Sony has revealed more information of its business plans for PlayStation in the future. In a recent business update for PlayStation, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Hideaki Nishino spoke about how the company plans on continuing its overall strategy when it comes to game releases.
According to Nishino, Sony wants to continue its current strategy of releasing single-player story-focused games on the PS5, and then bringing these games to PC to capture a wider audience at least one year later. Despite this, however, the company was also specific in saying that it does not have a multi-platform release strategy.
Rather, according to Nishino, PlayStation is referring to its strategy of releasing games on its own consoles as well as PC as being a “multi-device” one. It is worth noting that PlayStation games don’t typically make it on to Xbox or Nintendo consoles. Nishino also noted that PlayStation will continue to its strategy of releasing at least one AAA tentpole single-player game a year.
He also revealed that the PS5 has been doing quite well for Sony, with the current console generation being regarded by the company as its most successful and profitable one. Moving forward with its “multi-device” strategy, PlayStation has said that its focus is on “the console and beyond”. The beyond in this phrase refers to games that are eventually released on PC, as well as PlayStation peripherals, like PlayStation Portal.
PlayStation also wants to continue its plans on having its game properties adapted into different mediums, like anime, TV shows and movies.
During this business update, Nishino had also spoken about what the future looks like for PlayStation. Answering a question about whether cloud streaming plays into the company’s future, he noted that while the technology is great, network stability can still sometimes be a problem.
“Cloud streaming is progressing well from a technical standpoint, as we have demonstrated with [our] offerings, but end-to-end network stability is not in our control,” Nishino said. “And the higher cost per playtime compared to the traditional console model remains a challenge.”
“Cloud gaming is increasingly providing an additional option for players to access content, but our belief is that the majority of players continue to want to experience gaming through local execution without dependency on network conditions. And PS5 and PS5 Pro have validated this thesis, I believe.”
Coming back to the “multi-device” strategy, Nishino also noted that the previous-generation PS4 still had 124 million monthly active users.
“We now have a large ecosystem of highly engaged players across both the PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 4 generations. So naturally, therefore, there’s a huge interest in our next generation console strategy,” said Nishino. “While we cannot share further details at this stage, the future of the platform is top of mind. We are committed to exploring a new and enhanced way for players to engage with our content and services.”
SIE SVP of finance and corporate development Lynn Azar also spoke about the multi-device strategy when it comes to the future of PlayStation. “As Nishino-san mentioned, we’re still exploring what the future of our platform would look like,” said Azar. “So, therefore, whilst we cannot provide any further guidance on operating income in future years, I’d like to re-emphasize that our financial profile as a business has evolved in line with our strategy.”