A video gamer plays 'Life is Strange: True Colors' on a Playstation 5 console in a game store in Brussels. File photo: AFP.
Sony Group will accelerate production of its PlayStation 5 videogames console as supply chain disruptions ease and announced plans to broaden its personal computer and mobile phone portfolios.
The PlayStation 5, which went on sale in November 2020, undersold its predecessor in its second year due to component shortages.
It is expected to close that gap and overtake PS4’s install base by 2023.
“We’re planning for heavy further increases in console production, taking us to production levels that we’ve never achieved before,” Sony Interactive Entertainment chief executive Jim Ryan told an investor briefing.
Lockdowns in China continue to create supply chain uncertainty, but “things are definitely improving,” he added.
Sony has forecast PlayStation 5 sales of 18 million units in the business year to end-March compared with 11.5 million a year earlier.
Ryan said more PC and mobile titles will be on offer in addition to live service games, which provide continuous updated play.
While PS4 and PS5 titles are expected to make up more than two-thirds of releases this year, PC and mobile titles will make up almost half of new games in 2025.
“The initiatives to broaden our audience… will have a fundamental effect on the shape of our game portfolio,” Ryan said.
With the shift, PlayStation is aiming to keep pace with industry change that has seen cloud technology and the increased computing power of smartphones untether users from bulky hardware.
Gamers are also spending more money on free-to-play online titles.
Amid much speculation that the metaverse, or the idea users will spend more time in simulated environments, is the future, Ryan said many consumers will continue to play games as before.
“There will be many, many individual players who prefer to enjoy games in the way that they have played them from the past 30 years or more,” he said.
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