Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki says PlayStation is reforming currently their gaming business

For starters get the bloody hell out of California and move back to Japan. Leave all that shite DEI crap that has infected your games behind as well. Prioritize making great SP first party games again. One can hope after all.
 
I watched a video where the host described the CFO's career. He has like 30 years at Sony, and all of it is as a financial guy. He has admitted to knowing little to nothing about games and gaming beyond surface level knowledge. At the very least, he is not a gamer and never has been. He is only intent on maximizing profits. That is his specific job and purpose in the company. It always has been. It always will be. He is clearly good at it if he has been kept employed for that long in that role. He confirmed that six of the twelve GaaS that Sony was working on are supposed to launch by the end of fiscal 2025 (March 2026), and the other six GaaS are in various states. Apparently other sources say that Sony PlayStation and Herman Hulst are excited about fairgame$. They are doubling down on it despite the failure of Concord, citing Concord's release window as a major factor in why it failed.

This is how clueless and tone deaf the heads of gaming companies are as it pertains to making fun video games. These companies and their heads, all of them, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and their gaming branches of PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo are not concerned with making fun video games with value for the customer and gamer. It is all a corporate rat race to appease investors. It is all done to cash in on the next big thing. The video game industry is corporatized and monetized. Earnings calls talk about recurring transactions and longterm engagement, which are not words that pertain to video games. Big business ruined video games. Gamers ruined gaming. Expect nothing but GaaS and Live Service and Looter Shooter and Hero Shooter and Remake and Remaster and Sanitized Generic Safe Art Design for the Masses: Deluxe Edition. The odd single player game that actually feels like what video games USED to be, like Astro Bot, Stellar Blade, Black Myth: Wukong, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, those are the exception to the rule nowadays. /rant cuz I fell off my soapbox
 
Calico345 said:
I watched a video where the host described the CFO's career. He has like 30 years at Sony, and all of it is as a financial guy. He has admitted to knowing little to nothing about games and gaming beyond surface level knowledge. At the very least, he is not a gamer and never has been. He is only intent on maximizing profits. That is his specific job and purpose in the company. It always has been. It always will be. He is clearly good at it if he has been kept employed for that long in that role. He confirmed that six of the twelve GaaS that Sony was working on are supposed to launch by the end of fiscal 2025 (March 2026), and the other six GaaS are in various states. Apparently other sources say that Sony PlayStation and Herman Hulst are excited about fairgame$. They are doubling down on it despite the failure of Concord, citing Concord's release window as a major factor in why it failed.

This is how clueless and tone deaf the heads of gaming companies are as it pertains to making fun video games. These companies and their heads, all of them, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and their gaming branches of PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo are not concerned with making fun video games with value for the customer and gamer. It is all a corporate rat race to appease investors. It is all done to cash in on the next big thing. The video game industry is corporatized and monetized. Earnings calls talk about recurring transactions and longterm engagement, which are not words that pertain to video games. Big business ruined video games. Gamers ruined gaming. Expect nothing but GaaS and Live Service and Looter Shooter and Hero Shooter and Remake and Remaster and Sanitized Generic Safe Art Design for the Masses: Deluxe Edition. The odd single player game that actually feels like what video games USED to be, like Astro Bot, Stellar Blade, Black Myth: Wukong, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, those are the exception to the rule nowadays. /rant cuz I fell off my soapbox
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Playing devils advocate, if a company just guns for sales and profits by milking games and sequels to casual gamers, it can be argued thats a good thing because they are focusing on their core audience. EA, Activision, MS, Riot etc... have focused on repetitive franchises and sequels for probably 20 years as their cash cows. Its not very innovative doing map changes or roster updates, but people love it.

I totally get it that something like games, books, board games, movies etc... can be tons of products across tons of variety. But if some of the products stink, it's not a terrible idea to can it and focus on what works.

As a totally random scenario, Coke makes a ton of money off soft drinks. They also got juice, water, energy drinks, iced tea and even Fairlife milk. Lets say for whatever reason they got rid of all products, but focused all resources on just soft drinks. And it turns out it's a big success. Overall sales and profits sky rocket as they dont have to worry about other brands and products. And from there, they'll make more soft drinks.

Is that good or bad?
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Playing devils advocate, if a company just guns for sales and profits by milking games and sequels to casual gamers, it can be argued thats a good thing because they are focusing on their core audience. EA, Activision, MS, Riot etc... have focused on repetitive franchises and sequels for probably 20 years as their cash cows. Its not very innovative doing map changes or roster updates, but people love it.

I totally get it that something like games, books, board games, movies etc... can be tons of products across tons of variety. But if some of the products stink, it's not a terrible idea to can it and focus on what works.

