Today, during Sony’s 2023 Business Meeting, we learned a lot about the plans of the PlayStation division. Even though PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst recently cast some doubt that every single first-party game would make it to PC, and SIE boss Jim Ryan said PC fans are content with waiting two to three years before getting the exclusives, it is very clear from the report that PC expansion is still a key factor in Sony’s plans.
As we can see below, internal forecasts estimate a significant growth of PC and mobile game releases in the PlayStation first-party portfolio. In the next fiscal year, roughly 40% of the games made by Sony’s internal studios will be released on PC, with 5% each on mobile and PlayStation 4 and the remaining 50% on PlayStation 5. The PC game ratio will be maintained going forward to fiscal year 2025, when the PS4 platform will be abandoned and the mobile game ratio will increase to roughly 10%.
Sony also has big growth in mind for PlayStation game revenue on PC. While it only earned around $35 million in fiscal year 20 with the first PC release (Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition), the increased ports delivered 133% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), with $80 million earned in fiscal year 2021, $250 million in fiscal year 2022 (when Sony acquired Bungie, so the figure includes Destiny 2 PC revenue), and most interestingly, $450 million planned for fiscal year 2023.
Given that Bungie isn’t planning to launch its next game in FY 2023, Sony could only achieve such growth with a major game that launched simultaneously on console and PC. The prime candidate for that is The Last of Us multiplayer game, which should be about to be unveiled by Naughty Dog at long last.
Sony also revealed sales of key PC releases like Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and The Last of Us Part I. The former sold 1.5 million units and earned $52 million in revenue, while the latter sold 368K units and earned $15.5 million in revenue.
Of course, Sony also spent a lot of time in its report discussing the strong results of the PlayStation division when it came to consoles. PlayStation 5 is estimated to be ahead of its predecessor in all key metrics (console user spend, full game unit sales, gameplay hours, monthly active users, and monthly consoles) by the end of fiscal year 2023.
The PlayStation Plus service saw an 11% increase in ARPU (average revenue per user). Sony also revealed that 30% of its PS Plus subscribers have upgraded to one of the higher tiers, Extra (13%, or 6.1 million users) and Premium (17%, or 8.4 million users).
As previously announced, Sony is betting heavily on live service games. During the earnings call, Hermen Hulst confirmed that there are 12 live service games in development internally, up from the previous figure of 10 (despite the cancellation of the project from Deviation Games). In the next fiscal year, investment in live service games will surpass that for traditional games with a 55-45 percent ratio, with live service investment expected to further increase up to 60% of the total by fiscal year 2025.
Lastly, Sony is also increasing its investment in new IP creation. 40% of the investments will go to new IPs in fiscal year 2023, and the figure will eventually reach parity with existing IPs by fiscal year 2025.
