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SIE's New Business Pillars

It's proving to be quite a huge year for Sony and Sony Interactive Entertainment in general. I think it will ultimately be a year where we see Sony's video games business drastically change from its previous models and their revenue is going to increase significantly in the coming years.

New Pillars
PlayStation Productions
Bungie and external growth
Multiplatform Support
GaaS
Spartacus and subscription services

PlayStation Productions
I think PlayStation Productions has the potential to be extremely large for Sony Interactive Entertainment. The rebranding from PlayStation Originals shows how serious Sony is about this and the 120 million dollar budget for Uncharted is just the beginning.

Video game movies aren't generally well regarded but neither were comic book movies before the early 2000s. I'm not sure that Uncharted has done anything to change that but it has performed fairly well given we're still in a pandemic and theater revenues haven't returned to normal. Uncharted is performing just behind the Sonic movie in terms of Box Office performance, but more importantly, I think it sends a message that PlayStation Productions has the ability to generate serious revenue. It looks like Uncharted will probably have a global box office of about 300 million dollars. We'll see how much The Batman destroys on-going box office domestically though.

Their next efforts look to be the Last of Us TV series with HBO, a rumored Twisted Metal TV series with Anthony Mackie, Ghost of Tsushima directed by the John Wick director, and Jak and Daxter. The Last of Us looks like it could be the biggest HBO show in some time, obviously, we'll have to wait and see. I'm sure the plan here is to give the Last of Us 2 a second lease on life along with the heavily rumored Last of Us Remake. I believe we'll see these released for PS4, PS5, and PC, but more on PC later.

It'll be very interesting to see who they cast as Jin Sakai in Ghost of Tsushima. It'll be very interesting how Sony sells this movie internationally. Mulan was tailor-made to perform in China and was a box office disaster for Disney. They obviously have to tiptoe around China to even ensure the movie gets a release. Spider-Man No Way Home is Sony's biggest movie ever, but it hasn't received a Chinese release yet and may never. Given the game was not perceived well in China, I'm guessing no Chinese release will ever happen, which will mean the movie probably will get a smaller budget but probably won't kowtow to Chinese politics. I think Ghost of Tsushima will get a PC release well before this movie comes out. Since they haven't even announced a cast for the movie yet, I think we're at least two years away from a film release. Speaking of which I either cast Ken Watanabe or Hiroyuki Sanada (having worked with the John Wick director) as the uncle. Despite Ghost of Tsushima lending itself well to film, I don't think it will perform all that well unless it is a directorial masterpiece, which I'm just not expecting.

I think PlayStation Productions is going to go through some growing pains, but I think like Marvel, they'll find getting the right director and the right cast plays a big part in the success of these films. I think the casting of Tom Holland and to a degree, Mark Wahlberg helped sell this movie, especially on the heights of Spider-Man No Way Home, but I do think they'll have to do better.

Twisted Metal is going to struggle to be carried by Anthony Mackie and 30-minute episodes leaves me in complete confusion as to what this thing is going to be. I'm not surprised that in this content race no one has rushed to buy this yet.

Sony Pictures actually has the live-action TV rights and long-form animated tv rights to Spider-Man (episodes longer than 44 minutes). I could see TV shows made based on the Spider-Man video games in conjunction with Sony Pictures Television.

I assume that Jak and Daxter will be animated and made in conjunction with Sony Pictures Animation and unlike the Ratchet and Clank movie, made with a budget larger than 20 million dollars. And I think that we'll at least see a Jak Trilogy remaster as a result if not at least a Jak and Daxter 1 remake. Ruben Fleischer being pegged to head this despite no experience with animation is particularly jarring. Ultimately, I hope he is only producing and isn't directing. To give frame of reference here Hotel Translyvania is probably an appropriate target goal for a Jak and Daxter movie. The movie received a budget of 85 million dollars. Regardless, I don't think we see a Jak and Daxter movie released until 2024-2025.


Bungie and external growth
Bungie checks a lot of boxes for Sony, which explains the price tag. They ensure a major FPS producer at a minimum remains multiplatform after Microsoft has purchased pretty much every prominent FPS developer. It also helps SIE jumpstart their GaaS business, which I'll get to as well, but recall that fairly recently Sony was looking to buy Leyou for probably the exact same reason. In addition to this major new IP they are working on that Sony must have insight into, getting Destiny 3 + Major New IP + GaaS expertise checks a lot of boxes for them for sure.

When you consider the revenue Sony is looking to create annually with their newfound business pillars, 3.4 billion is a drop in the bucket ultimately.

I think as continue to see Sony buying major studios or even Publishers they'll have to be extremely in line with Sony's strategy and/or DNA. What does the studio/publisher do that Sony can't do in-house, how does their talent/portfolio complement SIE's current talent/portfolio? Are they conducive to helping PlayStation Productions with TV/Movies? And what impact does that have ultimately on the studio/publisher's price tag.

