PlayStation to focus further on putting its games on PC, more shows and movies in the works, and more
There's a lot going on over at PlayStation, according to the company's latest business briefing. A presentation from Sony's CEO, Jim Ryan, shows a variety of plans for the future, ranging from focusing on mobile and PC platforms, to expanding further on television shows and movies based on its IPs. At the forefront of the briefing is the fact that the PlayStation 5 is selling incredibly well; where the PlayStation 4 sold 80,000 units in 9 days during its launch, the PS5 managed to sell the same amount, but in just 82 minutes, by comparison.
Numbers are better than ever before, across the board, with gamers accruing more playtime than they have before, and also spending more on DLCs and subscription services on the PS5 over the PS4. The supply issues of not enough consumers being able to get their hands on the console were also addressed; due to constraints, the PS5 was unable to overtake the year 2 sales of the PS4. If things go according to plan, by year 3, things will be able to get back on track, and by year 4, the PS5 will retake the lead in sales during the same timeframe. Right now, the PlayStation 4 is the fourth best-selling video game system, and second-best home console.
With the advent of certain free-to-play titles, such as Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Rocket League, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone, PlayStation sees f2p titles as a significant share of spending, with players spending 25% more on them in the last six years.
Whether or not it's due to the supply constraints, or the larger user base, there's also a trend of more gamers sticking with the previous-gen PlayStation system when compared to how many people were still active on the PlayStation 3 following the launch of the PlayStation 4. Where 36.1 million users kept using their PS3 consoles two years after the PS4 launched, 84.0 million players are still on PS4, two years after the release of the PS5.
With the imminent launch of the PSVR2, PlayStation is expecting great success with their new hardware, promising over 20 "major first-party and third-party" launch titles, one of which being Horizon: Call of the Mountain. They also want to see more from putting their IPs on other platforms, specifically mobile and PC, and plan to bring even more of their games to PC, projecting more than triple the sales that they did after launching Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War, and Days Gone on PC.
Another method PlayStation has to increase its profits is expanding into media outside of gaming, with movies, TV shows, and retail products. Not too long ago, the Uncharted film was released, and there's an HBO television series in the works, based on The Last of Us. Beyond that, there's a Ghost of Tsushima film on the way, a Gran Turismo movie pitch going around, as well as a Horizon Netflix series and God of War Amazon Prime TV show all coming out. According to Sony Pictures Entertainment's CEO, there are ten more projects on top of all that, regarding PlayStation's IPs in movies and TV.
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