Today Sony hosted its quarterly financial conference call, and CFO and COO Hiroki Totoki provided more insight into the performance and plans for the PlayStation business.
During the livestreamed presentation, we heard that the 116 million figure announced earlier today for PlayStation Network monthly active users us the highest ever recorded for June. Total playtime on the platform also increased 8% year-on-year.
Moving on to software, the executive explained that Helldivers 2 is performing better than expected within the forecast announced in May. The PC version of Ghost of Tsushima and the expansion of Destiny 2: The Final Shape are also “contributing to earnings” (which is bitterly ironic in view of the recent mass layoffs at Bungie).
The executive panel mentioned that the Platform Business Group is prioritizing expanding the number of active users and user engagement, while the Studios Business Group is focusing on strengthening the development schedule and optimizing development projects to consistently release successful games.
“Under the new management structure, the Platform Business Group is steadily maintaining and expanding the number of active users and user engagement as priority initiatives and intends to further strengthen the PS platform and establish a stable earnings space.
Additionally, the Studios Business Group is strengthening its development schedule, and optimizing development projects in order to consistently and continuously release hit titles.”
During the Q&A session, Totoki-san added that PlayStation’s restructure in Platform and Studios Business Groups aims to achieve “cost restructure and portfolio optimization” while simultaneously enhancing the efficiency of the business.
Speaking of Bungie, its remaining human resources will be focused on Destiny 2 and Marathon, pursuing “high quality and wonderful game experiences.” He also confirmed what we already know, that another game that was in incubation will be reallocated within PlayStation Studios. Sony would like to optimize the overall Studios structure.
If you’re interested in reading more about Sony’s financial results, you can read our dedicated article.
If you’d like to read more about gaming industry financial results in general, several have already been announced and we have dedicated reports for them as well, including Capcom, Koei Tecmo, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Konami, Nintendo, Square Enix, and Sega.
