Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO was asked about PlayStation consoles' future. Market shift brings predictable answer
Sony's new presentation reveals PS5's revenue and the number of monthly s. The SIE CEO also commented on cloud gaming and the future of consoles.
Sony published a presentation revealing a handful of statistics related to, among others, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation Plus. Moreover, we learned about what types of games first-party studios are currently working on. The president of SIE, Hideaki Nishino, conveyed that the current guiding theme for the Japanese company's business is "Console and Beyond."
We are building on the strengths of the PlayStation platform and PlayStation Studios.
Consoles and subscription
The current generation of consoles is the most profitable for Sony. A year ago, it already overtook the PS4, and now the difference has grown even more - the PS5 generation has provided Sony with revenues of 136 billion dollars. Most of it comes from the sale of content in the PS Store and subscriptions.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
- In the fiscal year 2024, there was a 14% increase in monthly active s, reaching 124 million. Most people use the PS5 console, but the PS4 still remains very popular hardware.
- The same increase occurred in the amount of time spent gaming over the year - in 2024, players spent 51 billion hours playing games.
Over the years, the number of people using the more expensive PS Plus subscription has also increased. In the fiscal year 2022, it was 17% of all subscribers, in 2023 - 19%, and in 2024 - 22%. Among those paying for the PS Plus subscription, the Essential option remains the most popular.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
PlayStation Studios
The presentation also included a list of Sony-owned studios categorized by the type of games they are working on. Most of them develop single-player titles, and only four developers focus strictly on service games.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Flagship titles of recent and future years were also indicated. In 2025, the most important release will be Marvel's Wolverine were also highlighted.
The future of PlayStation
During a business meeting, the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Hideaki Nishino, also answered a few questions about the future of PlayStation (via VGC). One of them concerned the possibility of replacing traditional consoles with the cloud. Although he considers it a viable option for players, he claims that there is still demand for local gaming.
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.
Regarding the successor to the PS5, Sony is, of course, constantly exploring new possibilities, but at the moment, they cannot reveal anything.
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. 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.
It's worth noting that, according to recent reports, the PS6 project is at an advanced stage and may launch in 2028.
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