Sony expects to make $450 million on PC this year and significantly increase investment in live service games

Sony has held a special keynote for investors where it outlined its growth strategy and shared some business plans. PlayStation also revealed sales figures for some of its PC releases and announced a major investment in live service games.

PlayStation’s growth strategy includes diversifying its first-party portfolio

• In its latest business briefing, Sony announced its plans to significantly increase investment in new IPs. In FY25 ending March 31, 2026, there should be parity between new brands and existing franchises, compared to 20/80 and 40/60 shares in FY19 and FY23, respectively.

PlayStation Studios investment by IP type

• PlayStation’s goal is to release two or more major games per year, which should cover every major genre. This includes new action titles, platformers, RPGs, racing games, sports sims, and shooters.
• The company also wants to mix classic single-player experiences with live service tiles, as well as to findthe right balance between its big franchises and new IP and expand onto new platforms to grow audiences.

SIE’s strategy to evolve the shape of its first-party game portfolio

Sony will make more live service and mobile games

• PlayStation will also be investing more in live service games, which is in line with its previously outlined strategy. The share of such investments will grow to 55% in the current fiscal year and to 60% in FY25.

PS5 investment by business model

• This doesn’t mean Sony will stop producing single-player games, but its portfolio will become more diverse in terms of live service titles. In addition to Destiny 2 (thanks to the Bungie acquisition), there are live service games in development at Haven Studios, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, and Firewalk Studios.
• To achieve its goals, PlayStation plans to scale business profitability for content development and increase its release cadence to “maximize publishing capabilities on and off console”.
• Speaking of its mobile strategy, Sony noted that it has already partnered with established third-party developers in the market to bring its existing franchises to mobile.
• Some of the company’s internal studios are now also working on mobile titles. In addition to Savage Game Studios it acquired last year, the company is looking for more M&A deals in the sector.

PlayStation’s expansion into the PC market continues

• Sony made $250 million from games on PC, including Bungie PC revenue, during FY22 ended March 31. This is below the $300 million the company forecasted last year.
• Right now, PlayStation expects its PC revenue to grow at a 133% CAGR and reach $450 million in FY23 ending March 31, 2024.
• In FY23, first-party PC ports should also account for 20% of the company’s total games unit volume.

• Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered reached 1.5 million copies sold and $52 million in revenue (as of March 31).
• The Last of Us Part I sold 368k units and generated $15.5 million in revenue (as of April 23).
• SIE CEO Jim Ryan also told investors that “every time an episode of [The Last of Us series] dropped that sales of the game increased very dramatically” (via Reuters).

Sony expects a significant growth of PC and mobile games within its portfolio over the next few fiscal years

• As of March 2022, Horizon Zero Dawn was Sony’s highest-grossing title on PC with 2.39 million units sold and $60 million in revenue, followed by Days Gone (825k units sold, $22.7 million in revenue) and God of War (971k units sold and $26.2 million in revenue).
• The numbers probably have changed since then, but PlayStation didn’t share updated figures for these first-party PC releases in its new briefing.