I needed. I can play everything I missed on the PS4 and I'm set to play everything new on PS5. I bought a used PSVR this past summer and that's been amazing. I have definitely played more PS4 games than PS5 on the system though.

@uptownsoul What I'm saying is that the UK was expected to be an outlier at that time, it didn't blow up into this big saga until much later. Both on the PS and MS side. Neither company was downplaying their own brands until the FTC, then they both started downlplaying their own brand. Has nothing to do with "facts and opinions", right now, currently both companies have been downplaying their positions, with the exception of the CFO's comment today. That's the only thing I'm talking about (that and the market positions of each company by revenue and hardware sales of which there's endless documentation easily available.)

@NEStalgia I was thinking more about how the holidays is a time of presents so there would be a load of parents buying their kids a console for the holidays.

@Grumblevolcano That's definitely an area where XSS should be shining, for sure. And they're definitely available. Though US retail sales for Christmas were pretty bad (overall, not gaming)....I think even an XSS might be a fancier gift than a lot of parents were randomly buying other than if kids were specifically asking for "PS5" by name...and for the above reasons I'm sure are.

Plus on TV, based on that identity, any time a TV show or something wants to be relevant, and talk video games, it's virtually always "PS5" that gets mentioned. I think the one and only exception I've heard of was the Mariah Carey Christmas concert that had a skit with her kids on stage that referenced playing "NBA2K" on "Xbox" by name. But, then, who under the age of at least 35 is watching a Mariah Carey concert?

@uptownsoul No, I simply pointed out that it's humorous that Sony Japan just ran roughshod over Jim's arguments. You're for some reason trying to make a big deal out of MS boasting months before things came to a head and everyone tried downplaying their success.

Heck the value of MSs statement is now negated by Sonys new statement making it more irrelevant in the current time and place. I didn't change anything, you're just reframing the context with an outdated event and trying to pin it on me for some reason.

To your points 1 - there was at that time TALK of the UK blocking. Mergers effectively never get blocked in the US and there was precedent from EU over Bethesda. Nothing was in action and neither company was posturing at the time. There's not a specific link, but the aggregate pr from both Sony and Ms at the time reflecting they were not demurring yet.

2-nobody's saying otherwise. That has nothing to do with anything I said.

The whole point is at this present time, it matters. A 7 month old statement that's now counteracted by this new statement from before things heated up has nothing to do with that.

Attracting people who only play mobile games is a must.

I'm one of these too. I've owned the original Gameboy, the Wii, and the PS5, but all my other gaming has been on PC.

I definitely think the PS5 has benefited from the high costs of building a gaming rig, as my decision to buy the PS5 was based on that as much as getting to play all the exclusives (the ps+ collection was a real treat for folks like me, too)

@uptownsoul It's like you're willfully missing there's a 7 month timeline gap between the statements and the events across multiple countries changed in that time, and that yesterday's statement renders the 7 month old one obsolete and irrelevant in the current context...

@theheadofabroom The funny thing is for the past 5 years all I hear about is how cheap PC is overall these days, etc. I'm former PC myself (long ago), former for the same reasons, and I've never bought into the "it's so much cheaper than console because Steam" hype. There's a tale of two realities there somewhere...

@NomNom consoles still in scalpers' hands likely aren't represented in these numbers at all, since it's specifically talking about active users. If a console is gathering dust in a scalper's inventory, it doesn't have an active user by definition.

@uptownsoul Someone's misunderstanding something here and I genuinely can't tell who or what.

The old statement HAS NO CURRENT MEANING, as it is NO LONGER A GAUGE OF CURRENT POSITION. It is 100% irrelevant to anything going on currently. It also PREDATES when things escalated, the context of it having been said at that time did not carry the meaningful impact saying it now does. If it was last WEEK that would be one thing. Predating FTC makes it a wholly unrelated issue.

I can honestly not tell your actual point anymore. You keep setting up strawmen to knock them down and none of them have anything to do with what I said like you're having an argument with yourself.

@uptownsoul No, MS did that when only the UK was rumored to be doing so, long before any other entity was, and before they actually were and before either company has a strategy of downplaying their position. Further, Even with that statement it applied only to one region.

Ps made their statement that not only applies globally, and also supercedes MS prior statement by showing ms RECEDING in their only leading market, but they did it AFTER actual investigations we're under way, while under subpoena on the matter. The context is entirely different, and is self damaging in a way that can and will be used against them, while ms made their statement that both had much less importance applying to one region, and did so at a time when it has little to no legal value to anyone.

I'm still not sure what you're missing or what point you're trying to make.

@uptownsoul
“…according to who? Link please…”
Nah. Wasn’t Link. Must’ve been someone else.

@NEStalgia I'd say it rather depends. You can build or buy a PC for not much more than the PlayStation, and it'll be almost as good. You're not going to be playing VR games, or installing hundreds of mods, or running at 144hz though, and also by the end of the PS5 lifespan you'll be struggling to play AAA games.

