PlayStation plans to ‘accelerate the rollout’ of first-party games

Sony Interactive Entertainment plans to accelerate the release of its first-party games.

In a report released on Friday, the firm said more frequent and higher quality exclusive titles will be key to its future success amid increased competition in the marketplace.

“Competition from online PC games and players from other industries is expected to continue to intensify,” the company wrote.

In order to continue growing the PlayStation business, “SIE intends to make proactive investments to reinforce content IP, and work to raise brand value, foster communities and user engagement, while enhancing direct to consumer services that get closer to users”.

Sony continued: “To reinforce content IP, SIE will accelerate the enhancement and rollout of its portfolio of exclusive PlayStation titles.”

Enhancements to its games will be achieved by “introducing new technologies in speed, haptics and sound” with PS5, while strengthening its use of data analysis will help the company “get closer to what motivates users” and “improve usability”.

Sony is committed to making “big, spectacular experiences with story and characters at the core”, according to PlayStation Worldwide Studios boss Hermen Hulst, but these triple-A games take years to make and require workforces of hundreds if not 1,000s to produce.

One means of Sony speeding up the release of first-party games is through increasing its development capabilities.

Sony’s report signalled the company is open to purchasing more games companies to bolster its Worldwide Studios association, which consists of 14 development houses following 2019’s acquisition of Insomniac Games.

In July it was claimed that Sony was weighing up a bid for Leyou Technologies, the owner of Warframe studio Digital Extremes and Gears Tactics developer Splash Damage, although Tencent subsequently entered exclusive talks to acquire the company.

“SIE plans to provide content for a variety of game genres and formats, and make advances in unique and immersive interactive experiences such as VR,” Sony’s report said.

It also revealed that the firm will “explore” bringing more first-party games to PC following Horizon Zero Dawn’s recent jump from PS4 to PC.

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