As a totally random scenario, Coke makes a ton of money off soft drinks. They also got juice, water, energy drinks, iced tea and even Fairlife milk. Lets say for whatever reason they got rid of all products, but focused all resources on just soft drinks. And it turns out it's a big success. Overall sales and profits sky rocket as they dont have to worry about other brands and products. And from there, they'll make more soft drinks.

Is that good or bad?
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Well the reason Sony is prioritizing GaaS is exactly the reason you mentioned - to diversify a portfolio that during the ps4 era became increasingly slanted to SP narrative driven experiences. They aren't abandoning those games at all just because they are also investing in GaaS
 
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James Sawyer Ford said:
Well the reason Sony is prioritizing GaaS is exactly the reason you mentioned - to diversify a portfolio that during the ps4 era became increasingly slanted to SP narrative driven experiences. They aren't abandoning those games at all just because they are also investing in GaaS
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Diversification is good if the company is successful at it. If not, forget it. And so far, H2 success definitely does not cover the losses of Bungie, Firewalk/Concord, Deviation Games partnership, and whatever other cancelled games they did like Factions 2. Bungie alone was a $3.6B purchase where $1.2B of it was employee retention payouts, which most of it probably went to execs. Right off the bat, you arent getting that $1.2B back.

Sony is good at SP big budget games. Not too often there's a stinker. Make more of those as it seems they got the budget for it the past bunch of years they went on a GAAS spree. The worst one is probably Days Gone and that still sold 8M copies I think. GOW, LOU, Horizon etc.... the avg copies sold per title is probably around 15M. You got DG at the bottom at 8M and Spiderman or whatever is top dog at 20M+.
 
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StreetsofBeige said:
And so far, H2 success definitely does not cover the losses of Bungie, Firewalk/Concord, Deviation Games partnership, and whatever other cancelled games they did like Factions 2. Bungie alone was a $3.6B purchase where $1.2B of it was employee retention payouts, which most of it probably went to execs. Right off the bat, you arent getting that $1.2B back.
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Bungie is an acquisition, with long term plans as the hub for GaaS efforts in the company. Their success isn't to be judged on a short term basis. They had no intent of buying and flipping the company. Not sure why that's counted as a "loss", nothing is realized. They will be judged on how well they continue curating Destiny, launching marathon, and overseeing other GaaS efforts.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Playing devils advocate, if a company just guns for sales and profits by milking games and sequels to casual gamers, it can be argued thats a good thing because they are focusing on their core audience. EA, Activision, MS, Riot etc... have focused on repetitive franchises and sequels for probably 20 years as their cash cows. Its not very innovative doing map changes or roster updates, but people love it.

I totally get it that something like games, books, board games, movies etc... can be tons of products across tons of variety. But if some of the products stink, it's not a terrible idea to can it and focus on what works.

As a totally random scenario, Coke makes a ton of money off soft drinks. They also got juice, water, energy drinks, iced tea and even Fairlife milk. Lets say for whatever reason they got rid of all products, but focused all resources on just soft drinks. And it turns out it's a big success. Overall sales and profits sky rocket as they dont have to worry about other brands and products. And from there, they'll make more soft drinks.

Is that good or bad?
Click to expand...

No one will sway my dire and sour view regarding current video games and gaming. I do not care about companies and their business strategies. I am 45 years old, I have been gaming for 40+ years of it starting with Adventure on Atari and also Space Invaders arcade. Those are my earliest gaming memories. Video games are by far my major form of entertainment over movies, music, books, etc..

Is a business going to business? Yes.
Is that normal and acceptable? Yes.
Have video games changed as the industry of it has expanded and evolved? Yes.
Are those things normal in and of themselves? Yes.
Is modern gaming that normal and acceptable? Absolutely fucking not.

It is about greed and exploitation and monetization over fun and entertainment. I am sick of it.
 
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Ideal reforms would center on consolidating the business. In no particular order:

  • Focus on SP big budget hits. No deviations outside of studios geared for MP or quirkier projects
  • Focus on selling the hardware. PC ports are cringe. Sony wants significant growth in the console ceiling, they'll get it next gen when their only direct competitor is Nintendo
 
ProtoByte said:
Ideal reforms would center on consolidating the business. In no particular order:

  • Focus on SP big budget hits. No deviations outside of studios geared for MP or quirkier projects
  • Focus on selling the hardware. PC ports are cringe. Sony wants significant growth in the console ceiling, they'll get it next gen when their only direct competitor is Nintendo
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I'd like a bit more variety in releases. If they could create some A and AA games in order to expand their IP and they can use that to expand further into movies and tv they want to do. Its cheaper and they should be able to release them a lot quicker.

