Following the release of Sony’s financials, a conference call was held, which sadly didn’t feature any Kaz. Someone who did speak during the call was Executive Yoshinori Hashitani, who discussed sales for the PlayStation division and talked about the PlayStation 4 (via SeekingAlpha):
Sales increased 5% year-on-year, primarily due to the favorable exchange rates. Operating loss was JPY 0.8 billion. This was due to the impact of a strategic price reduction of PS Vita, an unfavorable exchange rate primarily offset by the increase in softer [ph] sales, but there is no change from the August forecast for sales and operating income in Game segment.
Preparation for the introduction of PlayStation 4 are progressing steadily around the world. We aim for the new PS4 platform to contribute to profitability at an early age [ph] by diversifying its revenue streams through various network services based on PS network and by offering rich user services.
Yoshinori continued:
And in November — starting November, in the U.S. and U.K. market, PlayStation 4 will be launched. Currently, we only have a limited information, but given our experience in the past of introducing new platforms, we can say that this time around, there is a very high response. The level of interest would be high because it’s very much a network-oriented game device and the — socialized sort of game playing is accommodated and therefore, expectation is very high.
Next up was the Q&A portion of the call, where Yoshinori talked about how the PS4, in comparison to the PS3, is a “lighter platform” in terms of investment. “In other words, we did not design the specific semiconductors nor do we have a production facility for the PS4 semiconductor,” he added.
Then, an unknown executive jumped in and talked about PS4 profitability and expanding business:
In terms of range, it’s different from PS3. It is a light platform, which requires less investment. So we would like to turn it to a profitable business earlier. And I said diversification of revenue sources. We shift closer to network. So downloading game and — but selling — by downloading games, we are still doing it, but we also have revenue source of subscription model of [PlayStation Plus] yes, even when PS3, we have been giving value-added services, but in PS4, I think we can expand the sort of business and advertising business. I think there are various sources of revenues. We would like to expand — and we would like to pursue that possibility as well. And you — we’re talking about the impact of exchange rates on Game — the major impact of exchange rates on manufacturing in the Game business.
Do you think Kaz should be everywhere at once? Is it better for us that the PS4 will be a ‘lighter platform?’ Let us know in the comments below.
