Sony Interactive Entertainment has no plans to release ‘any new major existing titles’ for PlayStation before March 31, 2025.
The announcement came during the company’s Q3 briefing.
“Regarding first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games” Sony Group president, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki said.
“But while major projects are currently under development, we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year like God of War Ragnorak and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.”
While games that fall under ‘major existing franchise titles’ do include marquee titles such as God of War and Marvel’s Spiderman, it does not include new intellectual property games such as multiplayer first-person shooter Concord or non-major existing franchise titles such as survival horror hit Until Dawn.
Totoki voiced his expectation for sales from franchise titles to drop off slightly:
“Although the burden of acquisition-related costs will ease next fiscal year, we expect profit from first-party software to decrease slightly from this fiscal year due to the impact of the decrease in sales. Due to this, operating income for the next fiscal year is currently expected to increase slightly from this fiscal year. However, while this is our baseline, we are reviewing measures for further improvement in profitability in advance of the annual forecast results announcement this May.”
Playstation 5 to help Sony with revenue
However, he also discussed the role Playstation 5 sales will play in Sony’s earnings:
“Regarding the PlayStation 5 hardware, which will enter its fifth year since launch, partially due to its entering the latter half of the console cycle, we aim to optimize sales with a greater emphasis on balance with profits, so we anticipate a gradual decline in unit sales from next fiscal year onwards,” Totoki said.
“We expect third-party software sales to continue to expand gradually due to the expansion of the PlayStation 5 install base and the high level of user engagement. In network services, we expect subscribers to be on par with this fiscal year or slightly less due to the impact of price revision we implemented in this fiscal year. Still, we expect sales to gradually expand due to a shift to attractive premium services.”
As reported in Gematsu, the outlook for the next fiscal year for the PlayStation 5 (PS5) is:
- PS5 Hardware unit sales – Gradual decline
- Software sales – Decrease, with no plan for release of major franchise titles
- The burden of acquisition-related costs – Easing
- First-party software profit – Slight decrease
- Third-party software sales – Gradual expansion
- Network services revenue – Gradual expansion
