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Sony to Take Action as PS5, PS4 Owners Play Less Than Anticipated

Phantom Thief

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One of the key details from Sony’s quarterly financial report today – which also confirmed that the PS5 has shipped 21.7 million consoles – is that PS5 and PS4 owners are playing less than they were a year ago. The manufacturer noted that total gameplay time is down a sizeable 15 per cent year-over-year for the three month period ending 30th June, 2022.

But, unsurprisingly, it’s something the firm aims to address: “We intend to take action to increase user engagement in the second half of the fiscal year, during which major titles including first-party software are scheduled to be released, primarily by increasing the supply of PS5 and promoting the new PS Plus service.”

SOURCE

My own personal thoughts:

  • First off, lockdown last year and no lockdown this year obviously contributes to this
  • Secondly, there simply aren't too many game releases on PlayStation this year. February to April was great, with Horizon, Elden Ring, Gran Truism, LEGO Star Wars back to back, but what since then?
  • Sony's games are $70, in the middle of the worst inflation and employment crisis in a century
At least some of these factors are under Sony's control. They need to make the necessary changes, because when external circumstances out of control are this bad, you need to be putting literally your very best foot forward.
 
I have no doubt their reward/loyalty scheme is a part of this plan but it seems like a big % to recover via just that.

Fortunately for Xbox and PS, I think Mw2 will be big.
 
Seems like a hard problem to solve, especially if you dont have enough consoles to sell. Though as proven by game pass, a subscription service with loads of games to play increases play time significantly. They already said as much, but pushing this service hard should help them.

Speculating a bit here, but I think Sony is going to put their first party games on the service faster than they first anticipated.
 
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(Copying my thoughts from Famiboards but will expand a bit here)

I do wonder if enthusiasm for more casually popular games like Fortnite is starting to cool down, and that is having a generally slowing effect on the industry that Sony is feeling most acutely. Like, obviously post-lockdown plays a part in generally redirecting people’s time, but those games were fueling a console sales bump well before Covid, and that had to come down eventually.
 
I think it’s probably people starting to prefer hybrids which can be played everywhere and then docked to played on tv
 
I’m expecting Sony to answer this by obnoxiously raising prices to 80$ by throwing in useless junk to create artificial value.
 
The end of Covid boost+ The start of one of the worst economic slowdown is going to cause that.

PS4 is more or less deado i feel. The ships has sailed for that one. It is all PS5 or nothing now.
 
I’m expecting Sony to answer this by obnoxiously raising prices to 80$ by throwing in useless junk to create artificial value.
Their games are already 80€ and they still sell well. So they might as well.
 
SIE only has itself to blame, falling upwards despite making countless unforced errors worked last generation but eventually it has begun to catch up with SIE. Santa Monica cutting its external output helped them focus on rebooting God of War but means there are gaps in its first party line up. The de-facto withdrawal from Japan is not just bad PR, its bad for business.

Problem run deeper than covid or end of PS4 generation. Major change in culture required, perhaps a change in management but even if SIE does take steps to increase engagement, there are limits to what can be done now. Microsoft hardware being more appealing (Xbox Series S offers a more affordable option that SIE lacks an answer for), stronger first party plus Activision Blizzard, Gamepass, Switch & its successor. Aside from the steps I've outlined before, gotta make full use of its history & fully commit to PSVR2 as key differentiators from much stronger competition.

More contentious (Legacy Platform!) but worth mentioning is PC support. Hard to measure the impact, even if more symbolic than financial, SIE hardware is less appealing now you can play (some) Playstation Studio games with better visuals & performance on PC. The lack of clarity on what is & is not being ported means that SIE is in no man's land between exclusively & multi-platform, unlike Microsoft (everything Xbox/Windows PC at launch) or Nintendo (fully exclusive) meaning it pays to take a wait & see approach. As to what they could do in the short term;
  • Commit to patching in peer to peer online rather than switching off servers with no alternative (Killzone, Rigs).
  • Remove PAL versions, NTSC by default, patches with translations.
  • Relaunch PS2 range in full HD with QOL improvements & patches to ensure they work on PS5 (Ape Escape 2).
  • PS3 emulation and/or remasters (Motorstorm, Killzone, inFamous).
  • Patches for Bloodborne, Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, Driveclub & Shadow of the Colossus or Xbox BC performance upgrades on a system level.
  • PS4/PS5 cross buy - no more upgrade fees to encourage PS4 users to buy a PS5 to revisit the game.
  • PS4/PS5/PC cross buy - PC PSN or some type of deal with Steam / EGS to enable this option.
  • PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP & Vita back catalogue, PS Plus & individual downloads for both first & third parties.
  • PSVR backwards compatibility with PSVR2, either through emulation, ports & remasters.
  • Create bespoke VR teams within every Playstation Studio & release a compilation of all prior Insomniac Games VR titles on PSVR2.
 