Multiplatform Support
I think that Sony's inability to produce consoles is going to fast-track their multiplatform strategy. I think their purchase of Nixxes was them identifying early on in the PS5 life cycle that they weren't going to be able to produce systems quickly enough to maximize their revenue going forward. So many big-name games see their sales suffer due to incompetent ports.

I think Sony has recognized that with Horizon Zero Dawn. It's generally best to outsource the ports rather than have primary developers take resources away from producing new titles, even better than outsourcing would be to have an in-house team dedicated to PC ports. It'll be interesting to see how many games going forward will be handled by Nixxes rather than continuously outsourced to companies like Iron Galaxy Studios, Virtuous, and JetPack Interactive or done in-house like Sony Bend with Day's Gone.

God of War has already proved to Sony how successful they can be in generating revenue on PC. Does anyone think that the following games can't clear millions of copies on PC at 50 dollars a pop? My random estimates in parenthesis

Marvel's Spider-Man - (10 million)
Spider-Man: Miles Morales - (8 million)
Demon's Souls - (1.5-2 million)
Bloodborne - (2 million)
Ghost of Tsushima - (3-5 million)
Gran Turismo 7 - (5-10 million)
Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart (1-2 million)
Last of Us Remake and Last of Us 2 - (5-10 million)
Shadow of the Collosus - (500k-1 million)
Killzone Shadowfall - (250-500k)
Dreams - (all the money)

I think you're looking at at least 30 million copies across these games being more conservative than my estimates is 1.5 billion at 50 dollars a pop.

I think ultimately, Sony will distribute their own games through their own service on PC as they can't enjoy cutting off their revenue to Valve/Steam and Epic/EGS. Once they start distributing their own games, it's only a matter of time until they start distributing 3rd party games on PC as well.

I'm not sure how much if any money they made on the Xbox version of MLB The Show and if they'll make any money on the Switch version, but I can only imagine they're getting a strong cut of the revenue from those games. In conjunction with Bungie, we're seeing Sony being more willing to negotiate around deals that include multiplatform support, even direct competitors.

While most of us don't care about MOBA, I think iOS and Android will also be a big part of their plans. They kind of dabbled their toes in the water with ForwardWorks, but I think they'll double down on this. This is an example of where you'll see Sony buy a studio since starting an internal studio like ForwardWorks isn't a guaranteed success. I think Spartacus is going to ultimately end up on PC, Android, and iOS in some fashion as well. It's worth noting that Fate/Grand Order has generated over 4 billion dollars for Sony Music Entertainment in lifetime revenue.

GaaS
I think with GaaS, Sony may do something pretty interesting. Back in 2017, when Shawn Layden was Chairman of SWWS he liked the idea of GaaS but it was key that they weren't going to focus in on GaaS for studios that it didn't make sense to have focus on GaaS. I think that is ultimately why they purchased Bungie because GaaS still isn't in their DNA. I think we'll see some natural games play out as service-based games, but I think some of the GaaS are going to be made by studios that Sony partners with.

Having announced that 10 GaaS will launch between now and March 2026, I think we can look at some likely candidates:

1. Gran Turismo 7 - Polyphony Digital (I think we can assume to some degree that GT7 will be a Live Service game)
2. Destiny 3 - Bungie
3. PlayStation Home Version 2.0, PS5, PSVR2, and PC - Sony London Studios (I think Sony would be crazy not to return to PlayStation Home with PSVR2 and the current gaming climate)
4. Dreams PS5 and PC - MediaMolecule, Nixxes (Crazy this hasn't happened yet, but this is untapped revenue so clear that I can't imagine it not happening).
5. Unannounced Game - Haven Entertainment Studios

I think Dreams has the potential to be one of the largest GaaS games on the planet. PlayStation Home has really potential as well.

Spartacus
There are obviously comparisons to Game Pass but I think this is going to be bigger than Game Pass but also very different from Game Pass. There are 48 million PlayStation plus subscribers already. If every PS+ subscriber upgraded to the rumored price of the rumored 3rd tier of PS+ it would generate 288 million dollars in extra revenue every month or 3.45 billion per year. Note for later in the discussion that Sony bought Crunchyroll for 1.175 billion dollars.

Partially Spartacus is a realignment of current offerings. Microsoft already bundle Xbox Live Gold with some tiers of Game Pass. But if that is all it was, I don't think it would take a year to do a rebranding of PS Now. I think they'll have needed to work out licensing deals to pull off a lot of what has been rumored depending on the execution. I think by having separate services, Sony was doing themselves a disservice, but re-aligning as Microsoft has with Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold just makes sense.

What is interesting is the tiered pricing, which is very different from how Microsoft has structured their prices, but it also makes sense because Sony isn't where Microsoft is yet in terms of PC support. As I mentioned before I think eventually PSN/PS Store will come to PC and when it does, I think we'll see some change in the pricing structure to reflect support for a portion of your library on PC.

