In its recently released Q2 2024 financial report, Sony announced that the PlayStation 5 has achieved a remarkable milestone, reaching a total of 65.5 million units sold. This strong performance has prompted the company to revise its full-year forecast for the gaming segment, reflecting a positive outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Insights from the Investor Call
During the subsequent investor call, PlayStation Co-CEO Hiroki Totoki addressed several pressing topics, including the recent setback with the Concord project. This initiative resulted in an expenditure exceeding 0 million and culminated in the closure of Firewalk Studios last week. Totoki acknowledged the challenges faced, stating, “Currently, we are still in the process of learning. With regards to new IP, of course, you don’t know the result until you actually try it. We probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. We should have done those gates much earlier than we did.”
He further elaborated on the organizational structure, noting, “We have a siloed organization, so going beyond the boundaries of those organizations in terms of development and sales could have been much smoother.”
Addressing PC Gamers’ Concerns
Totoki also tackled the backlash from PC gamers regarding Sony’s requirement for a PlayStation Network account to access titles such as God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. While acknowledging the discontent among users, he emphasized the necessity of this policy for ensuring safety in live service games. He remarked, “We have learned a lot. The way to face the issues regarding PC, for instance. The PlayStation accounts that we have offered – well actually, by offering them, sometimes that tends to invite pushback.”
He continued, “For the live service games, in order to maintain order of the gaming so that anybody can enjoy the games safely, we need to create an environment conducive to that and, of course, enjoying the game freely. Having some restrictions, may not call it a rule, but to ask the users and gamers to follow the manner, those manners are very important, and we have to continue to seek the best way to achieve this.”
However, it is noteworthy that neither God of War Ragnarök nor Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered are live service titles. As such, many PC gamers are left questioning the necessity of creating a PSN account for single-player experiences that lack any online functionality.
