Yes, they said 1st party are to showcase the possibilities of their consoles to the players and 3rd party devs, in addition to build their identity. Also act as unique selling point. But obviously being a business they have to be sustainable and can't be losing hundreds of millions per year with them.
Yes, (excuding some very rare exception they may have) they get 30% from 3rd party revenue generated in their own console/storefront, and this is their main revenue (and I assume profit) source for SIE.
Their active userbase is bigger than ever, and the PS5 spend on average more than ever, so they are generating more money than ever from this side.
They have been breaking records in most of their console metrics, but the shortages and not being able to price cut their consoles (instead had to increase it due to component price increases) prevented them to also break records in launch aligned hardware sales worldwide (specifically in some EU countries).
But even if breaking records in console isn't enough to keep their first party game business sustainable in the long term. They need to grow more, so they also grow off-PS revenue.
They are
growing -not between quotes- their off-PS revenue every year, this recent fiscal year they did $660M (+56% increase versus previous year) there.
Mostly due to PC, highlighted by Totoki as a very profitable business for them. This year it should grow more thanks to Helldivers 2, GoT and The Final Shape, and pretty likely also the upcoming Concord, Lego Horizon, GoWR, Until Dawn (I assume Marathon will be released in the next FY).
This off-PS presence also helps them to grow their userbase, as Nishino and Hermen said, both in general and in their console: in the Insomniac leaks we saw that as of early 2022, around half of the PS5 sales were made to new users who didn't have a PS before.
Even if their console is dying, Microsoft Gaming is generating more money than ever thanks to the money their acquired publishers make in other platforms / storefronts. Will generate even more as they keep transitioning to becoming more multiplatform and is going to be very close to Sony and Tencent, fighting for being the top grossing gaming company in the world.
Epic makes a shit ton of money with their own games which include some of the most successful ones. Their storefront mostly exist to save them to pay the 30% in any places they can, helping these games to be extra profitable.
Apple's store and games works for their smartphones, tablets and computers.
Google Play's PC store for Windows is in
beta, they aren't limited to their PC operative system ChromeOS.
They have been working on it for years, and their expansion to PC and mobile are part of it. Increasing their console sales there with dedicated partnerships with local companies to make related games and marketing that Jimbo signed all these years with Tencent, Netease, MiHoyo, NC Soft, Shift Up and many other Chinese and Korean devs (plus some Japanese ones particularly successful in Asia for mobile).
But most of the players of these countries are on PC and mobile, so they'll make games on PC and mobile to make their IPs popular them and then wanting them to jump to Sony's ecosystem.
Sony is being very successful in PC, but not meaningful enough to grow Steam. They are a tiny portion of the Steam revenue and userbase.
In any case, like in mobile, pretty likely their idea is that as soon as they have a big and appealing enough library and userbase there they'll open their own PSN PC/mobile storefront.
I didn't say they'd drop the Switch. Out of all the platforms, Switch is the one with the bigger percent of people who doesn't only play there. And also has the bigger percent of people who considers it a secondary (not being more specific , not their their primary) device.
In the same tactic they're doing in PC, they only release some stuff and if they want the rest go buy a PS5.
Nah, I just believe the companies factual fiscal reports, and the proper market research data from the top firms, plus read their strategy quotes from the primary source and apply basic logic for their business to understand what they are doing.
Way better than being a blind fanboy who cries because the games of my favorite company can also be played by other people in other platforms, and who thinks they can be forever making only AAA SP games only for their consoles as if money grew on trees and as if the growing costs of AAA games and how the game revenue is evolving would allow it for the long term.
They couldn't sell more because they didn't have components to build more consoles. So no, they couldn't sell 200M. They had to increase the price -and still to keep losing money for each unit sold- instead of price cut it because the costs increases, meaning sales from that price cut won't come, so they couldn't sell 200M. In the next gen maybe, specially if MS leaves the Xbox hardware to 3rd party manufacturers and Switch 2 -which pretty likely will have launch record numbers- isn't as successful as Switch 1 and gets partly replaced by PC handhelds.