So far it looks like Sony is going for the Netflix/Amazon frog in boiling water approach to pricing to entice people to upgrade to higher tiers. Based on rumors they've appropriately broken up the value in PS Now in hopes of getting people to do a simple upgrade from PS+ for only 3 dollars more a month. I think that the middle tier will be rare. So many of us have clamored for proper backward compatibility and potentially that will be delivered in the top tier for 16 dollars. We'll see if Sony has properly emulated PS1 through 3. We already knew they had PS1 and PS2 emulators and now here is a chance for them to essentially monetize them and get us to stop asking about them. My questions will be whether these emulators include any enhancements and whether they allow people to play any of the existing game library (at least the digital portion) or if it more likely will just have a dashboard of games that you can play netflix style, and whether we'll be able to download these games and play them offline or if it will require them to be streamed. I can't imagine for 6 dollars a month they'll be able to have an extremely large catalog of 3rd party classic PlayStation games in addition to what they're already offering with new titles.

There has also been speculation that Sony might leverage their newly acquired Crunchyroll (Note: Sony Pictures bought Crunchyroll not Sony Interactive) and no pun intended roll that into Spartacus with Funimation (Note Sony Pictures owns Funimation not Sony Interactive), but the Grubb statements make no mention of this, making it less likely. It should be noted that Sony was trialing a PS Plus Video Pass in Poland last year. It's also worth noting however how many free subscribers Crunchyroll and Funimation both have and that you might be able to convince these subscribers to actually pay for anime through subscription to PS+. This would give Sony a huge advantage over Game Pass in my opinion.

Crunchyroll has 4 million paid subscribers and 100 million free subscribers. Converting even a small percentage of these users into paid subscribers through PS+ would help with retention and revenue generation. Crunchyroll left HBO Max at the end of 2021. Crunchyroll by itself costs 8 dollars per month.

Funimation has 2.5 million paid subscribers and over 120 million registered members (obviously there is crossover here with Crunchyroll). Funimation starts off at 6 dollars per month.

If you look at D+ and the D+, Hulu, ESPN+ bundle, you can get an idea of what I'm saying here.

D+ by itself costs 8 dollars a month.
Hulu costs 7 dollars a month by itself (ad-supported)
ESPN+ is also 7 dollars a month.
Individually these would cost you 22 dollars a month but bundled their price is 14 dollars.

Basically, you're looking at 100 million anime fans, who don't necessarily want to pay for anime by itself. I think it would be foolish not to try and leverage these services, but we'll see what happens. If Spartacus could convince 10 percent of these users to join the top tier, you're looking at an extra 10 million people to pay 16 dollars a month (assuming they don't already have PS+ and are on free versions of either service that would be 160 million in revenue per month or 1.92 billion in revenue per year. Even half that number with 5 million new users would be 80 million in revenue per month and 960 million per year, just shy of a billion dollars annually.

The purchase of Crunchyroll would pay for itself for Sony Group easily within 3-5 years and it would also give Sony a huge advantage over Steam for a PC platform and over Microsoft with Game Pass.
 

kyliethicc

Member
idc laughing GIF
 
I hope VR can be one of those pillars.

Their first attempt with PSVR was hindered by outdated technology, even for 2016, and a weak (for VR) baseline console. Now PSVR2 has a better chance to succeed.
I thought about including VR as a pillar, but I think even PSVR2 is going to be niche.
 
I don't like Sony's new direction with bullshit GAAS games and multiplayer garbage. Keep it single player. And keep it japanese.
I don't think the multiplayer has to take anything away from the single player. I also don't think the GAAS has to be bullshit. Some games naturally should be live service games as I mentioned above.

As for Japan, I get where you're coming from, but it just isn't possible. The industry has changed there and people want the Japan of the 90s and 2000s and it just doesn't exist anymore.
 
Good job,I'm not reading all of that but I'm happy for you.
What do y'all have against long posts 😂?

I also think they'll leverage Crunchyroll, Funimation, and maybe use a higher tier of Spartacus for access to vaulted Sony Pictures content and (select films) Day 1 VOD rentals of new releases similar to Disney+. But those things may take a while to actually be integrated, if they ever are.

For Crunchyroll/Funimation, they probably still want to have that be its own service so any content from that into Spartacus would be older releases, and probably more as a sampling, with maybe the occasional new series to plug in there every once in a while.

I don't think the multiplayer has to take anything away from the single player. I also don't think the GAAS has to be bullshit. Some games naturally should be live service games as I mentioned above.

As for Japan, I get where you're coming from, but it just isn't possible. The industry has changed there and people want the Japan of the 90s and 2000s and it just doesn't exist anymore.

Sony's best option for Japan would be to bring their own portable to the market, basically spin the PS4 design down into a portable device. Same performance, same memory capacity and bandwidth, better storage (even a cheap microSD card of decent performance would be better than the HDDs in base PS4s), OS features etc. High-quality touch-enabled display, good battery life, Remote Play compatibility with PS4 & PS5 (local streaming).

