PlayStation 5 consoles are not being used as much because people are going outside, Sony has said.

During the pandemic, the PS5 was arguably the most coveted gadget in the world. Huge demand and issues with supply meant there was a booming market for the console, leading resale prices to shoot up and sending people on vast quests to try and find them.

But as restrictions relax, people are playing those consoles less, PlayStation said in its latest results.

The company saw total gameplay time fall 15 per cent this summer, it said in the results for the latest quarter. It improved slightly in June, with time up 3 per cent compared with the previous month, but that was still down 10 per cent on June 2021.

That is a “much lower level of engagement than we anticipated”, the company noted in the results.

It said that the game market as a whole had stopped growing as quickly because “opportunities have increased for users to go outside” as covid-19 infections fall.

It said that it would be looking to increase engagement in the second half of the year, which is expected to see a range of new games and by putting more consoles on sale.

It said that it still expected to sell 18 million consoles in the year, a number that will be restricted by the amount of PS5s that are actually available.

However, that problem should also be eased as suppliers recover from covid lockdowns and improve the supply of components.

PlayStation hopes to have more consoles on sale by the end of the year, for the popular holiday season, it said.

Sony also noted that it had bought a number of developers, which are expected to start releasing new games and so could encourage more people to spend more time on consoles.

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