Sony Aims to "Aggressively Invest" in First-Party Studios & Continue to Partner With External Devs

During Sony’s quarterly conference call CFO Hiroki Totoki talked about the forecast for the current fiscal year ending on March 2022.

[Jin_Sakai]

Great to hear. Sony have some of the best developers on earth. Hopefully they acquire Housemarque should Returnal do well. Game looks amazing!

[DJStotty]

They do not mention new acquisitions, but more financial investment in the in-house studios :-

"To enhance the software offering, Sony aims to continue investing in partnering with external studios in addition to “aggressively investing” in in-house studios."

So i think they will get more timed content from 3rd parties, along with investing in 1st party. Housemarque may not set them back that much, maybe a few million, but it is whether they would prefer to create new 1st party studios from scratch, or buyout existing talent.

[Nyxus]

In the recent Nikkei interview, Jim Ryan said that they do not rule out the option of acquisitions like Insomniac. https://www.reddit.com/r/PS...

[DJStotty]

@Nyxus

Why so defensive? I never said they never would?

Jim said (in the interview you linked) that they will not rule out that option, not that they are going to be actively engaging in acquisitions, just like i commented, but for some reason it has got your back up, and your going all in defense, deny and deflect mode.

Jim Quote - "We have engaged in mergers and acquisitions several times in the past, such as with Insomniac Games. We will not rule out that option in the future."

In other words, if their hand is forced, they will, but they are not going to buy studios, just for the sake of it.

I even said Housemarque might not set them back that much.

[Nyxus]

@ DJStotty: Defensive? All out defense, deny and deflect mode? What are you talking about, I was just giving some additional information from the Jim Ryan interview, don't see what's so defensive about that...

[DJStotty]

@Nyxus

I said in my initial comment about acquiring, and you replied with "Jim Ryan said that they do not rule out the option of acquisitions" it sounded like you were making it out like i said they would not make acquisitions, so i thought it was a defence reply.

I apologize if i misinterpreted your comment.

IMO, Sony will invest more in what they already have, than buy current studios, that is just my opinion that is all.

It is

[Nyxus]

@ DJStotty: it was simply meant as an addition to your comment, some extra context.

[bouzebbal]

Omg please don't let this series die especially after they butchered it with the second episode

[DJStotty]

@Nyxus

In which case, i wholeheartedly apologize.

I guess i am just that used to backlash on my comments i instantly assume every one is a pop lol

On topic, Returnal looks like a really interesting game, and Sony would make a good acquisition there if they do.

[Nyxus]

@ DJ: No worries.

[Viking_mo]

Actually Jim Ryan has mentioned it few times. He said they will continue to invest in new IP from 3rd party studios as well as buying and merging with studios

[jznrpg]

A few million? Yeah that’s way too cheap lol

[Army_of_Darkness]

Sony doesn't purchase studios because they get pressured too like MS. Sony buy studios that have great potential and has already proven themselves, like insomniac's spider man and their ratchet and clank series for example...

[DJStotty]

@muffindecker

"You clearly have an agenda with the comments you seem to make. Sony doesn't need a bunch of acquisitions to prove they can deliver amazing games."

No, i have absolutely no agenda, i mentioned in another comment Sony do not need any more studios to compete with Microsoft for the next couple of years, but i will repost that comment here, to prove i have no bias/agenda, i am a gamer :-

"Exactly my point, Sony do not need to buy more, as Microsoft 1st party will be slow for the next few years."

"Sony will not need to buy more 1st party studios for a good few years yet, Sony have enough 1st party studios and 1st party games to match Microsoft's 1st party output for a good few years to come in the future."

You can bet your bottom dollar in around 4-5 years, IF and i mean IF Microsoft somehow manage to output more 1st party than Sony, then like Jim Ryan has said, the option of acquisitions is always on the table to boost the 1st party library.

[DeadSilence]

Jimbo can't get away with this!

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Great to hear that Sony is putting in that work.

[blackblades]

So around August is when the production will increase. Probably a little bit over a year there might be a revision. As of now I dont see what they can revise.

[Flawlessmic]

Sounds good to me, keep the quality games coming 👌👌

[Sitdown]

In other news, water is wet, and will exist on earth for at least another quarter.

[DJStotty]

Depends on climate change......

[Chevalier]

How so? Will water no longer be wet going forward? Lol. If water doesn't exist then we'll kiss life on planet Earth goodbye

[DJStotty]

"and will exist on earth for at least another quarter."

I meant the existence part, sure it will still be wet, but if we get hit by a large enough asteroid, Earth gets knocked out of orbit, closer to the sun, and all water is evaporated in a few weeks, due to an immense shift in climate conditions, then it will no longer exist on earth during that quarter :p

Point being, no one can guarantee water will exist tomorrow, the earth could explode overnight, who knows lol

[Sitdown]

Well Jesus said He is the living water, and from my understanding He would be able to withstand a asteroid fallout. So water will still be with us for at least another quarter.