If you want something that will do VR, and still be playing games that look and feel better than on console in 5 years you're probably going to end up paying about triple the price, because each time you upgrade one thing, something else is the bottleneck so unless you upgrade another thing you've wasted your money so you end up paying at least £400 for your processor, the same for a GPU, and half the same again for each of motherboard and RAM, before you've looked at an SSD, a case, some fans, etc

@uptownsoul I seriously think you're still missing the ENTIRE point of the entire conversation and still keep trying to drag it to wherever your head is than what was actually said.

Ok, I was incorrect about "before" or after "investigation" - by one day, apparently (as though statements are not written well in advance of that.) I didn't check your links because your entire line of discussion is tangential to what I said. If I was incorrect in my responses trying to reason that out, I do apologize, but in reality I shouldn't have been engaging you on those points, because they have nothing to do with anything, I was mostly being polite and humoring your tangent up to a reasonable limit rather than just cut you off.

BOTTOM LINE:
Nadella's comment's in July have absolutely nothing at all to do with anything I said - Highlighting "they both bragged" is missing the entire point of everything I said. The timing, context, strategies, and scopes of both their "bragging" are not related and are within entirely different contexts to the current situation. IDK why you're trying to make some massive topic out of the original comment which was about CURRENT context and scope of the statement yesterday from Sony Japan and how it relates to the current status of the situation.

There was zero relationship between that and the totally different context Nadella quote, in a totally different time, under totally different conditions, about an entirely different scope of the market, which as of Sony's quite is now not at all relevant to anything as it has now been rendered obsolete.

Going back to the BEGINNING: The entire scope of this conversation is about how it is humorous that yesterday Sony Japan ran roughshod over SIE's strategy of laying low, at the current place in time while they are being subpoenaed to demonstrate, effectively, their sales capability into the future, by boasting how they are leading significantly in all markets, a detail I'm rather certain SIE absolutely does not want highlighted at this time. That's the original point, and it rests there.

It does not matter what MS, Activision, Estee Lauder said 7 months ago when the legal situations and strategies were different. That has nothing to do with the above statement. My comment was about what Sony said yesterday, and that remains unchanged.

At this point I won't engage on this topic any more as it's already become an argument about literally nothing. We're not debating a different view or philosophy, we're just arguing over tangential off-topic bullet points that you want to shoehorn into the conversion. I have no problem arguing actual philosophical differences or different points of view, this is simply technical strawmen built for a witch hunt about nothing. If you've missed the scope and meaning of the original post, well, that's where it has to be. If you're creating arguments just to create arguments, that's simply rude and you shouldn't do that. Until next time!

@theheadofabroom Yeah, that's exactly where PC started to get at me. People keep insisting it's cheaper overall, or it lasts so long with minor upgrades. And yeah, I'm a dinosaur from the 90's-early 00's days of PC gaming, but I'd build this super rig to do it all, and then a new Windows and DIrectX would be required, which would need a new CPU and mobo, and then a new PCI standard requiring a new GPU, and you just end up rebuilding the whole PC, and after enough cycles of that, I'd had enough. I know it's not QUITE as bad today, but, man, the costs just add up indefinitely. I have literally stacks of scrap hardware because you end up throwing out so much good hardware just to replace that one bottlenecked component. People sometimes tempt me to jump back in, but.....yeah, you're echoing all the reasons I got out (not to say the least of troubleshooting all the problems!)

@NEStalgia yeah, I mean I still run a system I first built in 2010 for £1k and spent another £1k keeping up to date until 2018 - it has a 4670k, a 1060 6GB, 16GB RAM and is still great for indie stuff, but the only things I could bring forward in an upgrade are the GPU, PSU, case, so I'll keep using it for indie stuff until 2025 with Windows 10 is EOL and then I'll build a new rig. The PS5 is keeping me going with AAA stuff and maybe VR until then.

@theheadofabroom I always get confused when people talk about PC being so upgradable when really is upgrading one main component usually means having to upgrade most of the others. You can upgrade GPU but the rest is mostly interdependent. You'd think it would be cheaper with so much commodity hardware but not so much. The good gpus cost more than consoles alone!

I remember my first 3d gpu was an Nvidia tnt2 and at $200 I thought it was a fortune. And it was! It's gone way past absurd now, but people keep saying how cheap it is!

@NEStalgia I think it depends. I'll likely build something based on an AMD 7600 (unless something that's better bang for your buck releases) with a reasonable amount of RAM and a midrange GPU and the whole lot will hopefully, by then, cost around £500, but with inflation it could be up to £800 (I don't need a new case, but I might be persuaded to pick up a new PSU with the new GPU connector). By the time that's creaking in 1440p then doubling up the RAM, slotting in whatever the end of the line AM5 chip ends up being, and a newer midrange GPU should be reasonable.

I think if you're patient then things don't generally have to be overly expensive (to the point that the cheaper games might help things break even), but recently has not been a good time - between CPU socket lifecycles, new ram standards, and GPU manufacturers getting used to crypto booms, it hasn't been a good time for a really long time.

@Feena - I loved firing up my Sega Mega drive to show my kids how to play Mega-Lo-Mania for the 1st time.
The soundtrack is awesome too and I would never dream of putting 100 men on the islands and taking them back out just before it starts each time. 😁