If you think the PS4 was done with, it will surprise you to know that Sony still considers it an important part of its business. Sony Interactive Entertainment co-CEOs made the revelation during a business segment meeting on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.
According to Sony, 50% of PlayStation’s active monthly users (49 million) on console do so on PS4. It is surprising to learn that almost four years after the release of the PS5, the PS4 still plays a huge part in the company’s business. These users have invested a cumulative 1.4B hours of gameplay as of April 30, 2024.
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Hideaki Nishino who will ascend to the new role as CEO of SIE’s Platform Business Group this weekend said PS5 is the company’s most profitable PlayStation generation to date. He mentioned that the console’s operating income is close to enveloping all others combined.
“As you can see, the PlayStation 5 userbase has continued to grow significantly, driving to half of our monthly active consoles,” said Nishino during a web call. “While the PlayStation 4 is still an important part of our business, our PlayStation 5 players are even more engaged than in our previous generation, and we expect these trends to continue.”
Despite the strong standing of the PS4, PlayStation 5 continues to perform better in terms of customer spending. According to the report presented by Sony’s executives, PS5 users are spending less on full games compared to PS4 but are spending more on add-on content, services, and peripherals.
Director of Research & Insights at Niko Partners, Daniel Ahmad, recently said that live service games have made the transition from the last to the current generation of consoles unique.
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“One thing that’s different from the transition this generation to the transition last generation is that live services play a much larger role. The PS5 has sold the same as the PS4 has done in the same timeframe, but those on PS3 weren’t buying DLC / MTX / battle passes every day.”
How Sony plans to transition more players from PS4 to PS5
Platform holders will always want their users to keep up with their console releases. While it seems a large number of PS4 users are reluctant to let go of their consoles for the current generation of consoles, Sony plans to draw more players to PS5 with peripherals and by extending to new devices.
Studio CEO Hermen Hulst said during the web call that PlayStation would continue to grow its most popular franchises, extend games to new devices, and strengthen its live service capabilities.
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While Sony will continue to leverage its tentpole games (existing hit franchises and new IP with high ambition), it also plans to experiment with new ideas and target new genres. Hulst said PlayStation will continue to release its tentpole single-player titles on console first, while live service games will target console and PC releases.
Sony highlighted the extent of its AI use
The business segment meeting report also highlighted the extent of Sony’s research with AI. The company claimed that it is pioneering game development through advancements in technology and services. Sony’s AI gains so far are from an ongoing collaboration between PlayStation Studios and Sony AI. The company’s AI innovation domains include;
- 3D asset creation
- Face generation
- Code assist
- Speech and localization
The use of AI in game development continues to be a controversial topic with many people blaming the tools for the mass layoffs in the game industry. Also, there is the issue of how artists’ works were used to train AI tools without them getting compensation for it.
From what Sony presented, it is evident their use of AI is still restricted to peripheral work which leaves the core development to humans—apart from speech and localization which is under threat of being lost to AI.
