Sony is planning to “aggressively” invest in first-party studios and their games in the year ahead, according to the company’s CFO.
Hiroki Totoki made the statement during Sony’s recent quarterly financials convergence call, where the CFO stated that the company plans to increase “development, personnel and other costs in our in-house studios” by around $180 million [via GamesRadar]. Totoki also used PlayStation’s recent partnership with former Google Stadia chief Jade Raymond as an example of the company’s commitment to exclusives:
“We aim to strengthen the PlayStation platform through action such as the recently announced partnership with Haven Entertainment Studios, which was established by Jade Raymond, the creator of the famous game Assassin’s Creed, and our additional investment in Epic Games. Along with the rest of the Sony Group, we will also work to enhance the social and platform capabilities of games.”
Over the years, PlayStation has managed to build itself an impressive library of exclusives. However, while Sony arguably has the strongest console exclusive lineup, Microsoft is catching up to the Japanese monolith.
Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Bethesda means that big cross-platform titles like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout could be future Xbox exclusives. Essentially, this means that the next decade could prove to be a challenge for both companies, especially when it comes to winning over gamers with exclusives.
Of course, Sony’s decision to embrace its first-party studios is also in response to player demand. Totoki also revealed that global playtime on the PlayStation platform is up by 20% since March 2019.
While this is likely due to the pandemic, it seems like more people overall are taking up gaming as a hobby. Sony is also expecting playtime figures to remain high over the year ahead. Therefore, it’ll need to make sure that there’s plenty of games on the platform for gamers to sink their teeth into.
Shop With GameByte!
Don’t forget you can find some of these great games and more through the new GameByte Shop! The GameByte Shop is stocked up with the latest games, merch and accessories. We might even have a new-gen console or two! Sign up to our newsletter to be notified of our console drops. Please note the GameByte Shop is available for UK customers only.
Featured Image Credit: Sony