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Sony is selling the PS5 at a loss, investors told - Polygon

Posted: 03 Feb 2021 07:55 AM PST

Sony shipped more than 4.5 million PlayStation 5s from the console's Nov. 12 launch to the end of the year, but it took a loss on those sales because the PS5's "strategic price point" is lower than what it cost to manufacture it.

The disclosure was part of Sony's quarterly report to investors, delivered in Japan earlier today. The losses on PS5 sales were not specifically broken out — and they were part of an overall Game & Network Services Segment that saw a 26.7 billion yen ($2.5 billion) increase in operating income over the same quarter in 2019.

Sony's PlayStation revenue from game sales (both PS4 and PS5, add-on content included) plus larger profit margins on the outgoing PlayStation 4 more than made up any shortfall, the company said.

By comparison, the PlayStation 4 sold more than 4.2 million units from its November 2013 launch to the end of that year. The company in November said the new PlayStation 5 is facing "unprecedented" demand, making its availability scarce, even though more PS5s have been available, in whole numbers, than their predecessor. Microsoft's Xbox Series X has faced the same issue, with the company's chief financial officer telling investors back in November that a console shortage could last until April.

Bloomberg reported as far back as February 2020 that scarce components had driven the manufacturing cost of the PlayStation 5 to $450. Analyst Michael Pachter, in an October interview, speculated that Sony would break even on the $499 PlayStation 5, but lose money on the $399 Digital Edition that lacks an optical disc drive.

Elsewhere in Sony's financial report, the company increased its forecasted sales and operating income for the PlayStation division over the fiscal year ending in March. Sony now expects another 30 billion yen ($285 million) in sales from its Game & Network Services segment, and an additional 40 billion yen ($380 million) in operating income for the year.

Sony also reported a PlayStation Plus subscriber base of 47.4 million users, with 114 million monthly active users of the service as of the end of the year.

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'Call of Duty: Warzone' bans 60,000 confirmed cheaters - Engadget

Posted: 02 Feb 2021 11:35 PM PST

Call of Duty: Warzone has a huge cheating problem, enough to compel popular streamers to leave the game completely. Activision has been trying to combat the problem since last year by banning tens of thousands of cheating players en masse — in fact, the video game giant has just banned 60,000 accounts for confirmed cases of using cheat software in Warzone. As Vice has noted, the bans came a day after popular CoD streamer Vikkstar123 announced that he quit the game, because people livestream blatant hacks with zero repercussions.

This is why I quit Warzone: https://t.co/7A18b1Uapp
The fact players can livestream themselves blatantly hacking with zero repurcussions blows my mind. This guy is 2nd prestige & broadcasts hours of himself hacking.
This NEEDS to be addressed & fixed @CallofDuty @RavenSoftware pic.twitter.com/jyfoEilyzJ
— Vikkstar ★ (@Vikkstar123) January 30, 2021

While Activision didn't say what cheat software the banned players used, the sources that talked to Vice said this wave targeted EngineOwning customers. The subscription-based cheating program offers cheats and hacks not just for CoD games, but also for Battlefield, Titanfall and Star Wars titles. Activision also targeted EngineOwning customers when it banned 20,000 accounts in September last year, and this round reportedly wiped out all the program's users from the game. In April 2020, shortly after the battle royale video game was released, the company kicked out 70,000 accounts.

According to Vice, EngineOwning is "updating" its Warzone cheat. Meanwhile, the Call of Duty team said in its announcement that it's "continuing [its] efforts to identify and address cheat providers at the source, who distribute unauthorized third party software for modding or hacking."

We have zero tolerance for cheaters across Call of Duty and Warzone.
60,000+ accounts have been banned today. Follow @RavenSoftware for more #Warzone updates.
Details here: https://t.co/d6De7tY3AB pic.twitter.com/fOGTJ43b8U
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) February 2, 2021