SIE only has itself to blame, falling upwards despite making countless unforced errors worked last generation but eventually it has begun to catch up with SIE. Santa Monica cutting its external output helped them focus on rebooting God of War but means there are gaps in its first party line up. The de-facto withdrawal from Japan is not just bad PR, its bad for business.

Problem run deeper than covid or end of PS4 generation. Major change in culture required, perhaps a change in management but even if SIE does take steps to increase engagement, there are limits to what can be done now. Microsoft hardware being more appealing (Xbox Series S offers a more affordable option that SIE lacks an answer for), stronger first party plus Activision Blizzard, Gamepass, Switch & its successor. Aside from the steps I've outlined before, gotta make full use of its history & fully commit to PSVR2 as key differentiators from much stronger competition.

More contentious (Legacy Platform!) but worth mentioning is PC support. Hard to measure the impact, even if more symbolic than financial, SIE hardware is less appealing now you can play (some) Playstation Studio games with better visuals & performance on PC. The lack of clarity on what is & is not being ported means that SIE is in no man's land between exclusively & multi-platform, unlike Microsoft (everything Xbox/Windows PC at launch) or Nintendo (fully exclusive) meaning it pays to take a wait & see approach. As to what they could do in the short term;
  • Commit to patching in peer to peer online rather than switching off servers with no alternative (Killzone, Rigs).
  • Remove PAL versions, NTSC by default, patches with translations.
  • Relaunch PS2 range in full HD with QOL improvements & patches to ensure they work on PS5 (Ape Escape 2).
  • PS3 emulation and/or remasters (Motorstorm, Killzone, inFamous).
  • Patches for Bloodborne, Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, Driveclub & Shadow of the Colossus or Xbox BC performance upgrades on a system level.
  • PS4/PS5 cross buy - no more upgrade fees to encourage PS4 users to buy a PS5 to revisit the game.
  • PS4/PS5/PC cross buy - PC PSN or some type of deal with Steam / EGS to enable this option.
  • PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP & Vita back catalogue, PS Plus & individual downloads for both first & third parties.
  • PSVR backwards compatibility with PSVR2, either through emulation, ports & remasters.
  • Create bespoke VR teams within every Playstation Studio & release a compilation of all prior Insomniac Games VR titles on PSVR2.
Interesting post but I suspect a lot of the choices PS have made over the past few years are largely irrelevant to the wider PS player base (in general I think enthusiasts focus on small matters that laregly don't register on the larger, more casual scale).

I'm inclined to think we should be focusing on the post-Covid drop in entertainment sales/time spent, general logistic and supply issues and the fall of the engagement of massive IPs like CoD moreso than Japan Studio, for example, being shuttered.

The missmanaged launch of GT7 and the new PS+ subscription, Horizon running into Elden Ring and the price increase running into global recessions haven't helped but a 2% drop in revenue is hardly disastrous.

The big question is if Playstation's recent decisions - a new sub service, purchasing Bungie, focus on MP/GAAS games and VR and first party coming to PC faster - will truly future-proof their revenue or if they are behind the curve.
 
You make a good point about hobbyists like me losing sight of what matters to a wider public. However I should note that SIE mention first party software & new subscription tiers in the report:
“We intend to take action to increase user engagement in the second half of the fiscal year, during which major titles including first-party software are scheduled to be released, primarily by increasing the supply of PS5 and promoting the new PS Plus service.”
As such, I think it does warrant looking at decisions that have led to an underwhelming PS Plus relaunch & fewer exclusives during this stage in a new generation. Back catalogue & first party games matter for PS5 early adopters. After all they represent the audience SIE wants to pay for more expensive PS Plus tiers. While I wasn't specifically referring to the closure of Japan Studio, it's one part of the significant, possibly irreversible loss of marketshare in Japan (one of the largest markets) has to factor into the overall active userbase. (edited for clarity)

Suspect fans of Japanese games tend to be more engaged users & while these decisions may not register with mainstream audiences it could see people buying third party games elsewhere.
 
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