Sony is unconcerned about the recent decline in PS Plus subscribers and has high expectations for the revamp

Sony has stated that it is unconcerned by a recent decline in PlayStation Plus subscribers and that it has "high expectations" for its coming summer revamp.

Sony reported total PS Plus subscribers of 47.4 million in March 2022, down 0.6 million from the previous quarter (Dec 2021) and 0.2 million years on year, in the company's FY2021 financial results released on Tuesday.

This appears to be only the second time in eight years that PlayStation Plus subscription counts have fallen between quarters, with the first fall being during the company's fiscal year 2021, in Q1.

Sony defines monthly active users as the expected total number of unique accounts that played games or accessed PlayStation Network services during the fourth quarter.

The statistics led the company to be questioned how it felt about the recent fluctuation in PS Plus subscriber numbers, and if it weighed into the company's plans for the future revamp of the subscription service, during the results call on Tuesday.

"Let me give you the general trend," CFO Hikori Totoki replied  "The entire playtime time is critical. There has been a year-on-year reduction, although stay-at-home demand was not as high between January and February of 2021 compared to [the previous year].

"This is an 8% decrease from January and February of 2022." There is a 5.9 million [user] decline from the end of March in 2020."

Totoki contended that, despite a drop in active users since the pandemic began, the overall trend was encouraging.

"The stay-at-home demand was a transient issue, but it appears to me that the high levels of engagement were maintained," the executive continued.

"So, in the mid-term, I don't see much concern about PS Plus." I am confident that the high level of participation will continue. That's a positive viewpoint."

The CFO stated that he expects the upcoming subscription service redesign, which would begin this summer, to have a favorable impact on users.