Sony Interactive Entertainment recently stated during its 2023 fiscal year earnings brief that it does not plan to release “any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year”. As the fiscal year Begins on April 1 and ends on March 31, 2025, this means no new major first party titles will be released for the entirety of this year. However, it’s worth noting that the publisher stated that the major existing franchise titles include titles like God of War Ragnarok and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as an example. This does not include new IPs or minor IPs such as the upcoming Until Dawn re-release. Additionally, Sony Group president, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki stated that the company “aims to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games.” He also stated that the PlayStation 5 will enter its “latter half of the console cycle,” and as such, the company anticipates “a gradual decline in unit sales from next fiscal year onwards”.
The full relevant snippet of the brief from Sony Group president, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki via Gematsu:
“Regarding first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games. But while major projects are currently under development, 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.
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 is our baseline, we are reviewing measures for further improvement in profitability in advance of the annual forecast results announcement this May.
Regarding the PlayStation 5 hardware, which will enter its fifth year since launch, partially due to its entering the latter half of the console cycle, we aim to optimize sales with a greater emphasis on balance with profits, so we anticipate a gradual decline in unit sales from next fiscal year onwards. We expect third-party software sales to continue to expand gradually due to the expansion of the PlayStation 5 install base and the high level of user engagement. In network services, we expect subscribers to be on par with this fiscal year or slightly less due to the impact of price revision we implemented in this fiscal year, but we expect sales to gradually expand due to a shift to attractive premium services.”
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