How important is digital business for giant console manufacturers like Sony and Nintendo? Yesterday, both Japanese companies reported good results for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2018/2019 (from April to June), and we took a deeper look into the data shared on Tuesday to learn more about how they're doing online. As expected, Sony is making much more money than Nintendo with downloads, DLCs, and subscriptions, but Nintendo is growing faster.
Nintendo made 18.5 billion yen on "download versions of packaged software, download-only software and add-on content", as they call it in the briefing, which is 68% more than the same period last year and close to the 20.3 billion yen record set last Christmas. The proportion of digital sales with respect to total dedicated video game software sales was 24.2% for the period too, much higher than last spring, but it's important to highlight that first-party software sales also declined by more than four points YoY.
PlayStation digital business represents 43% of total Sony PlayStation income for the Q1 2018-2019, however, a figure that's four points up over the same period last year and the same proportion reached between January and March 2018, the previous quarter. There's a differentiating driver in the PlayStation Plus subscription, since Nintendo Switch Online is not yet active, but Sony's managed to increase download income despite a decrease in the number of subscribers, with Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki saying that a lack of new online multiplayer games in the period had a negative impact on this segment.
Is any of this surprising to you?