Report: Sony to Spend $2.1 Billion on Gaming R&D This Fiscal Year - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 August 2023 / 6,945 Views
Sony looks to be spending more on gaming research and development (R&D) this fiscal year, which is set to end on March 31, 2024.
Nikkei is reporting Sony will spend 300 billion yen (about $2.17 billion) in R&D for its video game segment, which is about 40 percent of Sony's R&D spending.
This figure is up just over 10 percent from the previous fiscal year when Sony spend 271.1 billion yen (about $1.96 billion), and more than double what was spent in the 2020 fiscal year, which was 144.5 billion yen (about $1.04 billion).
Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan in May revealed PlayStation will be investing more in live service games than traditional games starting with the current fiscal year.
Just 12 percent of the game investment into the PS5 was for live service games, while the remaining 88 percent were for traditional games. For the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2024, the percent of the total investment into live service games will be 55 percent, compared to 45 percent for traditional games. Live service investment will grow to an expected 60 percent in the 2025 fiscal year, while percent spent on traditional games will shrink to 40 percent.
The overall amount of money invested into the PS5 business model will increase over the coming years. The total amount spent on traditional games in the 2023 fiscal year will be lower than in the 2019 fiscal year. However, it will increase in the 2025 fiscal year to be a bit higher than it was in the 2019 fiscal year. This is according to Sony's internal projections.
The amount of money in the gaming industry projected to be spent on the full digital games is expected to decrease over the coming years from $8.6 billion in 2022 to $7.4 billion in 2026. While the amount spent on add-on content is expected to grow from $11.8 billion in 2022 to $19.2 billion. Subscriptions are also expected to see growth from $8.2 billion in 2022 to $12.0 billion in 2026.
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Great thing. Invest in development instead of purchases, although yes they will also make those.
The GTA5 effect in full swing. Just keep selling it as a service.
Solid, I hope at least one of their live service games will be worth it.
And if this was news about MS we would see some of the same people we see here (and are going to see here) that are praising Sony's investment into live service games say how its so bad for Ms, Gamepass is gonna be full of Gaas etc etc.