[TheHan]

They’ll need too.

[Flawlessmic]

Yea cause the competitors are releasing sooo many quality exclusives, have no idea how sony is going to keep up.......

[Flawlessmic]

@thehan

Your reaching hard and honestly just sound salty AF, u know exactly whats games are coming tomorrow and in the next month alone.

Please enlighten me on what the competition has coming sometime soon while were still young??

[cooperdnizzle]

@theHan. You are the one who is sucking on something, probably more than just a thumb.
Anyone with half a brain who can read and comprehend facts can see, Sony is killing it, they haven’t even lost a step, they just released the biggest and best games at the end of the ps4. Now with the ps5 they haven’t skipped a beat, we have demo souls, spider man, all star, bug snacks, Returnal, Kenya, ratchet and clank, and much much more coming in the very near future...

Xbox hasn’t released one game... hahah. And not to mention they basically stoped making games for the xbox one 3 years ago. I thought they where holding games back for the launch Apparently not.. I own both of the new consoles I always buy all the consoles, but ms still has done nothing, and the way it looks, it’s gonna take ms another 4 to 5 years to really get in the swing of things, and that’s if everything goes 100% right.

Go read the facts and numbers for what Sony is doing right here and now, and look at the numbers for the past 5 years. Sony is on a huge raise, and continues to do better each and every year. Ms is pretty much where they have been for the past 5 to 6 years. And you Xbox only guys, all you talk about is Xbox game pass. Sony has given away better games than Xbox game pass could ever dream... so the one area Xbox should be winning... well they still lose because the free games Sony gave away with the ps5 are hands down better than anything you could find on game pass.

Xbox fanboys are the only group of people that I have ever seen lie and talk out of their ass to no end. You guys just believe whatever pr or talk Xbox does, and are happy with whatever they say or give you guys. BC is the only thing ms is doing better at the time, because they have literally have zero else to show or talk about....

Sony has a bunch of things going forward and I wouldn’t be surprised if they have better BC in the future. They are just focusing on the future right now, psvr2, new games, and are getting ready to expand and start making more online games as well.

Let’s see if Xbox can turn this around, but as of right now they haven’t shown anything at all and that’s the truth. What happened to halo?? The one game they had and it’s crickets...

You Xbox only fans can lie to yourselves doesn’t mean the rest of us are going to believe it. Seriously, most delusional fan base I have ever seen. “If” Xbox where doing that great I would be happy and it would be cool to see some actual competition from them and we would have way more awesome games to play, sadly ms hasn’t made a great game in years.

[DJStotty]

Not for a good few years yet, they have enough 1st party studios/games to give Microsoft a good run for a few years.

[Darkborn]

It's been a few years since they bought those 5 other studios. How many exclusives for the series x have they released yet?

[DJStotty]

@darkborn

Exactly my point, Sony do not need to buy more, as Microsoft 1st party will be slow for the next few years.

Not quite sure how my comment is so hard to understand, when you have just confirmed my reasoning, but i will add a few more words for the hard to understand crowd :-

"Sony will not need to buy more 1st party studios for a good few years yet, Sony have enough 1st party studios and 1st party games to match Microsoft's 1st party output for a good few years to come in the future."

[RazzerRedux]

Why? Name another company that published more GOTY winners than Sony did last gen.

[DOMination-]

Out of interest, what metrics are used here as I see people saying this a lot. And I agree with the sentiment on Sony last gen so not disputing that point.

But GOTY... Are VGAs the "official" goty? Or do you mean adding up the hundreds from random publications?

[Nyxus]

@ Domination: there is a website that tracks all Game of the Year Awards, so you can see which has won the most in total. https://www.gameawards.net/

[RazzerRedux]

@DOMination-

There is no "official" GOTY. There are a few award ceremonies, but mostly it is just the "hundreds from random publications" out there. Either way, the point is still the same. Nyxus' link is the best resource for seeing what games received the most awards. Three of the last four GOTY were Sony published games. And that isn't even taking into consideration the games like Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, Bloodborne, and Horizon Zero Dawn that won plenty of awards from various publications while not winning the most overall. Sony has an incredibly impressive library of games.

[DOMination-]

Thanks for the link Nyxus.

As I said, I don't disagree with the view that Sony got the most GOTY awards, I was just wondering what the metric was for such a claim.

[RazzerRedux]

"We know that PS isn’t what it used to be and for that they’ve been losing the advantage, by all means tell me a game that people are actually anticipated about cause last I checked nothing of theirs was appealing to me."

Ratchet & Clank
God of War Ragnarok
Horizon Forbidden West

Regardless of what games we are talking about, how in the hell does not being appealing to you equate to not being appealing to other people? Answer: it doesn't.

"Should hope that Sony brings something to E3 this year."

Hell, Sony brought more before E3 than others have done in nearly two straight years. Whatever gripes anyone has against Sony, they have consistently brought the games.

