Sony Q1 FY2022 Results (2.4m PS5,

[Bryank75]

PC ports hurt fanboys, that's all there is to it. They have nothing but a positive effect outside of mental anguish they cause for people who have an unhealthy relationship with the console platform.

That is your opinion...

I believe exclusives are one of, if not THE biggest driver of competition in the industry.... they are the main pillar on which both Sony and Nintendo both made huge comebacks after their worst generations.

I don't see why services, hardware, accessories etc etc are all fine to be areas of competition but exclusives are singled out as somehow being offlimits or sometype of unethical thing to have as an asset.

It's simply good competition.... if you feel Xbox or 3rd party cannot meet the bar being set by PS or Nintendo, that is on those companies.... not Sony, they have no obligation to bring games to anyone else and it makes absolutely no sense.

Why does it make no sense? Because the games cost too much to make any significant ROI....

Why are all the Xbox exclusives not on PSPlus? It's only for fanboys that they keep their games on Gamepass..... wouldnt it be better if more people could play Xbox games on other subscriptions? The subscriptions they pay already? Same logic as PS exclusives going to PC or anywhere else....

It's based on entitlement.... it's based on undermining PS exclusives..... not on any real desire to do anything morally positive in gaming. The assumption that anyone is naive enough to think that people pushing for PS exclusives to go multiplat have any interest, except for Sony / PS to fail on every level is hilarious.

 

[RE4-Station]

My worry isn't the short term... not in terms of MAU or in terms of profits.

My worry is longterm, has PS hurt itself in the long game by porting, by supporting PC, by not communicating clearly.

If they just ported a few games while stock was impossible to maintain, then that is absolutely understandable. If they keep porting after stock returns to high / normal levels, then I think it is a really risky thing to do....especially with COD possibly under Xbox control in the future.

Of course Jim shouldnt invest in any companies based on one quarters performance.... we see how this turned out badly for KOTOR remake... now a huge waste of money.
They need to just buy the BEST of the BEST to counter Activision / Besthesda in the longterm..... From, Capcom, Square, WB or CDPR
Corner fighting games, corner the highest quality releases... push back in Japan and across europe...dominate everywhere outside the US and isolate the USA.

Bring game prices down to 60-70 euro and be pro customer.

These are the steps.

I don't disagree with him needing to aquire more companies but I will say I don't think they need to worry about square or Capcom. Japanese companies may do exclusives with Xbox as we've seen with dead rising in the past but since scalebound I think both Phil and most Japanese companies are reluctant on working with each other unless if its Kojima wanting to do some weird game with the cloud. I think Sony needs to worry about take two, cdpr and wb as you said. Sony not only needs to worry about Microsoft but Amazon and Facebook taking these companies. GTA 6 having the marking behind ps5 would be huge and if it was a ps5 and pc exclusive, Sony would not have to worry about Microsoft as they pretty much garuanteed their 100 million - 150 million ps5s sold and I don't think Phil would want to neglect that chuck of an audience potential elder scrolls 6 or fallout 5 sales. The only Japanese company Sony should worry about is maybe working on making a deal with Konami to have and exclusive metal gear, silent hill, bomberman, and castlevania games this generation.

 

[ethomaz]

PC ports hurt fanboys, that's all there is to it. They have nothing but a positive effect outside of mental anguish they cause for people who have an unhealthy relationship with the console platform.

Dependes how the Sony how take the PC in the future.
Like it is now as a different platform it indeed hurts the PlayStation brand.
But if they archive to put their PlayStation ecosystem inside PC (that I believe it is their end goal) then it will indeed grow the PlayStation brand.

No Steam... just PlayStation no matter if console or PC.
While they are relying on Steam their games are losing identity plus a lot of revenue/profit.

PlayStation needs their own launch where games will be exclusives with trophies and all others PlayStation features... they already have the PC Store so it is half job done.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Do you guys think that the New PlayStation Plus plans can harm Sony profit and revenue?
That come after I read some market analyst articles that the investors are a bit fearing the New PlayStation Plus revamp... they are unsure how the new service will affect the game sales on the console.