On Mp I would just add it as side content for their big budget games or use an existing franchise and make a medium budget mp game.

On hardware I would like more customizations on the console and controller. PC ports for MP games.
 
SweetTooth said:
Its ok not great especially for SP games, they can release GAAS day one on PC thats fine .. but SP games needs to be locked to your platform just like how Nintendo does it.

They might get short term gains releasing SP games on PC but in the end it will eat down their core audience and dilute the value of their platform in the long run.

Nintendo knows that and I hate to admit that they are completely right thinking so.
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Xbox spent years teaching their core audience that they don't need Xbox to play Xbox games. Today the Xbox brand is barely even a shadow of its former self, utterly irrelevant in the gaming space. If they hadn't been allowed to purchase so many publishers and open the way up to being the world's largest third party publisher, they wouldn't continue to exist.

Sony does not have the limitless resources that Microsoft does. If they choose to take PlayStation down the same disastrous path Xbox went down, then PlayStation will be finished by the end of the decade and likely sooner.
 
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Certainly an entertaining thread seeing so many people desperately begging Sony to drop PC support, after telling us for years that this is a great trojan move getting PC players to buy a PS5 LMAO
 
Calico345 said:
I watched a video where the host described the CFO's career. He has like 30 years at Sony, and all of it is as a financial guy. He has admitted to knowing little to nothing about games and gaming beyond surface level knowledge. At the very least, he is not a gamer and never has been. He is only intent on maximizing profits. That is his specific job and purpose in the company. It always has been. It always will be. He is clearly good at it if he has been kept employed for that long in that role. He confirmed that six of the twelve GaaS that Sony was working on are supposed to launch by the end of fiscal 2025 (March 2026), and the other six GaaS are in various states. Apparently other sources say that Sony PlayStation and Herman Hulst are excited about fairgame$. They are doubling down on it despite the failure of Concord, citing Concord's release window as a major factor in why it failed.
Click to expand...
As I said in another post:

HD2 sold 12M.

Astro Bot sold 1.5M.
Stellar Blade sold 1+M.

Thinking Sony will suddenly move away from a strategy that could lead to sales more than 10x as much as AA sp games is kinda narrowminded, imo.
Even is Astro Bot and SB would release on PC, sales wouldn't magically be much higher.

Concord's failure won't change that at all and the drama surrounding it is mostly within a tiny bubble.
 
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They will double down with the same mistakes. They just had great revenue (thanks to the old strategy) and stupidely think, by spinning the facts, that's it's because of their GAAS / PC strategy.

Going multiplatform and PC day one will kill Playstation the way it killed MS games division.
 
Killjoy-NL said:
As I said in another post:

HD2 sold 12M.

Astro Bot sold 1.5M.
Stellar Blade sold 1+M.

Thinking Sony will suddenly move away from a strategy that could lead to sales more than 10x as much as AA sp games is kinda narrowminded, imo.
Even is Astro Bot and SB would release on PC, sales wouldn't magically be much higher.

Concord's failure won't change that at all and the drama surrounding it is mostly within a tiny bubble.
Click to expand...

I'm not narrowminded. I just don't give a shit about their business strategy aside from disliking it because it is aimed at casual masses for bottom line, not core gamers who miss video games as opposed to unnecessary remasters of a game that didn't need a remaster, and only really sold because robot dinosaurs. For you and all of the other business analysts and business fans on message boards, yeah, it's great, Sony sells games, that is business, business is good, buy more product, CFO says business things, topic topic topic. I'm not here to defend their business strategies because I am not part of the corporation. As far as the common sense of it all, again, I don't care from a business perspective. Give me a reason to look forward to the next console and future games. As it stands right now, I have little reason to care what Sony is doing because none of it is aimed at me, just like the rest of modern entertainment media.
 
So much wishful thinking here. There's no way Sony is stepping away from their GAAS dream or going back to console exclusivity. They want money and they want it now. They are not going back to their expensive single player experiences with instantly long development cycles.
 
Mr Moose said:
So what you mean is don't do this? They want you to buy a PlayStation.
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If that was the case,they wouldn't have already released so many playstation "exclusives" on PC. Nobody is gonna go out and buy a PlayStation for the 4-5 games not available on PC,especially when the damn thing is starting to cost as much as a PC anyway.

If their intention was to make people buy a Playstation then they have failed miserably.
 
