Sony is shrinking the gap between the launches of its PlayStation and PC games.
During a post-earnings call Q&A session on Wednesday, the company’s president, Hiroki Totoki, suggested that he wants the PlayStation division to focus on releasing “multi-platform” games to improve profits.
He then clarified that by multi-platform, he meant games that will be released simultaneously on the gaming console and PC – not cross-platform support with Microsoft’s Xbox or Nintendo’s Switch. Totoki believes that multi-platform games could significantly improve the Japanese electronics giant’s “margin performance”.
Sony’s Strategy To Improve Its Profit Margin Is Releasing PS5 And PC Games Together
When asked why Sony’s profits were not keeping up with its increasing gross income, the executive replied that there were two key areas he wanted to focus on – hardware and first-party games.
In terms of hardware, he noted that compared to previous generations of the PlayStation, cost reduction in this console cycle was “difficult to come by”. He pointed out that this was due to the increased price of components for the PlayStation 5, while also suggesting that there won’t be any permanent price drops in the near term for the PS5.
Totoki explained there are opportunities out there for the company to improve profits and he wants to be “aggressive” on improving Sony’s margin performance. One way to hit the target is to cash in more on PlayStation Studios’ commercially successful titles such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and God of War: Ragnarok, said the soon-to-be interim CEO.
Sony’s main strategy in the past was to popularize its consoles, and first-party titles were released to do exactly that. Further elaborating on it, the president of Sony said that releasing PlayStation exclusives on other platforms, like computers, can help improve the company’s operating profits.
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PlayStation Studios’ Helldrivers 2 Smashed The Highest Concurrent Steam Player Record
Sony has already announced that it is ramping up the number of first-party games it will be bringing to PC. Usually, PS-exclusive titles take years to be launched on PC. Games like God of War (2018) and the first Marvel’s Spider-Man had about a four-year gap between their PS4 and PC releases, but Spider-Man’s Miles Morales spin-off came to PC two years after its PS launch.
In 2022, PlayStation Studios head Herman Hulst said that PC gamers would have to wait “at least a year” to get first-party PlayStation 5 games on PC.
However, earlier this month, Sony launched Helldrivers 2 on PS5 and PC on the same day. The release resulted in PlayStation Studios’ highest concurrent Steam player record yet, with more gamers playing Helldrivers 2 at the same time on both platforms. This smashed previous records held by God of War (2018), The Last of Us Part 1, and Horizon Zero Dawn.
Totoko did not explicitly say that Sony plans on releasing more day-and-date PC versions of PS5 games, but his comments suggest that a change of policy may be under work at the company.
PC gamers are eagerly awaiting PlayStation Studios’ upcoming Wolverine game, as well as the ever-popular Spider-Man and God of War to be released on the same day as its console counterparts.