Keep in mind Sony reportedly is getting rid of selling codes on the cheap or selling PS+ codes in general at retail. This should increase general margins even on the lowest PS+ tier.

 

[DynamiteCop]

That is your opinion...

I believe exclusives are one of, if not THE biggest driver of competition in the industry.... they are the main pillar on which both Sony and Nintendo both made huge comebacks after their worst generations.

I don't see why services, hardware, accessories etc etc are all fine to be areas of competition but exclusives are singled out as somehow being offlimits or sometype of unethical thing to have as an asset.

It's simply good competition.... if you feel Xbox or 3rd party cannot meet the bar being set by PS or Nintendo, that is on those companies.... not Sony, they have no obligation to bring games to anyone else and it makes absolutely no sense.

Why does it make no sense? Because the games cost too much to make any significant ROI....

Why are all the Xbox exclusives not on PSPlus? It's only for fanboys that they keep their games on Gamepass..... wouldnt it be better if more people could play Xbox games on other subscriptions? The subscriptions they pay already? Same logic as PS exclusives going to PC or anywhere else....

It's based on entitlement.... it's based on undermining PS exclusives..... not on any real desire to do anything morally positive in gaming. The assumption that anyone is naive enough to think that people pushing for PS exclusives to go multiplat have any interest, except for Sony / PS to fail on every level is hilarious.

PC isn't competion for Sony nor is it for Microsoft, and it never has been. PC is an extention where melding can successfully take place without harming anyone or anything.

 

[ethomaz]

PC isn't competion for Sony nor is it for Microsoft, and it never has been. PC is an extention where melding can successfully take place without harming anyone or anything.

Like I said you have the wrong ideia here.
PC like Sony is doing today is competitive to Sony.... they lose revenue/profit because they are relying on others platforms (aka Steam).

It will only become an extension like you say when PlayStation start to rely only on themselves to sell games on PC.

BTW Sony hired specialists to create it own ecosystem in PC... that will take time but I believe it is their end goal.
Selling first-party as 3rd-party on Steam is a no go to Sony and PlayStation.
First-party games should be exclusives and sold like first-party games.

 

[DynamiteCop]

Like I said you have the wrong ideia here.
PC like Sony is doing today is competitive to Sony.... they lose revenue/profit because they are relying on others platforms (aka Steam).

It will only become an extension like you say when PlayStation start to rely only on themselves to sell games on PC.

Even if they lose 30% (scales down with sales) on Steam the cost to port versus that of profit gained is basically nothing. These games on PC are nothing but a money maker.

Reality shows that console gamers don't just abandon the platform for PC in any kind of substantial way, however people on PC who would never buy the console are buying the software.

It's a net benefit, there's no loss of any kind.

 

[ethomaz]

Sony approved the buy back of around $30m of their shares.

https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/news/20220803_E.pdf

 

[Yurinka]

Sony approved the buy back of around $30m of their shares.

https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/news/20220803_E.pdf

$27.5M is a very small part of their $30B mid term budget for acquisitions, investments and Sony share repurchases.

Like I said you have the wrong ideia here.
PC like Sony is doing today is competitive to Sony.... they lose revenue/profit because they are relying on others platforms (aka Steam).

It will only become an extension like you say when PlayStation start to rely only on themselves to sell games on PC.

BTW Sony hired specialists to create it own ecosystem in PC... that will take time but I believe it is their end goal.
Selling first-party as 3rd-party on Steam is a no go to Sony and PlayStation.
First-party games should be exclusives and sold like first-party games.

To port a few old games that already generated almost all the revenue they could in console to PC is basically free profit for Sony and these games. The cost of a port is super low and they generate many millions.

These ports don't negatively affect their console sales because already made all the money they could in console before being ported, plus don't negatively affect console hardware sales. There is no data that leads to think they have any negative effect: basically all Sony numbers keep growing year after year and they would grow faster if not supply constrained due to the chips issue.

