In  Sony’s Corporate Strategy Meeting held yesterday in Tokyo, CEO John Kodera revealed that the PlayStation 4 is entering the final phase of its lifecycle. This means that the company is expecting that Sony will start to see a decline in the sales of new PS4 consoles. 

However, this predicament will not mean that Sony’s revenues will dip overall as the PlayStation Plus service will still rake in some profit that will offset the decline in sales. Wall Street Journal reporter Takashi Mochizuki, who was in attendance at the meeting, reported some of the statements said by Kodera. It is important to remember that it will still be a long time before Sony discontinue the production of the PS4 as the company hasn’t announced the console’s successor. Furthermore, the console is still expected to sell well, given that new exclusives are on the way such as The Last of Us: Part II and Spider-Man. 

Of course, Kodera’s statement does not mean that Sony will be pulling the plug on the PS4 soon. Instead, his statement says that the company’s focus will now shift from selling consoles to keeping PS4 owners engaged. Kodera also revealed that Sony will continue to invest and focus on first-party exclusives either new titles or sequels to existing games. 

Given that the PS4 launched in 2013, it makes sense and is even expected that the console would be entering its final phase. Currently, the PlayStation 4 has sold over 79 million units according to Sony’s records,  just below the PS3’s record of 80 million units in 2013.