Sony has revealed plans to invest an additional $300 million into its first-party PlayStation studios. As part of a two-pronged strategy to grow its gaming business, the investment will push the agenda for releasing first-party games on “multiple platforms”.
Revealed in its latest earnings call, Sony made clear this investment is for developing software at existing studios. This would include Santa Monica Studio, the studio behind God of War, and Horizon Forbidden West‘s Guerrilla Games. This investment is separate to its acquisition plans.
“We plan to increase software development expenses aimed at strengthening first-party software at our existing studios by approximately ¥40 billion [$308 million USD].”
“Going forward we aim to grow the game business by strengthening our first-party software and deploying that software on multiple platforms.”
Sony
Sony didn’t offer any details on what platforms this might be. It may well be related to cross-platform releases on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. However, recent moves to launch popular IPs on PC and the acquisition of remastering studio Bluepoint suggest that we could see more Sony franchises heading to PC.
The value of Sony’s first-party IPs should not be underestimated. The company has continued to increase investment in its studios each year and reaped the benefits through increasing sales (see below).
Sony are Also Investing in More Acquisitions
As stated above, this increased funding is in addition to acquisition plans. Recent acquisitions, including that of Destiny developer Bungie, have suggested that Sony is keen to have a revenue source on platforms outside of PlayStation.
“In addition to acquiring studios such as Bungie and Haven in recent years we have significantly increased our investment in content development in our existing studios. As a result our first-party software development has increased at a high rate.”
Sony
Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan also said in April that it already has more purchases planned.
“We’re growing our studios organically and we’re growing through acquisition. We acquired five studios during the course of 2021. We’re in discussions with Bungie and we have more planned. This is getting us into a cycle, a virtuous cycle where success begets success.”
Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment President
What this additional investment will mean to PlayStation gamers in the long run is not currently known. However, given the strength of Sony’s first-party games line-up, additional investment will likely only be a good thing for gamers.
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