They can position it as a boutique portable offering entire PS4 library on-the-go, and it could also offer new market opportunities for 3P studios who still want to support crossgen or may not have the budget to target PS5-level performance, or just want to design games that are more portable-friendly, and they would still be 100% compatible with PS4 & PS5 consoles natively.

It can give them pretty good profit margins on the hardware itself, and since they'd still own the platform and storefront, continue to ensure a 30% cut on 3P software. Some people have mentioned they could just bring forth an app for mobile devices to accomplish this in a somewhat different way, but that'd require more work and they give up a portion of both revenue & profit taking that route. I don't think it would fit their business model.
 
Last edited:

Zeroing

Banned
I dunno if those are truly the pillars of SIE . The way I see it, since the new leadership of Sony took place -some years ago, changes were made in SIE and it seems PlayStation is tagging along with what the other parts of Sony are doing! - it should be always the other way around! Sony is where it is because of PlayStation

With Kaz, Sony was more creative. You could had noticed on the PS4 era.
Now it seems Sony is getting more business oriented.
It’s quite a day and night contrast.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
It's proving to be quite a huge year for Sony and Sony Interactive Entertainment in general. I think it will ultimately be a year where we see Sony's video games business drastically change from its previous models and their revenue is going to increase significantly in the coming years.

New Pillars
PlayStation Productions
Bungie and external growth
Multiplatform Support
GaaS
Spartacus and subscription services

PlayStation Productions
I think PlayStation Productions has the potential to be extremely large for Sony Interactive Entertainment. The rebranding from PlayStation Originals shows how serious Sony is about this and the 120 million dollar budget for Uncharted is just the beginning.

Video game movies aren't generally well regarded but neither were comic book movies before the early 2000s. I'm not sure that Uncharted has done anything to change that but it has performed fairly well given we're still in a pandemic and theater revenues haven't returned to normal. Uncharted is performing just behind the Sonic movie in terms of Box Office performance, but more importantly, I think it sends a message that PlayStation Productions has the ability to generate serious revenue. It looks like Uncharted will probably have a global box office of about 300 million dollars. We'll see how much The Batman destroys on-going box office domestically though.

Their next efforts look to be the Last of Us TV series with HBO, a rumored Twisted Metal TV series with Anthony Mackie, Ghost of Tsushima directed by the John Wick director, and Jak and Daxter. The Last of Us looks like it could be the biggest HBO show in some time, obviously, we'll have to wait and see. I'm sure the plan here is to give the Last of Us 2 a second lease on life along with the heavily rumored Last of Us Remake. I believe we'll see these released for PS4, PS5, and PC, but more on PC later.

It'll be very interesting to see who they cast as Jin Sakai in Ghost of Tsushima. It'll be very interesting how Sony sells this movie internationally. Mulan was tailor-made to perform in China and was a box office disaster for Disney. They obviously have to tiptoe around China to even ensure the movie gets a release. Spider-Man No Way Home is Sony's biggest movie ever, but it hasn't received a Chinese release yet and may never. Given the game was not perceived well in China, I'm guessing no Chinese release will ever happen, which will mean the movie probably will get a smaller budget but probably won't kowtow to Chinese politics. I think Ghost of Tsushima will get a PC release well before this movie comes out. Since they haven't even announced a cast for the movie yet, I think we're at least two years away from a film release. Speaking of which I either cast Ken Watanabe or Hiroyuki Sanada (having worked with the John Wick director) as the uncle. Despite Ghost of Tsushima lending itself well to film, I don't think it will perform all that well unless it is a directorial masterpiece, which I'm just not expecting.

I think PlayStation Productions is going to go through some growing pains, but I think like Marvel, they'll find getting the right director and the right cast plays a big part in the success of these films. I think the casting of Tom Holland and to a degree, Mark Wahlberg helped sell this movie, especially on the heights of Spider-Man No Way Home, but I do think they'll have to do better.

Twisted Metal is going to struggle to be carried by Anthony Mackie and 30-minute episodes leaves me in complete confusion as to what this thing is going to be. I'm not surprised that in this content race no one has rushed to buy this yet.

Sony Pictures actually has the live-action TV rights and long-form animated tv rights to Spider-Man (episodes longer than 44 minutes). I could see TV shows made based on the Spider-Man video games in conjunction with Sony Pictures Television.

I assume that Jak and Daxter will be animated and made in conjunction with Sony Pictures Animation and unlike the Ratchet and Clank movie, made with a budget larger than 20 million dollars. And I think that we'll at least see a Jak Trilogy remaster as a result if not at least a Jak and Daxter 1 remake. Ruben Fleischer being pegged to head this despite no experience with animation is particularly jarring. Ultimately, I hope he is only producing and isn't directing. To give frame of reference here Hotel Translyvania is probably an appropriate target goal for a Jak and Daxter movie. The movie received a budget of 85 million dollars. Regardless, I don't think we see a Jak and Daxter movie released until 2024-2025.


