Sony 'Aggressively' Investing in 1st Party Studios and Partnerships This Year - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 June 2021 / 1,809 Views
Sony's Games and Network Service division reported its highest year ever in terms of profits and revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. This was driven by strong first-party and third-party software sales, as well as PlayStation 5 hardware sales.
Sony has forecasted that revenue will be even higher in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2022, from first-party games. However, it has forecasted a drop in the first quarter, which ends June 30, 2021. This would be due to The Last of Us Part II launching in June 2020.
Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki in a call to investors that was transcribed by VideoGamesChronicle said the company plans to invest aggressively with its first-party studios and its partnerships with other studios.
"We intend to increase development personnel and other in-house costs by approximately 20bn yen [$183m] year-on-year, as we further strengthen our in-house software," said Totoki. "To enhance our software offering, we intend to continue investing in partnering with external studios, in addition to aggressively investing in our in-house studios."
He added, "As I just mentioned, we aim to strengthen the PlayStation platform through actions such as the recently announced partnership with Haven Entertainment, which was established by Jade Raymond, creator of the famous game Assassin’s Creed.
"In our additional investment of Epic Games, along with the rest of the Sony group we will also work to enhance the social and platform capabilities of games."
Sony Interactive Entertainment earlier today announced it has shipped 7.8 million PlayStation 5 consoles as of March 31, 2021. This puts it 200,000 units ahead of the Playstation 4, which had shipped 7.6 million units as of March 31, 2014.
Totoki also revealed during the call that it is unlikely Sony will be able to drastically increase the supply of the PlayStation 5.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Idk if it's because of this huge push from Xbox, but that's great to hear! This is why competition is good. It drives companies to put out the best possible products. It's a win-win for gamers from all sides!
"We’ll make sure the PS5 generation has more exclusive software than ever before." I'll believe Mr. Jim Ryan on that. He's not had the best track record in my opinion but Kenichiro Yoshida-san choose Jim Ryan to take over PlayStation for a reason. Beating PS4's or even PS2's generation of exclusive content won't be easy but this 9th gen feels special. Keep the competition coming Microsoft, keep pushing Sony ;')
It should be easy. Ps3 and ps2 had a stronger line up of first party and third party exclusives. Don't get me wrong I love the ps4 and line up of exclusives, but I feel they did better overall in earlier generations.
Hmmm. Fair point friend. PS4 started off slow but it grew extremely stronger 3 years into it's life cycle. PS5 could be the same deal, and I'll hold Mr. Jim Ryan on his word he's strengthening their ties with Japanese devs weather they be 3rd or 2nd party. Not happy with that non sense that went on with Japan Studio. PS3 and PS2 exclusive library was legendary for Sony. Mr. Jim Ryan aiming to surpass that won't be easy but I'll see what Sony's new chief has in store.
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