As part of a aggressive growth plan, Hiroki Totoki Sony’ current chairman intends to focus work on multiplatform releases, according to the latest statement.
Hiroki Totoki Statement Overview: Chairman Hiroki Totoki spoke about the company’s continuous efforts to expand the number of PlayStation first-party games that are available on numerous platforms during Sony’s most recent earnings report. The CEO stated that they wanted to popularize [our] console in the past, as you all know, and the first-party title’s main purpose was to make the console popular, as emphasized by the chairman.
The chairman goes on, saying loosely that it’s true, but it works well together. Therefore, if you have high-quality first-party content across many platforms, such as desktops and our console, you can expand it through multiplatform usage, which will increase operating profit. Thus, they also wish to aggressively work on that one.
Hiroki Totoki stated as much during a Q&A session for investors that followed the release of Sony’s most recent financial results. In response to a question about how its gaming division might be looking to boost profits, he first talked about how difficult it would be to lower the cost of PlayStation hardware given the cost of the component parts before pointing out that a “multiplatform” strategy for first-party game releases would be a potentially more lucrative area of growth.
From Hiroki Totoki chairman’s statement, it appears like Sony is keen to release more of its games on the PC: “I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margins, so I would like to go aggressive in improving our margin performance.” Many of the PS5’s exclusive games, such as Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, The Last of Us Part 1, Returnal, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and others, have made their way onto PCs since the console’s 2020 debut.
Herman Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, clearly thought differently in 2022 than he does now. Then, he stated that PC players will not be able to play first-party PlayStation games (apart from live service titles) on their systems for “at least a year.” The first Marvel Spider-Man and God of War (2018) came out on PlayStation 4 and PC around four years apart. The Miles Morales spin-off of the latter saw a roughly two-year turnaround.
The chairman Hiroki Totoki, who will take over as the company’s acting CEO after Jim Ryan leaves in April, disclosed during the results call that the PS5 will not receive any new “major existing franchise titles” before April 2025.
In addition, Hiroki Totoki stated that the PS5 is already in “its latter stage of life cycle,” which, despite the fact that it has been available for nearly four years, seems reasonable. The CEO concluded by stating that while PlayStation’s studios are full of “great creative minds,” they still need to improve their economic acumen.
Sony simultaneously released Helldivers 2 for Windows and the PS5 on February 8. VGC reports that the game defeated God of War (2018), The Last of Us Part I, and Horizon Zero Dawn to become PlayStation Studios’ most popular title on Steam concurrently. Arrowhead Games created Helldivers 2, which was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
It’s unclear what Hiroki Totoki meant when he said that major PlayStation properties like God of War, Spider-Man, and the next Wolverine game should come out on PC the same day as console games. However, a change in strategy is under way, and Hiroki Totoki will have the power to implement the plan because, in April, he will succeed Jim Ryan as temporary CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
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