By Whilst Microsoft is seemingly about to change the very nature of its Xbox business, things over at Sony’s PlayStation division are undergoing a different kind of overhaul.
Sony held its latest financial results briefing followed by a Q&A session in which some pertinent questions about PlayStation’s goals for the new era as CEO Jim Ryan exits.
Sony Group Corporation president and chief operating officer Hiroki Totoki will take on the interim PlayStation CEO role starting April 1st and spoke with the press about the company’s goals to improve its bottom line.
The biggest admission is that Sony expects PS5 hardware sales to ‘gradually decline’ next fiscal year (April 2024 to March 2025) and says there are no “major existing franchise titles” from their first-party studios expected to release in that time period:
“Regarding PS5 hardware, which will enter its fifth year since launch. Partially due to entering the latter half of the console cycle, we’re aiming to optimise sales with a greater emphasis on balance with profits. So we expect a gradual decline in unit sales from next fiscal year onwards.
Regarding first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality productions and producing live service games. But while major projects are currently under development, we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year like ‘God of War: Ragnarok’ and ‘Marvel Spider-Man 2’.”
That refers to major franchise titles of course, mirroring the long gap that Xbox had in 2022. Instead, it will be focused on titles from outside studios this year including “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth,” “Rise of the Ronin,” “Stellar Blade” and the “Silent Hill 2” remake.
The gap could be due to any number of reasons. Insomniac’s “Wolverine” game is still some time away; as is a potential third “Horizon” from Guerrilla Games; “Ghost of Tsushima” sequel from Sucker Punch; or the post-“God of War” title from Santa Monica Studio.
Naughty Dog scrapped their live service “The Last of Us” title and will need time to assemble a potential third single-player entry; and Bluepoint Games is likely occupied with PC ports of PlayStation titles. Totoki indicates plans for a more ‘aggressive’ approach to PC ports of their first party titles, likely fueled by the recent day-and-date success of multiplayer title “Helldivers 2” on both PS5 and PC.
One that might offer something is Team Asobi, the developers of “Astro’s Playroom” who are rumored to have a new Astro game in the works for the platform. Bend Games (“Days Gone”), Housemarque (“Returnal”), Media Molecule (“Dreams”), Firewalk and Haven are all working on new and unannounced projects at this time – quite a few being multiplayer/live service.
Also revealed was that PlayStation Network monthly active users reached a record high of 123 million, up 11 million year-on-year. Software sales (PS4 and PS5) increased 3.2 million year-over-year, to 89.7 million units with digital accounting for 66% of that.
Totoki says that while he was impressed with the motivation and creativity of studio workers, he says there is “room for improvement” in terms of how they invest money and plan development schedules.
Sony says it’s also looking to cut costs in game development due to the massive budgets for some of their biggest titles such as the recent “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2”.
Source: VGC
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