During Sony IR Day yesterday, future plans for the PlayStation brand and other services were revealed. Laying out some of its strategy for FY2018 and beyond, Sony Interactive Entertainment chief John Kodera placed a heavy emphasis on exclusive titles, though acknowledged that PS4 is entering the final phase of its console cycle.
Via Twitter the Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki captured some of the comments from Kodera, which included chat about focusing on PS4 exclusives.
“As for first party investment, it isn't necessarily only about increasing new IPs. Part of it is about refreshing current IPs, and enhancing contents by developing franchises for successful IPs,” said Kodera.
Following Sony IR day, a pdf file featuring the presentation was issued. One of the slides shows that Sony wants to continue strengthening the IP with exclusivity, including utilizing existing exclusive titles. In one slide we see games such as God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and Detroit Become Human.
In FY2018, the company also plans to continue to deliver “rich features” and “attractive services”, though doesn't go into the finer details. Other areas of focus in the year that ends March 31, 2019 includes eSports, PSVR and PS Vue.
Sony has acknowledged that operating profit in FY2018 will take a tumble due to “hardware unit sales decline”, but plans to offset that with profit from game sales, add-ons and growth of the PlayStation Plus membership.
According to stats presented at Sony IR day, the PS4 has now sold 79 million units up to March 31 2018, gamers play on PS4 800 million hours a week, and 264 million PS4 games were sold in FY2017. PlayStation Plus subscriptions have also grown from 26.4 million to 34.2 million year-on-year.
There's zero mention of PS5, though it's definitely confirmation that PS4 is in its final stages. The latest rumor puts the PS5 release date as 2020.
Source: Sony IR Day presentation