Bungie and external growth
Bungie checks a lot of boxes for Sony, which explains the price tag. They ensure a major FPS producer at a minimum remains multiplatform after Microsoft has purchased pretty much every prominent FPS developer. It also helps SIE jumpstart their GaaS business, which I'll get to as well, but recall that fairly recently Sony was looking to buy Leyou for probably the exact same reason. In addition to this major new IP they are working on that Sony must have insight into, getting Destiny 3 + Major New IP + GaaS expertise checks a lot of boxes for them for sure.

When you consider the revenue Sony is looking to create annually with their newfound business pillars, 3.4 billion is a drop in the bucket ultimately.

I think as continue to see Sony buying major studios or even Publishers they'll have to be extremely in line with Sony's strategy and/or DNA. What does the studio/publisher do that Sony can't do in-house, how does their talent/portfolio complement SIE's current talent/portfolio? Are they conducive to helping PlayStation Productions with TV/Movies? And what impact does that have ultimately on the studio/publisher's price tag.

Multiplatform Support
I think that Sony's inability to produce consoles is going to fast-track their multiplatform strategy. I think their purchase of Nixxes was them identifying early on in the PS5 life cycle that they weren't going to be able to produce systems quickly enough to maximize their revenue going forward. So many big-name games see their sales suffer due to incompetent ports.

I think Sony has recognized that with Horizon Zero Dawn. It's generally best to outsource the ports rather than have primary developers take resources away from producing new titles, even better than outsourcing would be to have an in-house team dedicated to PC ports. It'll be interesting to see how many games going forward will be handled by Nixxes rather than continuously outsourced to companies like Iron Galaxy Studios, Virtuous, and JetPack Interactive or done in-house like Sony Bend with Day's Gone.

God of War has already proved to Sony how successful they can be in generating revenue on PC. Does anyone think that the following games can't clear millions of copies on PC at 50 dollars a pop? My random estimates in parenthesis

Marvel's Spider-Man - (10 million)
Spider-Man: Miles Morales - (8 million)
Demon's Souls - (1.5-2 million)
Bloodborne - (2 million)
Ghost of Tsushima - (3-5 million)
Gran Turismo 7 - (5-10 million)
Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart (1-2 million)
Last of Us Remake and Last of Us 2 - (5-10 million)
Shadow of the Collosus - (500k-1 million)
Killzone Shadowfall - (250-500k)
Dreams - (all the money)

I think you're looking at at least 30 million copies across these games being more conservative than my estimates is 1.5 billion at 50 dollars a pop.

I think ultimately, Sony will distribute their own games through their own service on PC as they can't enjoy cutting off their revenue to Valve/Steam and Epic/EGS. Once they start distributing their own games, it's only a matter of time until they start distributing 3rd party games on PC as well.

I'm not sure how much if any money they made on the Xbox version of MLB The Show and if they'll make any money on the Switch version, but I can only imagine they're getting a strong cut of the revenue from those games. In conjunction with Bungie, we're seeing Sony being more willing to negotiate around deals that include multiplatform support, even direct competitors.

While most of us don't care about MOBA, I think iOS and Android will also be a big part of their plans. They kind of dabbled their toes in the water with ForwardWorks, but I think they'll double down on this. This is an example of where you'll see Sony buy a studio since starting an internal studio like ForwardWorks isn't a guaranteed success. I think Spartacus is going to ultimately end up on PC, Android, and iOS in some fashion as well. It's worth noting that Fate/Grand Order has generated over 4 billion dollars for Sony Music Entertainment in lifetime revenue.

GaaS
I think with GaaS, Sony may do something pretty interesting. Back in 2017, when Shawn Layden was Chairman of SWWS he liked the idea of GaaS but it was key that they weren't going to focus in on GaaS for studios that it didn't make sense to have focus on GaaS. I think that is ultimately why they purchased Bungie because GaaS still isn't in their DNA. I think we'll see some natural games play out as service-based games, but I think some of the GaaS are going to be made by studios that Sony partners with.

Having announced that 10 GaaS will launch between now and March 2026, I think we can look at some likely candidates:

1. Gran Turismo 7 - Polyphony Digital (I think we can assume to some degree that GT7 will be a Live Service game)
2. Destiny 3 - Bungie
3. PlayStation Home Version 2.0, PS5, PSVR2, and PC - Sony London Studios (I think Sony would be crazy not to return to PlayStation Home with PSVR2 and the current gaming climate)
4. Dreams PS5 and PC - MediaMolecule, Nixxes (Crazy this hasn't happened yet, but this is untapped revenue so clear that I can't imagine it not happening).
5. Unannounced Game - Haven Entertainment Studios

I think Dreams has the potential to be one of the largest GaaS games on the planet. PlayStation Home has really potential as well.

Spartacus
There are obviously comparisons to Game Pass but I think this is going to be bigger than Game Pass but also very different from Game Pass. There are 48 million PlayStation plus subscribers already. If every PS+ subscriber upgraded to the rumored price of the rumored 3rd tier of PS+ it would generate 288 million dollars in extra revenue every month or 3.45 billion per year. Note for later in the discussion that Sony bought Crunchyroll for 1.175 billion dollars.