Calico345 said:
I'm not narrowminded.
Click to expand...
I wasn't talking about you specifically.
Calico345 said:
I just don't give a shit about their business strategy aside from disliking it because it is aimed at casual masses for bottom line, not core gamers who miss video games as opposed to unnecessary remasters of a game that didn't need a remaster, and only really sold because robot dinosaurs.
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You act like all core gamers are the same.
Calico345 said:
For you and all of the other business analysts and business fans on message boards, yeah, it's great, Sony sells games, that is business, business is good, buy more product, CFO says business things, topic topic topic. I'm not here to defend their business strategies because I am not part of the corporation. As far as the common sense of it all, again, I don't care from a business perspective.
Click to expand...
I'm not part of a corporation either and most of my posts are just me trying to see the logic behind business perspectives.
My personal opinions as a gamer might not even necessarily align with some of the things I'm saying.
Calico345 said:
Give me a reason to look forward to the next console and future games. As it stands right now, I have little reason to care what Sony is doing because none of it is aimed at me, just like the rest of modern entertainment media.
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Fair enough. Nothing wrong with that.
 
Sunkrest said:
So much wishful thinking here. There's no way Sony is stepping away from their GAAS dream or going back to console exclusivity. They want money and they want it now. They are not going back to their expensive single player experiences with instantly long development cycles.
Click to expand...

This could absolutely be tales from my ass, but I personally feel something happened after the controversy around Last Of Us II. An excellent game, with an insane budget that was effected by online hate and negativity. I think this could have changed some thought process at Sony.
 
DenchDeckard said:
This could absolutely be tales from my ass, but I personally feel something happened after the controversy around Last Of Us II. An excellent game, with an insane budget that was effected by online hate and negativity. I think this could have changed some thought process at Sony.
Click to expand...
Sony changed their strategy in 2019, TLOU2 released june 2020.
 
FeralEcho said:
If that was the case,they wouldn't have already released so many playstation "exclusives" on PC. Nobody is gonna go out and buy a PlayStation for the 4-5 games not available on PC,especially when the damn thing is starting to cost as much as a PC anyway.

If their intention was to make people buy a Playstation then they have failed miserably.
Click to expand...
What do you mean people are still buying a PS5 pro. Like I don't think some of you guys get it. Sony putting first party titles on PC doesn't really affect its console sales. No one is going out and buying PC's in droves. PC still has a heavy initial cost to entry and PlayStation consoles is still a cheaper option to access these games. As for PC killing the Xbox brand I would say them going in on the whole tv aspect and the Xbox one being more expensive then PS4 is what did critical damage to the brand. Look at how many Xbox users switched over to PS4 from the 360 era I guarantee it was more users that switched over to PS4 than PC. Still the most popular games to play on PS4 were all multiplats third party titles. Also a lot of PC gamers still have a PS5 console to game with it so I don't know what the big issue is of games going to PC. Consoles cap at 80 million sales or 100 million if your lucky. That's with price cuts too. So what if Sony what's to extend that user base higher. I would rather them do PC and PS5 than PS4 and PS5 games if they need access to a larger user base because of the extreme budgets and the PS4 games not holding back PS5 graphically.
 
XXL said:
They should just follow the PC path and primarily release sprite based games made by 3 people.
Click to expand...
Coding Big Brain GIF by SMOL
 
Calico345 said:
I watched a video where the host described the CFO's career. He has like 30 years at Sony, and all of it is as a financial guy. He has admitted to knowing little to nothing about games and gaming beyond surface level knowledge. At the very least, he is not a gamer and never has been. He is only intent on maximizing profits. That is his specific job and purpose in the company. It always has been. It always will be. He is clearly good at it if he has been kept employed for that long in that role. He confirmed that six of the twelve GaaS that Sony was working on are supposed to launch by the end of fiscal 2025 (March 2026), and the other six GaaS are in various states. Apparently other sources say that Sony PlayStation and Herman Hulst are excited about fairgame$. They are doubling down on it despite the failure of Concord, citing Concord's release window as a major factor in why it failed.

This is how clueless and tone deaf the heads of gaming companies are as it pertains to making fun video games. These companies and their heads, all of them, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and their gaming branches of PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo are not concerned with making fun video games with value for the customer and gamer. It is all a corporate rat race to appease investors. It is all done to cash in on the next big thing. The video game industry is corporatized and monetized. Earnings calls talk about recurring transactions and longterm engagement, which are not words that pertain to video games. Big business ruined video games. Gamers ruined gaming. Expect nothing but GaaS and Live Service and Looter Shooter and Hero Shooter and Remake and Remaster and Sanitized Generic Safe Art Design for the Masses: Deluxe Edition. The odd single player game that actually feels like what video games USED to be, like Astro Bot, Stellar Blade, Black Myth: Wukong, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, those are the exception to the rule nowadays. /rant cuz I fell off my soapbox
Click to expand...

