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Sony Interactive Entertainment will not release “any new major existing franchise titles” before March 31, 2025

Sony Interactive Entertainment does not plan to release “any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year,” which begins on April 1, 2023 and ends on March 31, 2025, the company…

www.gematsu.com

Sony Interactive Entertainment does not plan to release “any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year,” which ends on March 31, 2025, the company said during its fiscal year 2023 Q3 earnings briefing.

“Regarding first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games,” Sony Group president, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki said. “But while major projects are currently under development, we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year (Editor’s Note: begins April 1, 2024 and ends March 31, 2025) like God of War Ragnarok and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.”

It should be noted that while “major existing franchise titles” includes intellectual property such as God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man, it does not include new intellectual property like Concord or non-major existing franchise titles like Until Dawn.

Totoki continued, “Although the burden of acquisition related costs will ease next fiscal year, we expect profit from first-party software to decrease slightly from this fiscal year due to the impact of the decrease in sales. Due to this, operating income for the next fiscal year is currently expected to increase slightly from this fiscal year. However, while this our baseline, we are reviewing measures for further improvement in profitability in advance of the annual forecast results announcement this May.”

 

[lh032]

naughty naughty OP.

 

[Bernardougf]

Told you ... time to move the goal posts

See Topher what we have been talking about for quite some time now.

 

[SJRB]

RIP Ghost of Tsushima 2 anytime soon, easily the biggest Sony thing I'm looking forward to

brb committing sudoku

 

[Gudji]

They'll just have MS porting Halo, Starfield, Forza Horizon, etc.

Kidding.

Also:

 

[Mr Moose]

What existing franchise were we expecting to have a new release in the next year?

RIP Ghost of Tsushima 2 anytime soon, easily the biggest Sony thing I'm looking forward to

brb committing sudoku

Are they for sure working on the next one? That was my GOTY in... 2020(?).

 

[Valedix]

Edit: misread

 

[Borowski_1]

Good thing Indiana, Hellblade and others are coming soon

 

[TGO]

No shit

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

*Existing* franchises, big new IP coming this fall, believe. We already have DS2 in 2025, my guess is either April or September.

 

[Punished Miku]

Concorde maybe. Thats it.

Wolverine and Death Stranding are 2025. Nothing else even announced yet.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

"Existing franchise"....this means we aren't getting sequels. Wasn't everyone saying they are getting tired of remasters and sequels from Sony? What's the problem here?

 

[balls of snow]

What existing franchise were we expecting to have a new release in the next year?

Death Stranding 2
Ghost of Tsushima 2

Rumors and all but yeah people were expecting those for this year at least. Now confirmed push out of 2024 early 2025 timeframe.

 

[Bojji]

Sony are lazy motherfuckers this gen, looks like with Xbox on life support they don't give a shit.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

"Existing franchise"....this means we aren't getting sequels. Wasn't everyone saying they are getting tired of remasters and sequels from Sony? What's the problem here?

Manufactured concern

 

[Mr Moose]

Concorde maybe. Thats it.

Wolverine and Death Stranding are 2025. Nothing else even announced yet.

What's Concorde, is that the shitty Bungie game?
Wolverine isn't an existing first party game franchise (same with Concorde).

 

[Three]

Guy tried to get Draugoth to create a thread saw it wasn't happening so posted it himself:

@Draugoth , missing your calling.

 

[Krieger]

Why should they? They are gonna get all the first party Xbox games tomorrow anyway.

 

[Physiognomonics]

Regarding first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games,

People still think their GAAS strategy would have no impact on their first party output? We already knew from their own numbers that they stopped investing on Single player games (no more growth there) and instead decided to put all their chips on services.

Now we are simply seeing the real outcome of their +2019 strategy.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

#SonyToo

 

[Edgelord79]

Good. Focus on new IP please.

 

[ProtoByte]

People still think their GAAS strategy would have no impact on their first party output? We already knew from their own numbers that they stopped investing on Single player games (no more growth there) and instead decided to put all their chips on services.

Now we are simply seeing the real outcome of their +2019 strategy.

Jesus. This has been deboonked so many times.

 

[daclynk]

 

[Markio128]

If the news was no 1st party games until April 2025, then that may be worthy of concern.

 

[Badlucktroll]

Jokes aside, if xbox puts all their shit on playstation starting tomorrow, will this even matter?

 

[Killjoy-NL]

People still think their GAAS strategy would have no impact on their first party output? We already knew from their own numbers that they stopped investing on Single player games (no more growth there) and instead decided to put all their chips on services.

Now we are simply seeing the real outcome of their +2019 strategy.

Nonsense.

They need GaaS to increase revenue for the major singleplayer games, because cost are rising.
This would also allow for more smaller titles to be funded.

GaaS is a necessity, but not a replacement. Sony has been pretty clear about this.

And looking at Helldivers 2, there is a lot of potential there, despite the pessimism of the naysayers.