[BlaqMagiq1]

Nothing but great news. I know Sony will deliver the best games out there as usual. Looking forward to what they have planned for the rest of 2021 and 2022.

[Rimeskeem]

Looking at you Housemarque!

[SullysCigar]

And they'll no doubt continue to be the best in the business.

[lelo2play]

Sony to continue paying off 3rd party developers to release their games much later on other platforms (timed exclusives) and implementing forced parity clauses.

[The Wood]

Cry harder.......

[Atticus_finch]

It's okay. The guys with the other console are really good at waiting. Infact I think they love it.

[StoneyYoshi]

"implementing forced parity clauses."

Link please or GTFO.

[SoulWarrior]

Something that MS very much popularised in the 360 gen.

[RazzerRedux]

lol....just like their competition.

[CrimsonWing69]

That’s great but let’s get more new IPs instead of just sequels to big hits. I’d like to see what else Naughty Dog can do besides Uncharted and The last of Us.

[SlothLordPootus]

It will be interesting if/when Microsoft makes Bethesda games exclusive, how long it will be before Sony decides to enter the First Person RPG market. I can see Guerrilla working on something like that. Back in the day I actually wrote a blog post on IGN about how Guerilla could make their own fallout in the Killzone Universe. I also would love to see Naughty Dog work on something new, even if I would still love an Sully origins Uncharted game, that could go to another studio.

[SullysCigar]

Horizon Zero Dawn was toyed with in first person recently. I wonder if they were using it to cut their teeth on.

[Flewid638]

Those are the kind of games I love, hence why I always buy PlayStations.

[REDGUM]

Please invest in the Bend studio. Days Gone needs a 2nd chance. If not for a sequel then to allow a revamped PS5 version maybe.
This game was scrutinised way too much upon release for small things that most were eventually patched anyway.
It was a great game, well thought out, great atmosphere, game length, action orientated and for me, one of the best zombie games out there.

Please give them a 2nd chance, the game & crew behind it deserve you're support.

[Darkborn]

It was a truly fun game in my opinion too and I think Sony should invest in bend studio too. It sounds like they are investing in all of their studios though.

[waverider]

Bring more games. More new ip. New experiences, because that what gamers want

[Abnor_Mal]

Hoping for the same kind of push when it comes to PSVR2 games.

[Nineball2112]

As well they should. It's paid off for them so far.

[giovonni]

As they should. A company should continue to invest in its strengths and infrastructure, while trying to innovate to appeal to consumers. As specially when competition is aiming to strength itself to gain more market share .. only the arrogant cough cough ( apple) assumes they can continue to win over the consumer with just brand loyalty.

[Stanjara]

Good!

[jznrpg]

It’s obvious they were going to spend more than ever this gen on their own studios . They make the most money from their own games and PS then anything else in their company . But the third party deals are more aggressive then ever (and a little surprising) and you MS fans can thank MS for that . Sony is beating MS at their own game that they played during 360 days. Sure exclusive deals were a thing before MSbut not at the level went with during the 360 days . MS has to out bid Sony because software will sell more on PS to begin with on top of the exclusive money and it’s easier for Sony to bid the same and possibly lesser and win because of the install base . The I’m so rich MS got beat at their own game and it’s their own fault really .

[neomahi]

You COULD interpret that first part to mean acquision, in acquiring more studios as first-party. Im fearing for Media Molecule right now, unless Jim figures thats his British Pride right there, but it took a long time to get Dreams out and they dont really have much in the works, Im thinking Media Molecule could be next to shut down, that was under the Tretton era which has seen a lot of studio closures, the only really big pushes from Trettons big push are Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch, the latter being a Tretton Acquisition. Naughty Dog were HEAVILY supported and promoted under Jack Tretton, they are what they are because he brought them to the forefront and acknowledged them, CEOs before him didnt really care. Sure miss that guy. Everyones been calling for Shawn Layden but, it was Jack Tretton that brought PS3 from non existent to successful, through a PlayStation Network outage, thats common news today, Jack Tretton is rhe unsung hero nobody ever seems to remember, and thats a travesty.

[Retroman]

"Aggressively invest in First party studios "
I bet it'll be fps and open world only games. nothing New since ps2 Era same crap rinse wash and repeat " open world shooters"
Glad R-type Finals 2 will be released this Friday.

[SpadeX]

Not really news, Sony has always been delivering frequently, and Jim did mention previously that there will be more exclusives this generation than the last one. Either way, I can't wait!

[Donjune]

It's about quality games!

[Minute Man 721]

Still sold out 😞

[anast]

I would like to see a CEO boxing match. It could be the opener to Jake Paul's next fight.

[S2Killinit]

And that is why I like PlayStations.

[Master of Unlocking]

"Sony Aims to "Aggressively Invest" in First-Party Studios"

Then make that buyout of Housemarque & Bluepoint Studio happen, for a start.