Newly appointed PlayStation CEOs Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst discussed the company’s views on live gaming, PC releases, layoffs and more during their first presentation as co- leaders.
Nishino and Hulst opened Sony’s gaming and network services business segment presentation by touting that “each PlayStation 5 sold generates more than US$700 in additional spending, which is significantly higher than the previous generation.”
Control scope and scale without “compromising quality”
To maintain a high level of game development, Hulst said PlayStation is “increasing its reliance on external development teams, outsourcing partners, and co-development agreements with teams located in lower-cost regions “. He then insisted that this allowed PlayStation to control the “scope and scale” of its games “without compromising quality”.
AI is apparently another way PlayStation is looking to achieve this. “We also see opportunities in AI to increase our own productivity and improve the player experience, which will allow us to better serve players and creators, create new experiences and drive efficiencies to organization-wide,” Nishino said.
“Research and experimentation in the field of AI and machine learning are a priority for us,” Hulst added. “With work carried out on a wide variety of our development tools and processes, we have a wealth of knowledge and experience forged from decades of experience in the video game industry that will allow us to implement implements AI tools effectively and impactfully.
“We have realized the benefits of AI in several areas, from asset creation and efficiency to accelerating coding and optimizing translation and localization processes, while ensuring a responsible and ethical within the organization. We believe that AI holds great promise for the future. gaming, and we want to lead the industry in the adoption and implementation of this new technology.
Helldivers 2 paves the way for Sony’s Live service
PlayStation is now prioritizing a mix of single-player tentpole games and live service games, but will build on the success of Helldivers 2 and launch all upcoming live service games on PC and PS5 simultaneously.
“We’re bringing our titles to the PC platform and we have a dual approach here on the live service side,” Hulst said. “We are releasing our titles simultaneously, so day and date on PlayStation 5 and PC, but with our flagship titles, our single-player narrative titles which are, as you saw during the presentation, the backbone of what PlayStation Studios has delivered results in recent years and over our history we are taking a more strategic approach.
“We’re introducing our great franchises to new audiences, and we’re finding new audiences who will potentially be very interested in, for example, sequels on the PlayStation platform. We have high hopes that we can actually bring new ones.”
Speaking of the focus on providing games outside of just PlayStation consoles, Nishino believes that “rather than cannibalization”, it is a “growth opportunity”. Hulst also added: “We are looking to expand the reach of our franchises by focusing on multi-platform delivery. This allows us to continue to invest these substantial sums in creating world-class franchises.”
Helldivers 2 is a great example of this strategy and, according to Hulst, it “highlights the strength of our live service efforts and the increased returns and reach we can achieve by bringing our games to new formats and audiences beyond the PlayStation console. » “.
This strategy won’t be the same across all platforms, however, as the team is taking a “more measured approach” on mobile instead of a more aggressive approach on PC.
“PC is obviously closer to the core of our development than mobile,” Hulst said. “Nevertheless, we are also taking a strategic approach in the sense of working with some of the leading companies in this space. We are working with various partners such as NCSoft and we are learning a lot from these collaborations, and let me conclude by saying that we are very excited about the upcoming title releases that we can communicate in the future.”
Industry in ‘very good position’ despite thousands of job losses
In response to a question about layoffs that have affected the entire video game industry, including PlayStation itself when it laid off 900 people in February 2024, Hulst insisted that the industry was actually “in a very good position.”
“We are always looking to optimize resource allocation on an ongoing basis, but I think what you are referring to over the last few months and quarters is probably a slight adjustment following the windfall the industry has experienced during the pandemic.” ” said Hulst.
“So it might reflect that rather than impact the long-term growth of the industry, which I think is generally in a very good position, but I see it as an adjustment from the pandemic years .”
Alongside job losses at PlayStation, Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and more as part of devastating removals at Bethesda earlier in May 2024.
Bungie
Elsewhere in the chat, Hulst and Nishino discussed how Halo and Destiny developer Bungie is improving its business, despite several of its employees also being laid off by PlayStation at the end of 2023.
“Bungie’s expertise in network operations has allowed us to optimize the performance of our upcoming live service titles, which is really great,” Hulst said.
“We hope to see the full integration of Bungie’s capabilities into our business operations by the end of the current fiscal year. We cannot disclose financial data for individual studios in our portfolio which includes Bungie, but even if we don’t expect a profit contribution from Bungie in FY24 on a standalone basis, this is obviously due to the fact that they are working on a new IP that hasn’t been released yet.
“It’s really important to state that we are already seeing returns on investment in the form of process optimization and capacity growth within SIE, particularly in live services. And that was always the goal behind the acquisition, that it helped us move faster. “This has helped us optimize costs, and obviously, with the next releases of Destiny: The Final Shape and later with Marathon, we are going to see significant revenue coming to SIE.”
The meeting also revealed that the PS5 generation is the most profitable PlayStation console to date and that sales of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 have reached 11 million units since launch.
PlayStation’s big week continues today, May 30, as it prepares to present its latest State of Play which will feature “14 PS5 and PS VR2 titles, including a preview of PlayStation Studios titles arriving later this year”.
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Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.