Sony Group announced Thursday, May 26, its intention to accelerate video game releases on computers and cell phones and to rely more heavily on online services to grow its audience beyond its PlayStation consoles.
Sony, the producer of the PlayStation 5, released in late 2020, is still suffering from supply chain disruptions related to the pandemic, and Sony, which expects to sell at least 18 million copies in its new fiscal year 2022/23 started in early April, is struggling to meet the high demand.
Sony is promising an “acceleration of PlayStation 5 production” as early as this year, Sony Interactive Entertainment President Jim Ryan said Thursday, as he looks to “drive growth” in the group’s video game business through PC and mobile games.
“We haven’t had a significant presence” in those areas, Ryan acknowledged in an online presentation, saying he sees an opportunity to move “from a presence in a very narrow segment of the gaming market to a total presence.” Sony wants PC and mobile titles to account for nearly half of its internally developed game releases by 2025/26, up from less than a third today.
Building on lucrative video game series such as “God of War”, released on PC in January, the group expects PC sales to reach USD 300 million in 2022/23, almost quadrupling over one year, and sees “a future where large parts of our community extend beyond consoles”.
In order to expand its offer on all media, Sony also wants to increase its presence in online games called “live services”, which seek to stimulate the interest – and the wallet – of players in the long term by regularly adding additional content.
It is relying in particular on the expertise in this field of the American game publisher Bungie (creator of the “Halo” and “Destiny” franchises), whose acquisition it announced in January for USD 3.6 billion. “We are far from being done with our policy of acquiring studios,” Mr. Ryan said, while Sony and its American rival Microsoft are multiplying their buyout announcements.
Asked about Sony’s ambitions in the virtual world of the metaverse, announced as the next age of the Internet, Mr. Ryan stressed that “no one knows what it will look like in the future. “I don’t believe that (the metaverse) is going to directly replace existing ways of playing,” he said.
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