Sony Group Corp said it plans to ramp up production of its PlayStation 5 console as supply chain snarls ease and signalled a radical broadening of its game's portfolio, including more titles on PC and mobile.
The PS5, which went on sale in November 2020, undersold its predecessor in its second year due to component shortages which have roiled the electronics industry. But it is expected to close the gap in year three and overtake PS4's install base the following year.
Beyond the initial ramp up, “we're planning for heavy further increases in console production, taking us to production levels that we've never achieved before,” Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told an investor briefing.
While COVID-19 lockdowns in China continue to create supply chain uncertainty, “things are definitely improving,” he added.
Sony has forecast PS5 sales of 18 million units in the business year to end-March, compared to 11.5 million a year earlier.
Outlining a shift by PlayStation away from just concentrating on single player games exclusive to its platform, Ryan said more PC and mobile titles will be on offer in addition to live service games, which provide continuous updated play.
While PS4 and PS5 titles are expecting to make up more than two-thirds of releases this year, PC and mobile titles will make up almost half of new games in 2025.
“The initiatives to broaden our audience… will have a fundamental effect on the shape of our game portfolio,” Ryan said.
With the shift, PlayStation is aiming to keep pace with industry change that has seen cloud technology and the increased computing power of smartphones untethered users from bulky hardware and more money spent by gamers in free-to-play online titles.
Amid much speculation that the metaverse, or the idea users will spend more time in simulated environments, will upend industry business models, Ryan said many consumers will continue to play games as before.
'There will be many, many individual players who prefer to enjoy games in the way that they have played them from the past 30 years or more,' he said.
Rampant rises in Australian house prices will grind almost to a halt this year, and an 8% decline is expecting in 2023 as a cost-of-living crisis worsens and mortgage rates rise, a Reuters poll of property market analysts found.
Cheap loans based on near-zero interest rates have nearly doubled house prices since the global financial crisis of the late 2000s, turning Australia into one of the world's least affordable places to buy property.
Prices surged over 20% last year, the biggest annual increase since 1989, making it much harder for first-time buyers to get on the property ladder.
That blistering pace will slow to just 1.0% this year, according to the median forecast in the May 11-25 poll of 11 analysts, down sharply from 6.7% forecast in a February poll.
Prices a forecast to drop 8.0% next year, more than the 5.0% expected in the previous survey.
“The risk of a crash cannot be ignored, given the high level of household debt and that it's been more than 11 years since the last rate hike”, said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP, who expects house prices to fall 10-15% into 2024.
RECORD MORTGAGE DEBT
Australia's central bank this month raised its cash rate for the first time since November 2010, by 25 basis points to 0.35%, and flagged more hikes to come.
A sudden rise in borrowing costs could sharply dent housing activity, in a country where about 6% of employment his closely tied to the residential construction sector, eventually leading to slower economic growth.
' A steep increase in mortgage rates over the coming year will weigh heavily on house prices', said Adelaide Timbrel, senior economist at ANZ.
It will also be a challenge for heavily indebted households in a country which has a record A$2 trillion of mortgage debt outstanding.
A substantial decline in prices is need to make housing more affordable for those who don't already own.
"A very large correction in prices would be needed to enable 'affordable' housing, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, though the wage outlook is key to how much of a correction would be needed," Timbrel added.
Wages are lagging, at least by the official measure, which showed annual pay growth ticked up only slightly in the first quarter to 2.4%, half the pace of inflation.
Both ANZ and Knight Frank said average prices would have to fall 40% – roughly the amount U.S. house prices tumbled during the global financial crisis – to make Australian housing affordable.
House prices in Sydney and Melbourne were forecasting to fall 2.5-3.0% this year and 9.0% next. In Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth, prices were expecting to rise 2.0-6.5% this year but decline 4.5% in 2023.
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