Wednesday, February 3rd 2021
Sony Confirms It's Selling PS5 Consoles Below Manufacturing Cost, Ships 4.5 Million Units
Sony has confirmed that it is paying some of the upfront cost in acquiring their latest PS5 games console by pricing it below manufacturing cost. Consoles being priced as such isn't a new move in itself; manufacturers have often sold their consoles at a loss so as to keep consoles attractive to buyers and thus increase their install base. This, in turn, equates with higher sales of software - which is often where Sony or Microsoft recoup their margin loss on hardware.
Sony has also confirmed that its PS5 console has sold around 4.5 million units since launch, putting it in a similar footing with the PS4 in the corresponding period, despite the higher retail price at launch. The sales figure also puts Sony's PlayStation division results for 2020's Q3 FY as their historical best ever since the company started selling games consoles. Revenue increased 40 percent to 883.2 billion yen ($8.4 billion), partly driven by PS5 sales, whilst operating profit increased by 50 percent to 80.2 billion yen ($763.3 million) due to higher software and services sales (such as PlayStation Plus subscriptions), and better margins on PS4 hardware, which still shipped around 1.4 million units.
Source:
Sony
Sony has also confirmed that its PS5 console has sold around 4.5 million units since launch, putting it in a similar footing with the PS4 in the corresponding period, despite the higher retail price at launch. The sales figure also puts Sony's PlayStation division results for 2020's Q3 FY as their historical best ever since the company started selling games consoles. Revenue increased 40 percent to 883.2 billion yen ($8.4 billion), partly driven by PS5 sales, whilst operating profit increased by 50 percent to 80.2 billion yen ($763.3 million) due to higher software and services sales (such as PlayStation Plus subscriptions), and better margins on PS4 hardware, which still shipped around 1.4 million units.
22 Comments on Sony Confirms It's Selling PS5 Consoles Below Manufacturing Cost, Ships 4.5 Million Units
ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/accessing-markets/trade-defence/actions-against-imports-into-the-eu/anti-dumping/
MS is probably doing the same with Series S and X.
But considering how many children woke up disappointed for Christmas, the "demand" is considerably lower now.
Consoles are almost exclusively sold at a loss and the cost is recouped in games licensing, subscriptions and ads.
I will quote verbatim the very first paragraph in the website you linked (bold emphasis mine)
A non-EU company is 'dumping' if it exports a product to the EU at a price lower than the normal value of the product. The normal value is either product's price as sold on the home market of the non-EU company, or a price based on the cost of production and profit.
Sony is NOT 'dumping' this product. The retail price is more or less set at more or less the same amount across all the different markets that Sony sells these in (with some allowance for VAT, currency fluctuations etc... If they were really 'dumping' the product, they would set the RRP on their home market (say, Japanese domestic pricing) to say, 800EUR equivalent, and selling the console at 500EUR in the EU.