Sony held its annual corporate strategy meeting today, and CEO Kenishiro Yoshida and CFO Hiroki Totoki shared more about plans for the PlayStation business.
Yoshida-san began presentation stating that he believes the games business created jointly by Sony’s electronics and music businesses represents the greatest synergy the company has created in the 20th century. Speaking of synergy, it’s perhaps no surprise that we hear that the TV show is dedicated to The last of us increased sales of the game as well as airplay for the song used in the show.
Following Gran Turismo Sophy’s example, Yoshida-san noted that AI is positioned as a technology that expands the creativity of creators, and Sony will continue to promote research and development along with social adoption. Later in the presentation, he added that the focus is on creativity and Sony wants to be chosen by creators, so the vision for AI is for creators to use it as a powerful tool, and that’s where the company’s R&D is focused.
We also get a reminder of Sony’s India expansion with a mention of recently announced The Hero of India project which echoes the previously created China Hero Project, which has already produced several successful games. Later, Yoshida-san mentioned that there is a lot of opportunity for games and anime in India because it is a very young nation, demographically. Half of the population is under 30 years old.
Totoki-san talked about PlayStation’s business growth strategy, noting that the central factor is the increase in the number of active users, and the driving force behind this increase is the expansion of the PS5 market, as well as the strengthening and expansion of first-party games. portfolio
Totoki-san reiterated that Sony shipped 6.3 million PS5 units during the 4th quarter of last fiscal year and continues to produce more units at full capacity. Going forward, Sony intends to work with the publishing and development communities and PlayStation’s own studios to expand the content pipeline and release ever more innovative and engaging games. This will lead to an increase in the installed base and the number of active users.
In order to expand the portfolio of its own games, Sony will continue to use the know-how of Bungie after the acquisition, expanding the possibility of publishing and operating service games. Additionally, Sony also wants to increase the number of active PC users in addition to the PS5.
I wonder what Yoshida-san was talking about Super Mario movie and Nintendo IP.
“Recently there was a movie theater in Roppongi and I watched Super Mario, a great IP entertainment content. I played the Super Mario games 30 years ago and it was very intense. A cute IP can live for 30, 50, or even 100 years. This is something we would like to invest in for sustainable growth.”
Finally, Totoki-san noted that with the advancement of cloud infrastructure and technology, in the long term, it is possible that computing power will move to the cloud at some point in time. Sony offers this kind of service and continues to prepare for the future. Generative AI is also something Sony may have to focus on, but it’s important to be closer to creators and support them. Thinking carefully about how to use these technologies is one way to avoid risks.
If you want to know more about PlayStation’s financial performance, you can check out the latest quarterly results through our special article.