Sony's PlayStation Network Outperformed All Of Nintendo Last Fiscal
Ouch. The totality of Nintendo's empire was bested by Sony's PlayStation Network alone last fiscal year, as the online PlayStation market took in revenue worth ¥529.1bn.
That's a huge chunk of change with all of Nintendo generating ¥504.4bn by comparison. What of the PlayStation division itself when it comes to operating income or profit? Sony can smile big with ¥88.7bn, whereas Nintendo counted at ¥32.8bn.
That's a lot of money running through PSN and it's thanks to the ever-growing install base of PlayStation 4 which now stands around 40 million. Every purchase made through PSN means Sony gets a cut, much like any digital store front like Valve's Steam.
A Past Laid To Rest
There's also Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription service that clocks in around £40 per year. The Japanese corporate giant learnt a painful lesson as Microsoft raked in huge profits when they launched their Xbox Live Gold membership service, which puts multiplayer for Xbox behind a pay-wall. Sony vowed they would keep multiplayer free but in doing so seeded a massive revenue stream, but it eventually led to PlayStation Plus.
PlayStation Network's financial performance is nothing to sniff at considering back in 2011 the biggest co-ordinated hack was committed against it. So far-reaching was this moment in history that massive investigations were launched by governments to determine what went wrong and was Sony at fault for the enormous data breach. PSN services were down and Sony was heavily criticised for their delayed response to users, as well as chastised for not doing enough to secure personal data in the first place. It was a watershed moment.
Nintendo hasn't fared anywhere near as well with the Wii U console as they did with the original. They admit a big part of the problem was people not knowing the difference between them, particularly among parents with young kids; Nintendo's best performing age group. Wii U has sold 12.8 million and there's no online subscription fee membership.
The Fiscal Future
Microsoft doesn't have the installbase that PlayStation 4 enjoys with the Xbox One but they don't reveal their sales figures for the console. Best estimates place the Xbox One at around 20 million units, and revenue is strong with Xbox Live reporting increases of 22 percent last fiscal quarter. Despite the disadvantage Xbox continues as a formidable rival.
Sony's PlayStation 4 has been boosted 11.8 percent in sales year-on-year which is worth around $785 million in the corporate coffers. All-in-all Sony's days of loss during the PlayStation 3 have been erased as they bounce back stronger than ever.
Nintendo has announced their next big hardware release - Nintendo NX - will be releasing globally in March 2017, and it will be joined by the new Legend of Zelda.
