Today Sony released its financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, which ended on March 31st, 2018.

As usual, the announcement included an update on PS4 shipments, 19 million units have been sent to retailers between April 1st 20178 and March 31st. 218. This mean that the grand total is now at 76.5 million units. This is perfectly in line with the forecast previously shared by the company.

The number shows a decline year-on-year by one million units, which definitely isn't bad considering that the PS4 is a mature platform by now. Incidentally, shipments for the quarter were 2.5 million units, which is 430,000 consoles less than the up and coming (and much younger) rival by Nintendo, the Switch.

The company also provided a breakdown of the results of the Games & Network Services business segment, which is the combination of PlayStation and PlayStation Network. We learn that the past fiscal year saw an increase in PS4 software sales and in subscribers for PlayStation Plus. Games made the company 1,943.8 billion yen un revenue, and 177.5 billion in operating income.

"Sales increased 294.0 billion yen (18%) year-on-year (a 13% increase on a constant currency basis) to 1,943.8 billion yen. This increase was primarily due to an increase in PlayStation 4 software sales, including sales through the network, the impact of foreign exchange rates, as well as an increase in the number of subscribers for PlayStation Plus, a paid membership service.

Operating income increased 41.9 billion yen year-on-year to 177.5 billion yen. This increase was primarily due to the above-mentioned increase in sales, partially offset by an increase in selling, general and administrative expenses. During the current fiscal year, there was a 19.8 billion yen positive impact from foreign exchange rate fluctuations."

Software sales were 246.9 million units for the full fiscal year with 32% digital download ratio, and 52 million units for the quarter, with 43% digital download ratio.

Speaking of Sony Corporation as a whole, you can check out all the relevant figures below for both the full fiscal year 2017 and the latest quarter.  Operating income was firmly in the black, with a large improvement year-on-year for the full fiscal year, while the quarterly results saw increasing revenue but shrinking income.

Last, but not least, the company announced its outlook for fiscal year 2018, which will end on March 31st, 2019. The prediction for PS4 shipments is 16 million units (with a decline of three million units year-on-year), which means that the forecasted total by then is a remarkable 95 million units.

According to the forecast, the Game & Network Services segment will generate 1,900 billion yen in revenue (with a slight decrease year-on-year), and 190 billion yen in operating income, which should be an improvement compared to fiscal year 2017.

"Sales are expected to be essentially flat year-on-year mainly due to an expected decrease in PS4 hardware sales and the impact of foreign exchange rates, substantially offset by an expected increase in PS4 software sales, including sales through the network. Operating income is expected to increase primarily due to the impact of the above-mentioned increase in PS4 software sales, partially offset by the impact of the above-mentioned decrease in PS4 hardware sales."

If you want to compare these results with those of the previous quarter, you can check out our dedicated article from February.

If you still don’t have a PS4 you can grab one on Amazon.


This post contains an affiliate link where DualShockers gets a small commission on sales. Any and all support helps keep DualShockers as a standalone, independent platform for less-mainstream opinions and news coverage.