The PS5 is doing well for Sony, but the company’s R&D team is already beginning to look into the future. Hideaki nishino, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, spoke about the future of PlayStation at a recent business segment meeting. According to VGC, Nishino also spoke about whether cloud gaming could become one of the future paths for Sony’s consoles.
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According to Nishino, cloud streaming is a promising aspect, but network stability remains a sticking point for the company, especially when it comes to the technology involved. Cloud streaming tends to be more expensive for Sony itself when it comes to “cost per playtime.”
“As we demonstrated with (our) products, cloud streaming is going well from a technical standpoint, but the stability of the end-to-end network is not under our control,” says Nishino. “And the higher costs per playtime are still a challenge compared to traditional console models.”
“While cloud gaming is increasingly offering additional options for players to access content, our belief is that the majority of players want to experience the game through local execution, independent of network conditions.
Nishino also said Sony is doing well on current and older consoles while it’s important to see the future. He brings specifically to the fact that 124 million monthly active users play the game on the PS4, rather than rushing to upgrade to the PS5.
“We currently have a large ecosystem of extremely enthusiastic players on both the PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 4th generation. So of course we have a big interest in the next generation console strategy,” Nishino said. “We can’t share details at this stage, but the future of the platform is the best. We’re working to explore new and enhanced ways for players to join content and services.”
Sony Interactive Entertainment SVP of Finance and Corporate Development Lynn Azar reflected Nishino’s sentiment about gaining players from various consoles when asked about the potential business impact of the next iteration of the PlayStation console.
“As Nishino said, we are still exploring what the future of our platform looks like. Therefore, while we cannot provide further guidance on future operating profits, we would like to re-emphasize that our financial profile as a business has evolved alongside our strategy.”
Azar also noted at this point that most of the company’s revenue comes from repeated sources, including in-game microtransactions and subscription services.
“So, as you explain, we reduced traditional circularity by providing repeat revenue by establishing a large ecosystem of players in both the PS5 and PS4 generations,” Azar said. “So, this has driven an overall high and stable level of spending on content and services. By the way, this now makes up more than two-thirds of revenue, providing a consistent, predictable, profitable foundation for revenue.”
While Sony has been helping to announce plans for the next-generation console, a statement from Back in 2022 indicated that Sony is considering releasing the PS6 after 2027.