Partially Spartacus is a realignment of current offerings. Microsoft already bundle Xbox Live Gold with some tiers of Game Pass. But if that is all it was, I don't think it would take a year to do a rebranding of PS Now. I think they'll have needed to work out licensing deals to pull off a lot of what has been rumored depending on the execution. I think by having separate services, Sony was doing themselves a disservice, but re-aligning as Microsoft has with Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold just makes sense.

What is interesting is the tiered pricing, which is very different from how Microsoft has structured their prices, but it also makes sense because Sony isn't where Microsoft is yet in terms of PC support. As I mentioned before I think eventually PSN/PS Store will come to PC and when it does, I think we'll see some change in the pricing structure to reflect support for a portion of your library on PC.

So far it looks like Sony is going for the Netflix/Amazon frog in boiling water approach to pricing to entice people to upgrade to higher tiers. Based on rumors they've appropriately broken up the value in PS Now in hopes of getting people to do a simple upgrade from PS+ for only 3 dollars more a month. I think that the middle tier will be rare. So many of us have clamored for proper backward compatibility and potentially that will be delivered in the top tier for 16 dollars. We'll see if Sony has properly emulated PS1 through 3. We already knew they had PS1 and PS2 emulators and now here is a chance for them to essentially monetize them and get us to stop asking about them. My questions will be whether these emulators include any enhancements and whether they allow people to play any of the existing game library (at least the digital portion) or if it more likely will just have a dashboard of games that you can play netflix style, and whether we'll be able to download these games and play them offline or if it will require them to be streamed. I can't imagine for 6 dollars a month they'll be able to have an extremely large catalog of 3rd party classic PlayStation games in addition to what they're already offering with new titles.

There has also been speculation that Sony might leverage their newly acquired Crunchyroll (Note: Sony Pictures bought Crunchyroll not Sony Interactive) and no pun intended roll that into Spartacus with Funimation (Note Sony Pictures owns Funimation not Sony Interactive), but the Grubb statements make no mention of this, making it less likely. It should be noted that Sony was trialing a PS Plus Video Pass in Poland last year. It's also worth noting however how many free subscribers Crunchyroll and Funimation both have and that you might be able to convince these subscribers to actually pay for anime through subscription to PS+. This would give Sony a huge advantage over Game Pass in my opinion.

Crunchyroll has 4 million paid subscribers and 100 million free subscribers. Converting even a small percentage of these users into paid subscribers through PS+ would help with retention and revenue generation. Crunchyroll left HBO Max at the end of 2021. Crunchyroll by itself costs 8 dollars per month.

Funimation has 2.5 million paid subscribers and over 120 million registered members (obviously there is crossover here with Crunchyroll). Funimation starts off at 6 dollars per month.

If you look at D+ and the D+, Hulu, ESPN+ bundle, you can get an idea of what I'm saying here.

D+ by itself costs 8 dollars a month.
Hulu costs 7 dollars a month by itself (ad-supported)
ESPN+ is also 7 dollars a month.
Individually these would cost you 22 dollars a month but bundled their price is 14 dollars.

Basically, you're looking at 100 million anime fans, who don't necessarily want to pay for anime by itself. I think it would be foolish not to try and leverage these services, but we'll see what happens. If Spartacus could convince 10 percent of these users to join the top tier, you're looking at an extra 10 million people to pay 16 dollars a month (assuming they don't already have PS+ and are on free versions of either service that would be 160 million in revenue per month or 1.92 billion in revenue per year. Even half that number with 5 million new users would be 80 million in revenue per month and 960 million per year, just shy of a billion dollars annually.

The purchase of Crunchyroll would pay for itself for Sony Group easily within 3-5 years and it would also give Sony a huge advantage over Steam for a PC platform and over Microsoft with Game Pass.


1UCfqHu.jpg
 
I dunno if those are truly the pillars of SIE . The way I see it, since the new leadership of Sony took place -some years ago, changes were made in SIE and it seems PlayStation is tagging along with what the other parts of Sony are doing! - it should be always the other way around! Sony is where it is because of PlayStation

With Kaz, Sony was more creative. You could had noticed on the PS4 era.
Now it seems Sony is getting more business oriented.
It’s quite a day and night contrast.
I mean they absolutely are.

PlayStation has always tried to integrate with the rest of Sony. The PS3 had the Spider-Man font for a reason. The PS2 used DVDs for a reason. The PS3 used blu-ray for a reason.

You might not be particularly excited about these things, but they will be important pillars for the PlayStation business moving forward, which isn't to say it takes away from what they're already good at, which is single player story based games (which they only really got to be good at fairly recently).

Sony has always been business oriented, if you weren't around for e3s that focused entirely on their sales performance.
 
Sony won't have their own exclusive launcher.
I wouldn't bet against it. There is nothing about Steam that dictates that it will remain the market leader on PC forever. When it comes to new games, there is no specific reason to buy on Steam outside of keeping your library together in one place.
 

