Sony FY21 report

[kitler53]

I can stand their PC push, but ugh why are they putting so much towards live service.

i don't have the information right in front of me but i think i remember sony reporting how huuuge portion of their total revenues was just taking their 30% cut of mtx related to fortnight and CoD and a few other live service games.   clearly sony wants to be in on that revenue from the other side.

i do think it will be hard.  these games are community based and you're either a mega hit (fortnight) or your a complete failure (anthem).  

[the-pi-guy]

Because they make money and they don't have any at the moment.

Their push for single player games isn't as strong because they already have a strong single player output. So they increase that gradually.

Personally I am excited about their multiplayer push. They had little to offer in the PS4 gen, which was sad because their multiplayer offerings during PS3 were awesome

I do get that, I just wish there was a similarly large move to expand their traditional title catalog as well.  

And it's pretty clear that Sony is not putting their traditional titles on the back burner, and is going to be seeing more increases.

But I wish more of it went towards traditional games.  

[Legend]

Another thing.

Avatar is listed as a big upcoming release. Pretty random to include next to Forspoken and Hogwarts unless Sony has a deal with it. So maybe we'll get a new trailer at their show.

[the-pi-guy]

Zhuge takeaways for those who aren't interested in looking through the whole presentation.

As above, the success of free to play on console is another reason Sony is looking at live services.

Now >25% of PlayStation Store spend in FY21 compared to just 5% in FY16.

Essentially post launch content over the long term is becoming more important on console pic.twitter.com/bFlEO8OnL1

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 26, 2022

Sony aims to diversify its portfolio to balance single player & live service game releases

Starting with 2 new live service titles released before March 2023 (Not Destiny) and planning to have 12 live service titles in operation by March 2026

Essentially 50:50 investment split pic.twitter.com/pWL7DQ9Sk0

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 26, 2022

Audience expansion is the final piece of the pie with Sony looking to extend existing games and IP to other platforms such as PC, while building entirely new live service experiences for PS5, PC and mobile too.

PlayStation looks very different in FY2025https://t.co/aSOf9RmDsm pic.twitter.com/N3UEF3WK8B

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 26, 2022

[kitler53]

what zhuge said,... and that's why i think gamepass is dumb.   

industry wide games are transitioning to releasing as nothing more than a platform to sell mtx.   attaching a $70 "value" to a free-to-play game and then giving it away for "free" based on a yearly subscription fee is dishonest and swarmy.   i'll just keep playing rocket league and cancel my subscriptions if that's the future i have to look forward to.

for ps+++ to have value to me it needs to start including the mtx expansions to games like destiny.

[Legend]

Again, Sony's PC numbers are really low. Also shows steamspy's new method is pretty inaccurate.


Steamspy underestimated Horizon, thinking it sold 1.39 million verse the real 2.39 million.

Days Gone however sold 1.7 million according to steamspy yet really only sold 0.85 million.

God of War on steamspy sold 2.7 million, yet really only sold 0.97 million.

[kitler53]

Again, Sony's PC numbers are really low. Also shows steamspy's new method is pretty inaccurate.


Steamspy underestimated Horizon, thinking it sold 1.39 million verse the real 2.39 million.

Days Gone however sold 1.7 million according to steamspy yet really only sold 0.85 million.

God of War on steamspy sold 2.7 million, yet really only sold 0.97 million.

at least its more accurate than vgchartz...

[SWORDF1SH]

at least its more accurate than vgchartz...

I could throw darts at a dartboard with my eyes closed and come up with numbers better than VGC's predictions!

[the-pi-guy]

Aside from Twisted Metal, The Last Of Us and Ghost of Tsushima, there are 10 more PlayStation IPs coming to film and TVhttps://t.co/aWkfzIdeHX pic.twitter.com/ODovoBR7vy

— Nibel (@Nibellion) May 26, 2022

[kitler53]

so if we restrict our view to current IP (because why wouldn't they be using the IP with synergy for their game releases) we can reasonably guess that about half of their games are getting a film/tv cross-promotion.

[the-pi-guy]

We have 7 confirmed already.

• Twisted Metal
• The Last of Us
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Gran Turismo
• God of War
• Horizon
• Uncharted 2 probably.
• Jak and Daxter apparently
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

[the-pi-guy]

Sony has something like:
x mobile titles
2x PC titles
4x PS4+PS5 titles
4x PS5 titles

As it stands, they have 3 PC titles for this year, 2 PS4+PS5 titles. 

I presume currently 1 PSVR2 title(PS5).

I don't think it's a good idea to read too much into this.

It's possible that there are indies that count because Sony is backing them, even if they aren't listed as a publisher. That doesn't seem terribly likely, but there are some weird inconsistencies in their charts, like they don't apparently count Gran Turismo 7 as being a live title, despite being always online and having microtransactions.

But it seems like they should have a lot to come out in the next 10 months and they don't have a lot announced as of yet. 

[Legend]

Was Helldivers literally their only live service game release? I was pessimistic but I guess not pessimistic enough. Sony projected 10 for this year yet they'll only have Destiny, Helldivers, and maybe Concord.

I love the slide saying they want to invest 50 50 in new ip verse exisiting ip. For 2022 it's one third new ip.

Almost everything else is incredibly worrying lol. I want to come back to this thread in 2 years and see how the heck things turned out.




Looks like TLOU Factions will release this year. That plus The Show and Destiny puts them at 3 live service games for 2022. Or they could have another game ready that I'm not thinking of.

The "confidence" in live service is astounding. They're pouring money in and expecting nothing but success. Heck Destiny itself has been pretty rocky and I wouldn't believe these numbers even if all the new games magically came from Bungie.

Realistically I think by 2025 they could have maybe 5 live service games that are actually popular, assuming they don't just buy existing ones.


Yup. It's "free" money only if it doesn't harm their income elsewhere.

And how the heck are they expecting $300 million for FY22? They have the Uncharted Collection and that's it. Maybe they're being misleading and including Destiny pc numbers?

[SWORDF1SH]

Was Helldivers literally their only live service game release? I was pessimistic but I guess not pessimistic enough. Sony projected 10 for this year yet they'll only have Destiny, Helldivers, and maybe Concord.

I was way too optimistic. I didn't expect Sony to fold so quick. I think kitler as always been pessimistic on this too and you've always mentioned how hard it is to make a successful live service game but I thought they'd at least follow through on the 10 they projected, even if just to increase their chances of making a successful live service game.

[the-pi-guy]

Was Helldivers literally their only live service game release? I was pessimistic but I guess not pessimistic enough. Sony projected 10 for this year yet they'll only have Destiny, Helldivers, and maybe Concord.

And MLB.

They've cancelled at least 6:
- ND's TLOU Online
- IG's Spider-Man
- London's medieval game
- Deviation Games
- Bungie's Matter
- Fire sprite's Twisted Metal

And delayed Marathon.