Sony to Focus on PS5 Engagement, First-Party Showing Greater Financial Discipline 1
Image: Push Square

Sony has gone through a series of leadership changes of late, with hardware bigwig Hideaki Nishino promoted to PlayStation CEO and temporary boss Hiroki Totoki taking the top job at the Japanese giant overall.

Ex-SIE exec Lin Tao has also been given a seat at the big table, assuming the role of Chief Financial Officer. And in her first earnings call in the role, she acknowledged some changes that have taken place within the company since the executive reshuffle.

“Sell-in units was the focus but now we are focused on monthly active users (MAU),” she said of the firm’s gaming division. “The management is focused on engagement and MAU. This is leading to profitability.”

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Sony’s gradually been growing its MAU for years now, with more and more people playing on PlayStation than ever before. Over the holidays it peaked at over 129 million players, and while that number slumped slightly to 124 million during the most recent quarter, it’s still up year-over-year.

Gaming is no longer a one-and-done proposition, with many titles like Fortnite, Roblox, and Genshin Impact encouraging spending over time. Sony is making more money than ever from microtransactions, and so it’s philosophy here is simple: more people playing means more people paying.

Engagement also allows it to upsell customers on pricey PS Plus subscriptions, controllers, and other accessories. In other words, while getting consoles into players’ homes is still important, it’s just the beginning of each customer’s journey.

Tao was a little unclear about how the company intends to increase MAU moving forward, but she pointed out that the PS5’s install base will continue to grow with “many of the users” being new to ecosystem. She also noted that, unlike in past generations, many consumers have stuck with the PS4, which contributes to the active users as well.

Presumably, porting games to the PC and even creating movies and television shows that increase awareness of PlayStation’s brands will also help with its ambitions.

In related news, Tao said that Sony’s also been better controlling its first-party spending, and it’s something it wants to continue to improve on moving forwards.

“In the past, there were issues with the first-party studios, and Totoki-san was temporarily the CEO and talked about various structural reform. Compared to a few years ago, the financial discipline is in place, but there’s still upside opportunity here. Mainly, I think the mindset has changed significantly.”

Of course, all of this is driving PlayStation to unfathomable profits. Whatever you think of the PS5 in its current guise, the company’s strategy is working because it’s making more money than it ever has in its entire history.

As we know with these kinds of companies, though, the pursuit of growth never ends.

[source irwebmeeting.com]