Who are these sources saying that they are doubling down on fairgames$? Can you provide a link?

MayauMiao said:
It sounds to me Playstation is in trouble and they are desperately trying to fix it.
Click to expand...

lol no they are not. Not even Destin is trying to spin this.

 
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Concord failure was a wake up call, it had to be.

They also need to stop devaluing the thing that is most valuable in this industry - the platform - in favor of short term cash flow.

MayauMiao said:
It sounds to me Playstation is in trouble and they are desperately trying to fix it.
Click to expand...
No, it's callled good leadership, recognizing the storms when they are on the horizon and not when they are above your head.
 
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Regular multiplayer is fucked on Playstation until they eliminate the PS+ requirement. A multiplayer game on PS has to be live service.
 
Sunkrest said:
So much wishful thinking here. There's no way Sony is stepping away from their GAAS dream or going back to console exclusivity. They want money and they want it now. They are not going back to their expensive single player experiences with instantly long development cycles.
Click to expand...

You realize they have those EXACT SP games in the pipeline right now......right?
 
SweetTooth said:
Good, shelf the PC initiative and concentrate on adding value to your platform. Plus realocate from San Fran back to Tokyo and remove any DEI personnels and ideologies.

You are welcome.
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Music to my ears if they would actually make this happen but unfortunately they will continue to chase the PC market just for a marginal software boost.
 
hussar16 said:
they say this every few years ,what it really means is more profit less games ,spend less and make more
Click to expand...

One of such moves is bringing their games to other platforms. Lower financial risk and helps to build up fanbase elsewhere
 
vkbest said:
That is slowly killing their main business (PlayStation and PSN).
Click to expand...

honestly, that business doesn't have a long-term future anyway.

my prediction, of which I am fairly certain that it will come true, is that both Microsoft and Sony will stop releasing traditional consoles after Gen 10.
Microsoft probably already after Gen 9
 
kevboard said:
honestly, that business doesn't have a long-term future anyway.

my prediction, of which I am fairly certain that it will come true, is that both Microsoft and Sony will stop releasing traditional consoles after Gen 10.
Microsoft probably already after Gen 9
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you can't be cereal. PlayStation(HW) and PSN are the only things keeping Playstation(Division) viable long-term.
 
ArtHands said:
PS5 Pro is selling well isn't it? Record profit and shits.
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Their real business is not number of Playstation consoles, it's the software (first and third party), and the numbers are dropping every year. The result of their strategy is not something from one day to next, we will see how they will sell less and less software and hardware in the next years.
 
kevboard said:
honestly, that business doesn't have a long-term future anyway.

my prediction, of which I am fairly certain that it will come true, is that both Microsoft and Sony will stop releasing traditional consoles after Gen 10.
Microsoft probably already after Gen 9
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Sony need good luck then. Over 80% of profits are coming from Physical and PSN royalties. No way they will convince PC players to buy games in a future PSN for PC. And no way they will get the current profits being only a publisher when they need third party games such as Wukong to save their ass
 
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vkbest said:
Their real business is not number of Playstation consoles, it's the software (first and third party), and the numbers are dropping every year. The result of their strategy is not something from one day to next, we will see how they will sell less and less software and hardware in the next years.
Click to expand...

The PS fans seem to be painting a rosy picture of the sales profit and increasing number of PS+ subs. I am sure it's all fine and dandy.

I doubt we'll see them selling less and less. PS fans are very loyal to the brand
 
vkbest said:
Sony need good luck then. Over 80% of profits are coming from Physical and PSN royalties. No way they will convince PC players to buy games in a future PSN for PC. And no way they will get the current profits being only a publisher when they need third party games such as Wukong to save their ass
Click to expand...

well they have a decade to set this up. I wouldn't say this is impossible to do.

especially if they are able to bring their backlog onto PC through some sort of emulation feature inside a possible PSN launcher.
 
Gaiff said:
Nintendo's games don't cost $200M+ to produce.
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Sony has dormant platforms with less expensive game development and shorter development times than Switch.
The bestselling PS2 game, GTA San Andreas, cost less than $10mil(20mil now) to make in less than 2 years.
PS1 games cost even less and can be made in even less time.
HogIsland said:
pc launcher from sony is the death of playstation on pc. it'll be even more doomed than the epic games store. steam is pc gaming.
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Sony competing with Rockstar and Epic on the Windows platform owned by Sony's biggest rival sounds a lot like MS winning the 'console' war.
 
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