Jim Ryan, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, has commented in an interview with Nihon Keizai Shimbun that the company is considering mergers or acquisition of game development companies.
One of the reasons Ryan comments is that “content is becoming more important than ever before.” With 13 studios around the world, it will be difficult for new competitors to have a similar production or so many exclusive blockbusters, in reference to Google Stadia. Ryan points out that Sony has 25 years of experience in the industry, with huge successful licenses.
Ryan also cites that PS4 will reach 100 million consoles sold this year and shows optimism with PlayStation 5, and reiterates that it will not arrive in 2019. In the past, the transition of generations was a significant economic cost, but now profit margins have grown steadily in recent years, and he is optimistic that they will continue to do so in the future.
Gaming services in the cloud will take a while to settle and the focus is still on traditional home consoles. Sony wants to focus on PS5 as a console designed for the most demanding or hardcore players, with exclusive games and which offers the best graphics, considering Microsoft and Google as its great rivals.
The strategy of Sony Interactive Entertainment is to bet on good relations with the big publishing companies to achieve exclusive agreements. According to the reports, the company is paying less attention to independent games, as it believes that the first users of its future console will buy it for spectacular games visually, while indie games can be played on smartphones. According to the newspaper, an example of this strategy is that this year there will be no independent games at the Sony stand at the Tokyo Game Show, but only large blockbusters.