 

[Robb]

"Existing franchise"....this means we aren't getting sequels. Wasn't everyone saying they are getting tired of remasters and sequels from Sony? What's the problem here?

Yeah, I’m hoping this is what it means. Although very few of their already announced new GAAS IPs like Concord or Fairgame sound interesting to me…

Hopefully they have some big unannounced surprises coming.

 

[Three]

Concorde maybe. Thats it.

Wolverine and Death Stranding are 2025. Nothing else even announced yet.

Concord isn't a "major existing franchise title", nor is Wolverine.
The full quote is:

"we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year like God of War Ragnarok and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.”

And it's something that was fairly obvious. Their release schedule is mostly new IPs.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Good. Focus on new IP please.

Good Guy Microsoft will deliver.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Playstation thanking Microsoft - who for the first time ever have a catalogue of first party games to release while Sony has none - for bringing their first party software to playstation.

You couldn't make it up.

 

[Kilau]

Sweet Baby Inc needs to expand, really dropping the ball for Sony.

 

[Snake29]

Funny how this is some news, as if they announced any "EXISTING" franchise game for this year.

So a full:

We are getting a new IP for sure.

 

[WitchHunter]

Good. Focus on new IP please.

I'm wondering what Cory is working on.

 

[Mr Moose]

Playstation thanking Microsoft - who for the first time ever have a catalogue of first party games to release while Sony has none - for bringing their first party software to playstation.

You couldn't make it up.

I mean, you could make it up because you just did. It doesn't say that.

 

[Embearded]

People still think their GAAS strategy would have no impact on their first party output? We already knew from their own numbers that they stopped investing on Single player games (no more growth there) and instead decided to put all their chips on services.

Now we are simply seeing the real outcome of their +2019 strategy.

What are you talking about?
They didn't stop investing in SP games, they increased the GaaS investment.

 

[CityHunter1981]

We are still waiting for the announcement of Cory Barlogs new game. We only knew that he was working early stage on it, since he let someone else direct God of War Ragnarok. I think we should really soon get an announcement of it.

 

[Bojji]

What are you talking about?
They didn't stop investing in SP games, they increased the GaaS investment.

Where are the games? They have made this decisions few years ago and now in 2024 we won't have any big first party game for more than a year.

1816 - 'Year Without Summer'
2024 - 'Year Without Games'

 

[StueyDuck]

That wording is so weird.

But if that means we are getting new IPs then I'm in.

Spider-man 2 was proof that iteration + adding woke doesn't equal much of a great game.

 

[Reaseru]

Don't worry...they are going to release a ton of MOVIES based in their videogames.

For the viewers.

 

[darrylgorn]

OMG SONY GOING 3RD PARTY WITH MS CONFIRMED

 

[Embearded]

Where are the games? They have made this decisions few years ago and now in 2024 we won't have any big first party game for more than a year.

1816 - 'Year Without Summer'
2024 - 'Year Without Games'

You talked about their strategy and its just not true.
Game dev cycle is around 5 years and most of their first party single player studios released major games in less than 5 years.

They don't need to show trailers years before release, it puts pressure on the teams.

 

[Astray]

That wording is so weird.

But if that means we are getting new IPs then I'm in.

Spider-man 2 was proof that iteration + adding woke doesn't equal much of a great game.

I would advocate not expecting much beyond like, Concord or Fairgame$ type of stuff.

Those are brand new IPs that technically fit the criteria of what he's saying.

 

[DenchDeckard]

so, what new games are you announcing Sony?

 

[Roufianos]

Last year's clusterfuck of a showcase makes sense now. 1 major release in 2 years is dreadful.

 

[Xtib81]

Wake me up when big AAA games that push the boundaries are released on my PS4 pro+.

 

[bitbydeath]

I think the only one they’re making right now is a new Uncharted, supposedly. Everything else is new IP.

 

[Clear]

The reason why existing IP is a key differentiator is that a big proven title has built in expectations in terms of impact on sales and profitability, whereas anything new is by definition untried and thus gets thrown in the pot as part of general performance expectations for the quarter or FY.

Everything's based on forecasts, so big corporations love to get as close to a "sure thing" as possible because it allows them to push up the numbers when doing their projections. And that in turn impacts shareholder confidence.

 

[adamsapple]

I think the only one they’re making right now is a new Uncharted, supposedly. Everything else is new IP.

Aren't SP supposedly making a Tsushima 2?

 

[Bojji]

You talked about their strategy and its just not true.
Game dev cycle is around 5 years and most of their first party single player studios released major games in less than 5 years.

They don't need to show trailers years before release, it puts pressure on the teams.

I don't think they ever had year this weak, without paid third party "exclusives" it would be even worse.

I don't know if GaaS strategy is causing it or mismanagement or something else but fact is: this looks bad.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

I mean...yeah? We kinda knew that already.
Even a game like Wolverine doesn't fit into this category.