The PS5 is turning a profit for Sony less than a year after launch

By Otto Kratky August 4, 2021

With record hardware sales to boast, Sony has announced that the PS5 is no longer selling at a loss, or at least one version of it isn’t. The console’s more expensive variant, which costs $500 and comes complete with a disk drive, is now generating nothing but profit for Sony according to a report from Bloomberg.

While the physical version of the PS5 is making money for Sony, the same can’t be said for the diskless version of the next-gen console. However, according to Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki, the $400 PS5 Digital Edition’s costs are being offset by other hardware sales, including continued sales of the PlayStation 4. It’s not clear when, or if, the diskless version of the PS5 will begin to return a profit for Sony based on sales alone.

In all, this is par for the course for Sony. All consoles, whether they’re made by Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo, usually start their life cycles selling at a loss. These losses are then made up by the sales of other products, like hardware, software, or more recently subscription services like PS+ or PlayStation Now.

However, news that the PS5’s more expensive version is now turning a profit comes when Sony is able to boast some impressive sales numbers. The PS5 itself recently passed 10 million units sold, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation console in the company’s history. Sales of Sony’s software, which includes Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and MLB The Show 21 have also performed exceptionally well, with over 6.5 million copies of Miles Morales being sold so far.

For those running out of room on their PS5 to store games, the console’s most recent software beta has just the remedy: M.2 SSD support.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

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