PlayStation 5 Sales Miss Targets: Sony Eyes PC Expansion
According to a report by Wccftech, Sony unveiled its financial results for the third quarter of 2023 on February 14, indicating that the PlayStation 5 sales did not meet expectations. During the earnings call, Sony executive Totoki Hiroki expressed a desire for more PlayStation first-party games to be made available on PC.
Previously, rumors circulated that Jim Ryan, the President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, would retire the following month, with Sony planning to appoint Chief Operating Officer Hiroki Totoki as the interim CEO. Following his appointment, Hiroki Totoki, as reported by Japanese journalist Takashi Mochizuki, pointed out issues related to profit conversion and operational efficiencies within Sony Interactive Entertainment.
In light of this, blogger Genki quoted Hiroki Totoki saying: “In the past, we wanted to popularize console and the 1st party titles’ main purpose was to make the console popular. It is true, but there is a synergy to it. So if you have strong first party content, not only with our console but also other platforms like computers, 1st party can be grown with multiplatform and that can help operating profit to improve. So that is another one we want to proactively work on. I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margins, so I would like to go aggressive in improving our margin performance.”
Sony has now ported nearly all of its PlayStation first-party games to PC. Even the flagship title for the PS5, “Horizon: Forbidden West,” is set to be released on PC next month, two years after its launch on PS4/PS5. Jim Ryan previously firmly believed in the strategy of time-limited exclusivity for first-party games, a stance he thought should remain unchanged.
However, Sony has realized that as the PlayStation 5 enters the latter half of its lifecycle, its hardware sales are expected to gradually decline from the next fiscal year onwards. Thus, porting first-party games to PC or expanding the user base and profits has become a viable strategy.
