Sony has made some changes to its business plan, according to the company’s most recent annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As captured by Game File’s Stephen Totilo, changes to Sony’s business plan indicate that the company may be preparing for shrinking revenues in the current market. Along with this, the company also removed the mention of bringing first-party titles to PC.
As Totillo points out, in last year’s annual report, PlayStation said it “seeks to achieve sustainable and profitable business growth.” However, in the newer version, the wording was changed to “seek to achieve sustainable business growth”. The fact that the reference to profitability has been removed indicates that the current increase in component prices will begin to have an even more negative impact on PlayStation.
“In terms of hardware, we expect to be affected by price increases and supply shortages for memory semiconductors, but we plan to manage the impact on profits by flexibly adjusting plans such as unit sales and promotions.”
In the meantime, the company is hoping to increase its service-based revenue from PlayStation Plus, which it presumably hopes will offset the lack of profit it’s making on PlayStation hardware.
Regarding rolling out its games to more platforms, the company said in a report last year that it “plans to continue its efforts to roll out its first-party titles to multiple platforms, including PC.” This part is completely removed from the new report, which is consistent with recent rumors indicating that Sony is not realizing the profits and growth from the PC market that it had hoped for.
Most recently, PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino basically admitted that the company has no intention of bringing any more single-player first-party games to PC. He said release plans will ultimately depend on the “characteristics of each title” and that the company will continue to consider releasing live-service games with online elements on PC to ensure a broader audience. However, single-player first-party games will continue to remain on PlayStation hardware.
“We make decisions based on the principles of maximizing the unique features of each title and delivering the best gaming experience possible, regardless of platform,” he said.
Another notable part of Sony’s new annual report is that the company also plans to leverage more AI-based tools in game development. “Sony is leveraging AI to unleash studio creativity and further enhance the PlayStation experience,” the new report adds.
“In the Studio business, Sony aims to improve productivity through the use of AI-powered tools, allowing development teams to reinvest their time into building richer worlds and gameplay experiences. In the Platform business, Sony aims to leverage AI to more efficiently route transactions and improve PlayStation We are committed to personalizing and recommending content for individual users on the Store. Sony also aims to advance visual fidelity and deliver a higher quality gameplay experience through continued investment in AI and machine learning.”
Sony also hopes to continue expanding its cross-media efforts by working on “the production of films and television shows based on PlayStation game IP to further expand the reach and monetization of our IP.”
