The PlayStation 4 has been a huge success for Sony, but it looks like things are slowing down — at least in terms of hardware sales. The company just announced that it sold 19 million consoles in the 2017 fiscal year after selling 20 million in 2016, and its forecast for the current year ending in March 2019 is 16 million. For comparison, Nintendo expects to sell 20 million Switch consoles in the same period. In total, Sony has sold more than 76 million PS4s, meaning it should overtake the PS3's lifetime figure this year.
This isn't necessarily bad news for Sony, because the company is making more money and expects that to continue. The PlayStation business brought in 17.8 percent more revenue year on year, leading to an operating profit of 177.5 billion yen ($1.62 billion). This is because Sony is selling more PS4 software than ever and attracting more PlayStation Plus subscribers. For this year, Sony is forecasting a slight decrease in revenue due to the expected lower hardware sales, but a 7 percent increase in profit.
Sony's at the point right now where it doesn't have to sell as many razors and can concentrate on the blades. The big question is when it'll feel the need to design a new razor.