Sony will invest “aggressively” in its first-party studios over the next year and have more partnerships with third-party studios. The publisher has a good bag of money available for the plan.
While Sony earnings call Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki stated that the company wants to improve its exclusive offerings and that they will do so in two ways: “We plan to continue investing in partnerships with third-party studios, in addition to strong investments in our studios.”
Tutoki specifically referred to the company’s partnership with the new studio Haven of Assassin’s Creed creator Jade Raymond, which will be the first game to create a new PlayStation IP. After announcing a new multiplayer game from the former Destiny and Halo developers, it looks like we will see more exclusive partnerships over time.
Totoki has made it clear that it will significantly increase the amount of money it gives to first-party developers in addition to what it actually spends. “We plan to increase the development team and other costs in our in-house studios by about $ 183 million annually while further enhancing our in-house programs,” revealed the CFO.
“With our additional investment in Epic Games, we will, along with the rest of the Sony group, improve the social and gaming platform capabilities,” Tutoki said. That doesn’t give much, but Sony seems to want to jump into the social elements in games like Fortnite.
This aligns with statements by Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, who recently promised that the PS5 will have more exclusives than any previous generation of PlayStation.
We recently heard reports of dissatisfaction within Sony studios over the company’s exclusive offerings, as many Sony Bend members appear to be leaving the company after Days Gone 2 is rejected and the studio has dedicated to Naughty Dog projects. We’ve said before that Sony’s focus on games that are really big and can’t fail is a cause for concern.
The major success of the PS5 is undoubtedly due to Sony’s exclusives: the console sold more than the PS4 in its first fiscal year and broke US sales records. In the short term, the company has two exclusive next-generation groups on the horizon, with Returnal and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
