Sony is undoubtedly the leading gaming console producer in the market by a long shot. They have a firm grip on the basics and know how to appeal to the masses with unique and exclusive IPs. Quite recently, the CEO Kenichiro Yoshida described what the experience of a PlayStation fan would be like in the future and how they at Sony would be able to shape it. He mentioned that the best way to do gaming content would be to offer a mix of pay-per-content and subscription games, much like what people at Xbox are doing at this moment.
Yoshida said that the future is quite promising and people with access to a proper computing device or a console can play whatever they want. That is why, PlayStation will remain their core product and they also plan on carrying out a mass expansion through cloud, mobile, and PC. As a matter of fact, we have already seen Sony’s PC ports for popular games like God of War and The Last of Us sell like hotcakes.
Kenichiro Yoshida also said that people prefer to play one game at a time which is why they have integrated a hybrid; pay-per-content and subscription-based service on the PlayStation Network. This allows Sony to not only capitalize on the reputation of certain IPs but also maintain a healthy catalog on the PlayStation Plus subscription. It is one of the leading subscription-based gaming services out there and has plenty of titles to justify its price for fans.
CEO believes some healthy competition is needed for the gaming industry to grow
In the interview conducted by Norges Bank Investment Management, Kenichiro Yoshida was asked about the Activision-Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft. Without directly taking a shot at the people at Xbox, Kenichiro highlighted the necessity of healthy competition. He believes that this healthy competition provides gamers with avid options to play whatever they want and is a necessity nowadays. The CEO also talked about how they are trying their utmost to provide the best gaming experience for their fans.
Sony has always been a company that allows games to leave an individual mark on the market before including it in a subscription-based service. That is why, most of their games take a while to come to the PS Plus. Their most famous franchises have made tons of sales and broken records while also catering to fans and critics alike. It is also a known fact that exclusives play a massive role in Sony’s popularity and IPs like Horizon, God of War, Uncharted, and Bloodborne did well to capture the market.
Once these games had established their individuality, they were made available in the subscription-based catalog which is the perfect strategy to use for already-released games. In short, Sony hopes to overcome the challenges posed by other console makers by doing their best on their brands and IPs and not exclusively focusing on their competition. It will be interesting to see how they move forward from here on out as 2024 begins in full force.