It would be better for Sony to have their own PSN PC store (and are working on it), but until then these PC ports will give them extra hundreds of millions in profits per year. Which is better than not porting them so not earning these hundreds of millions per year.

 

[ethomaz]

Weird the QA took so much to be released.

https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/pdf/22q1_qa.pdf

The pertinent questions to Game Division.
Very light QA to be fair... nothing much to add.

Q1: [G&NS segment] Has slow adoption of the PS5 impacted your software sales or user engagement?

A1: We believe hardware adoption definitely increases user engagement. The data clearly shows that engagement is high among PS5 users, so we would expect to see benefits from the faster adoption of PS5. PS5 sales look poised for robust growth in the second half of this fiscal year, and major thirdparty and first-party game releases are slated for the second quarter and beyond, so we hope to increase engagement and create momentum.

Q2: [G&NS segment] You increased your estimate of expenses associated with acquisitions from 44 billion yen to 57 billion yen, but what are your expectations for FY2023 and beyond? Can you provide us with an update on the Bungie business?

A2: We expect expenses associated with acquisitions to be roughly 20% higher in FY2023 than in FY2022. The impact of the Bungie business on both our total sales and operating income is not material.

Q1: [G&NS segment] You said that you were adversely affected by both external factors and company specific factors in the first quarter. Do you expect to benefit from any company-specific factors in subsequent quarters? Do you have any updates on your platform expansion or live game service?

A1: In terms of positives for the second quarter onward, I would note that we are no longer dealing with most of the component supply constraints that were affecting the production of our PS5 hardware. The Shanghai lockdown is also over. In contrast, logistics lead times have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. We also expect to benefit when major first-party and third-party game titles are released in the second quarter and beyond. In terms of our platform expansion, we were able to roll out our new PS Plus service as planned at the end of June, and the migration to the new service is also going well. While we will need to see a bit more data to assess the potential impact on total earnings, we do not think that the service has gotten off to a poor start by any means.

 

[Vertigo]

I would never blame pc ports for this. Sony didn’t release any blockbusters this year yet. That’s the wrong conclusion to draw.

PS - let us also ignore the absolutely disastrous economy and recession we’re experiencing. That has no effect … right???

This might even be a longer generation than PS360. 8 years easy… hopefully mid gen hardware upgrades.

 

[Papacheeks]

I would never blame pc ports for this. Sony didn’t release any blockbusters this year yet. That’s the wrong conclusion to draw.

PS - let us also ignore the absolutely disastrous economy and recession we’re experiencing. That has no effect … right???

This might even be a longer generation than PS360. 8 years easy… hopefully mid gen hardware upgrades.

GT7, Horizon not block busters when every time theres stock they chart, and bundles with those horizon selling out?

 

[Remember_Spinal]

GT7, Horizon not block busters when every time theres stock they chart, and bundles with those horizon selling out?

If GT7 and Horizon aren’t ‘blockbusters’ 95% of games coming out these days aren’t lol

 

[Vertigo]

If GT7 and Horizon aren’t ‘blockbusters’ 95% of games coming out these days aren’t lol

That’s pretty accurate tho.

Both Horizon and GT7 are lower on the totem pole of mega blockbuster compared to a naughty dog release, god of war or spider-man. Those have much greater impact.

Releasing late ports on pc for sure isn’t the detriment some people assume them to be. It’s additional revenue from games that already exhausted their home console run.

And those bundles don’t sell out because of the games. They sell out because it’s a PS5.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Both Horizon and GT7 are lower on the totem pole of mega blockbuster compared to a naughty dog release, god of war or spider-man. Those have much greater impact.

What is this determined by? Last time I checked Gran Turismo is one of Sonys highest selling franchises and Horizon Zero Dawn sold 20m units and has an entire tv show, a VR game, and another sequel coming out.

Horizon alone is definitely a major tentpole release for Sony despite online discussion around it. The only true difference between all those IP is a few points on metacritic, and not even with spider-man