Zeroing

Banned
I mean they absolutely are.

PlayStation has always tried to integrate with the rest of Sony. The PS3 had the Spider-Man font for a reason. The PS2 used DVDs for a reason. The PS3 used blu-ray for a reason.

You might not be particularly excited about these things, but they will be important pillars for the PlayStation business moving forward, which isn't to say it takes away from what they're already good at, which is single player story based games (which they only really got to be good at fairly recently).

Sony has always been business oriented, if you weren't around for e3s that focused entirely on their sales performance.
I think we are watching a Sony everywhere type of move and the same thing will/is happening to Playstation. Not a bad thing for consumers but this gen they seem to have lost their creative spark (so far) Maybe it is all perception because the move to their state of play streams.
 
I think we are watching a Sony everywhere type of move and the same thing will/is happening to Playstation. Not a bad thing for consumers but this gen they seem to have lost their creative spark (so far) Maybe it is all perception because the move to their state of play streams.

I think you have to evaluate it in terms of launch windows and keep covid in mind as well. Think it is way too early to say the generation doesn't have creative spark.
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
I wouldn't bet against it. There is nothing about Steam that dictates that it will remain the market leader on PC forever. When it comes to new games, there is no specific reason to buy on Steam outside of keeping your library together in one place.
Most people don't want another launcher. Steam is where the market is at.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
I think Sony's business strategy is a solid compromise between Nintendo and Microsoft's. Nintendo is utilizing the strength of its characters to expand as a multi-media company instead of just a video game one, while still prioritizing exclusive content and internal development. Microsoft meanwhile, wants Xbox on everything, expanding it to be more of an ecosystem rather than a platform, as noted with its acquisitions of full on publishers.

Sony is taking the middle of the road, expanding PlayStation's wealth of iconic characters and IP to other mediums and platforms, while using them as a marketing vehicle to drive the exclusive content that PlayStation 5 showcases. It'll be interesting to see how well it'll pay off, but Sony's approach is certainly shrewd.
 


Twisted Metal being purchased by Peacock really says a lot about it as I mentioned separately about Halo. It's not going to be great.

If it was any good HBO, Netflix, or Apple would have bought it.

A sale is a sale though.
 

iHaunter

Member
I think Sony need to buy SQENIX and From Soft as their team seems to be about as incompetent as Bethesda. All vision, mediocre execution.
 

Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
Bungie and external growth
Bungie checks a lot of boxes for Sony, which explains the price tag. They ensure a major FPS producer at a minimum remains multiplatform
Is Bungie still making games that people like? It seems like the response to Destiny has been mixed, the only thing they ever made that anyone seemed to care about was Halo. If they make a Halo clone for Sony people won't care, so they have to do something that is different and better than Halo. Sony bought them on a bet that they'd catch lightning in a bottle a second time, I don't think that's a good bet.
 
I think Sony need to buy SQENIX and From Soft as their team seems to be about as incompetent as Bethesda. All vision, mediocre execution.
Square Enix isn't worth the price it would take.

FromSoftware would be very expensive as you'd almost certainly have to buy Kadokawa in order to obtain them. Buying them also wouldn't come with some of their biggest IP that belongs to other companies.

Is Bungie still making games that people like? It seems like the response to Destiny has been mixed, the only thing they ever made that anyone seemed to care about was Halo. If they make a Halo clone for Sony people won't care, so they have to do something that is different and better than Halo. Sony bought them on a bet that they'd catch lightning in a bottle a second time, I don't think that's a good bet.
Destiny is extremely successful and Sony seems very excited about a new IP they're working on, which I believe was rumored to be a realistic shooter. That in combination with Destiny and their GaaS expertise, is extremely valuable.

A source for what?
 
Sony hasn’t been Japanese since the PS3 era.
Sony is very Japanese.

Playstation less so, but only cause that market isnt into home consoles. Japan is very mobile centric. Sony has Sony “Music” Entertainment Japan that handles that market more directly.

 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Is Bungie still making games that people like? It seems like the response to Destiny has been mixed, the only thing they ever made that anyone seemed to care about was Halo. If they make a Halo clone for Sony people won't care, so they have to do something that is different and better than Halo. Sony bought them on a bet that they'd catch lightning in a bottle a second time, I don't think that's a good bet.

Destiny certainly made more money than Halo Infinite. Likely Destiny 2 as well.

They seem to be good at catching lightning in a bottle.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
Sony is very Japanese.

Playstation less so, but only cause that market isnt into home consoles. Japan is very mobile centric. Sony has Sony “Music” Entertainment Japan that handles that market more directly.
I think he means that SIE hasn't been Japanese in years, which is technically true since they're based in California.
 
Sony is very Japanese.

Playstation less so, but only cause that market isnt into home consoles. Japan is very mobile centric. Sony has Sony “Music” Entertainment Japan that handles that market more directly.

The first article is about SME at PAX and them publishing a number of indie games for consoles. This contradicts your point.
 
