In its corporate strategy meeting held today, Sony Corporation announced that its network sales increased “almost tenfold” compared to the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014, during which it launched the PlayStation 4.
According to chairman, president, and chief executive officer Kenichiro Yoshida, PlayStation Network‘s growth was Sony’s “biggest achievement” in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) space – a feat the company achieved via organic growth as opposed to external investment. As of March 31, 2021, PlayStation Plus subscribers sit at a whopping 47.6 million.
“Our strategic investments, in order of priority, have been in IP, DTC, technology, and Sony, in the form of share repurchases,” Yoshida added.
Elsewhere, Yoshida said that services and subscription models are “driving the growth” of various industries including video game and music. Sony plans to strengthen its network services as well as partnerships with digital service providers like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu. Additionally, Sony wants to focus on the increasing socialization within the wider entertainment industry.
“In the games space, users are just as motivated to meet friends inside of games as they are to play the games themselves,” Yoshida continued, quoting Fortnite as an example. “Having converged games and social, Fortnite is seamlessly integrating the game, movie and music genres through the virtual concerts and movie promotions that regularly occur within it. We can leverage the investment capability of the Sony Group and the structure we have established to enhance collaboration across our diverse businesses to take advantage of the changes that services, mobile and social are causing in the entertainment space.”
[Source: Sony]
