Sony Interactive Entertainment does not plan to release “any new major franchise titles in the next fiscal year” that ends March 31, 2025, the company said during its fiscal 2023 third-quarter earnings conference call.
“With regard to first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games,” said Hiroki Totoki, Sony Group President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer. “But while major projects are currently in development, we do not plan to release any new major franchise titles in the next fiscal year (Editor's note: beginning April 1, 2024 and ending March 31, 2025) such as God of War Ragnarok And Marvel Spider-Man 2“.
It should be noted that while the 'current major franchise titles' include intellectual property such as God of War And Marvel Spider-Manand does not include new intellectual property, such as Concord Or existing non-main franchise titles e.g Until dawn.
“Although the acquisition-related cost burden will ease in the next fiscal year, we expect first-party software profits to decline slightly this fiscal year due to the impact of lower sales,” Totoki continued. “As a result, operating income for the fiscal year is currently expected to increase.” Coming slightly compared to the current fiscal year. However, although this is our baseline, we are reviewing the necessary measures to further improve profitability before announcing the annual forecast results next May.
Totoki also discussed the company's future expectations for PlayStation 5 hardware sales during the next fiscal year.
“With regard to PlayStation 5, which will enter its fifth year since launch, partly due to it entering the latter half of the console cycle, we aim to improve sales with a greater focus on balance with profits, so we expect a gradual decline in sales,” Totoki said. units from the next fiscal year onwards.” “We expect third-party software sales to continue to gradually expand due to the expansion of the PlayStation 5 install base and high level of user engagement. In network services, we expect subscribers to be on par with or slightly lower this fiscal year due to the impact of the price revision we implemented this fiscal year, but we expect sales to gradually expand due to the shift to attractive premium services.
Here are the PlayStation 5 predictions for the next fiscal year, compared to the current fiscal year (which ends March 31, 2024):
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