The first article is about SME at PAX and them publishing a number of indie games for consoles. This contradicts your point.
How does it contradict my first point. Indies arent the same financial risk as a “The Last Guardian”. Playstation are a Playstation first company. SMEJ handles content more towards the Japanese market.
I think he means that SIE hasn't been Japanese in years, which is technically true since they're based in California.
Yes, I mean SIE or PlayStation. It is also true of Sony Pictures.
Titles published by Playstation that were more successful were western. But yes Playstation originally fell under Sony “Music” Entertainment Japan. But Playstation studios were always western heavy. SMEJ where Sony focuses on the Japanese market. And has been largely successful. Fate/Order is probably Sonys only successful mobile game.

Sony Pictures was basically owned by Cola-Cola, and was never “Japanese“.
 

ZehDon

Member
Spartacus
There are obviously comparisons to Game Pass but I think this is going to be bigger than Game Pass but also very different from Game Pass...
:messenger_tears_of_joy:

PS Now would have a larger subscriber base if this were even remotely possible. Unless Sony is offering its titles day one, it will never compete. Sony is dressing up PS Now and PS+ to create the image of a new service without actually doing all that new. This service is, apparently, going to heavily focus on streaming. This includes older titles, such as PS1 and PS2. Not only is this the worst possible way play these games, it's simply not what anyone asked for. If they keep it affordable and bundle in multiplayer access, it'll be no worse off than PS+. That's great news for PlayStation fans, because it means Sony won't be asking for yet more money from them. But, there is no way in hell their new service on its own is going to eclipse Game Pass' offering with titles like Syphon Filter with compression artifacts and heavy input lag.
 
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:messenger_tears_of_joy:

PS Now would have a larger subscriber base if this were even remotely possible. Unless Sony is offering its titles day one, it will never compete. Sony is dressing up PS Now and PS+ to create the image of a new service without actually doing all that new. This service is, apparently, going to heavily focus on streaming. This includes older titles, such as PS1 and PS2. Not only is this the worst possible way play these games, it's simply not what anyone asked for. If they keep it affordable and bundle in multiplayer access, it'll be no worse off than PS+. That's great news for PlayStation fans, because it means Sony won't be asking for yet more money from them. But, there is no way in hell their new service on its own is going to eclipse Game Pass' offering with titles like Syphon Filter with compression artifacts and heavy input lag.
Maybe you misunderstood or maybe you were trying to be purposefully obtuse.

There are 25 million Game Pass subscribers.

There are already 48 million PS+ subscribers. Thus this tiered model is already bigger than Game Pass.

So, not entirely sure what you mean by "it will never compete."

Clearly you didn't read anything.
 

The Alien

Banned
Not sure that a strategic, inter-company partnership between divisions that leverages IP (SIE, movie production) make a pillar for one division. But whatevs.
 

ZehDon

Member
Maybe you misunderstood or maybe you were trying to be purposefully obtuse.

There are 25 million Game Pass subscribers.

There are already 48 million PS+ subscribers. Thus this tiered model is already bigger than Game Pass.

So, not entirely sure what you mean by "it will never compete."

Clearly you didn't read anything.
What a laughable response.

PS+ is not positioned as Sony's Game Pass. You're drawing false equivalencies right off the bat, which reads like a fanboy. Xbox Live Gold is the equivalent comparison for PS+, so you should start there.

Secondly, Sony's new tiered service will likely attempt to combine PS Now into PS+'s new higher tiers. This is their response to Microsoft's shift to focus on services. The tiered approach is designed to offer people the opportunity to pay more money for more features. PS+'s base tier will likely be what PS+ is now only cheaper, perhaps sans a feature or two like cloud saves. Thus, given that PS+ is a requirement for multiplayer, the majority of subscribers will remain at the base level paying as little as possible for the big ticket item: online multiplayer. This changes very little for existing PS+ customers, which is a good thing.

Moving up the tiers, Sony is pushing game streaming as the big feature of the highest tier. PS Now has been around since the launch of the PS4, and it has amassed 3.2 million subscribers during this time. That's not a resounding success, but it's not a failure, either. Being that one does not require PS+ to have a PS Now subscription currently, Sony has the opportunity to increase the cost of access to their streaming service by discontinuing PS Now and locking access to it behind the highest tier of PS+. This would increase the number of PS+ subscriptions. However, we have no indication they'll actually do this. And so, the incentive for the highest tiers is, effectively, a cheaper PS Now subscription. Given that PS Now has largely been ignored by the vast majority of the 110 million PS4 owners, this won't drive a large amount of new business for them.

And so, back to my post: the highest tier of PS+ is Sony's response to Game Pass, while PS+'s lowest tier is it's Xbox Live Gold equivalent. The idea that highest tier of PS+ would eclipse Game Pass's 25 million subscribers is laughable when the exact same service has been around for nearly a decade, and it's largely ignored. PS+'s highest tier will never compete with Game Pass until Sony put their first party titles on the platform Day 1.
 
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