Sony plans to mitigate the impact of rising PlayStation 5 memory costs by boosting revenue streams.
Sony Plans to Minimize Impact of PlayStation 5 Memory Cost Increase by Boosting Revenues
Sony Group published its consolidated financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2025 on February 5, 2026. As reported by Inside, cumulative PS5 sales have reached a significant milestone of 92.2 million units sold. However, the hardware manufacturer is facing a new challenge: rising memory prices.
Sony's CFO, Lin Tao, addressed the issue of memory procurement for the console during the results presentation. According to Tao, the company can already secure the minimum volume of memory required for the sales season at the end of the next fiscal year. Moving forward, we intend to continue negotiations with various suppliers to ensure sufficient supply to meet our customers' demand.
Tao stated that the company plans to "minimize the impact" of the rising memory costs by focusing on "monetizing the installed base" and increasing revenues from software and network services.
Recent software sales results may indicate the first signs of this strategy's potential success. The total volume of software sales for PS5 and PS4 increased to 97.2 million units, which is 1.3 million more than the same quarter last year (95.9 million). Digital downloads grew by 2%, accounting for 76% of all sales. The number of monthly active users on PlayStation Network also increased to 132 million, compared to 129 million in the same quarter last year.
This growth was driven by an increase in first-party game sales of 1.6 million units, reaching 13.2 million following the launch of Ghost of Yōtei (3.3 million copies sold), which, according to Tao, made a "significant contribution" to the quarter's financial results.
Sony's recent strategy in Japan highlights a deliberate shift towards a digital ecosystem to maintain sales momentum. By the end of 2025, Sony introduced a Japan-exclusive "digital version" of the PlayStation 5 priced at 55,000 yen (approximately $350), strategically lowering the price compared to the standard digital model. This move was an attempt by Sony to lower the entry barrier after a significant price increase in 2024 and to stimulate a new wave of hardware acquisition.
Sony's release of a Japan-exclusive digital version of the PS5 at a lower price than the standard digital version at the end of 2025 may have been a direct step towards a digital media-oriented market, as it offered a more affordable price point following the 2024 price hike. This shift was supported by the success of GEO's PS5 rental service, which allowed the retailer to move away from declining physical media and provide customers with a cheaper way to access the console.