Sony’s efforts to restructure its PlayStation Plus game subscription service into something that can rival Xbox Game Pass is not getting off to the best start. Since the service’s June relaunch it has lost 1.9 million subscribers, according to Sony’s Second Quarter financial report. The total subscription numbers fell from 47.3 million to 45.4 million during that three month span.
While that still eclipses the roughly 25 million Game Pass subscribers, it is not the kind of momentum Sony was hoping for with the relaunch of PlayStation Plus. What’s more, it seems as though the relaunch has failed to reverse a trend that has been ongoing since fall of last year, when PlayStation Subscriber numbers started to decrease. Over the year since, a total 2.6 million subscribers have been lost.
However, it should be pointed out that Sony’s revenue from PlayStation Plus through this period has actually increased by 10%, thanks to the more costly tiers being offered. This means Sony is earning more money per subscriber, though those subscriber numbers are dropping.
Sony execs have placed some of the blame on the fact that Sony has failed to flex its marketing muscle. During Tuesday’s earnings call Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said “we didn’t make aggressive promotions during the second quarter.” He also added that “More people are now going outdoors.”
