PlayStation is fully committed to exploring a new and enhanced way for players to engage with their content and services, but this new method will hardly be limited to cloud gaming.
Speaking during an investor-focused interview, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO and president Hideaki Nishino was asked directly about the future of the company, starting with cloud gaming, which has seen an increase in popularity in the past few years. While PlayStation has been in the cloud gaming business for the last 11 years, deploying cloud gaming services since the PlayStation 3 generation, Nishino-san highlighted how the cloud gaming business model has to be sustainable for the long-term growth, and despite the technological advancements of the past few years, the SIE CEO believes that the vast majority of players will continue to want a traditional experience based on local hardware, without depending on the network conditions, which are an unpredictable variable. From this statement, it’s clear how the next PlayStation will be a traditional console, but interestingly enough, Nishino-san highlighted how they are committed to exploring a new and enhanced way for players to engage with the company’s content and services, a statement that seems to hint at the unannounced handheld that is reportedly in the works.
Elaborating on the new and enhanced way for players to engage with content and services, Sony Interactive Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst touched upon the company’s multiplatform strategy, saying that they’re being thoughtful about bringing their franchises off consoles to reach a new audience, especially regarding single player games, which are considered as the point of differentiation for the PlayStation console. They are the real showcase of the performance and quality of the hardware, so the company is constantly thinking hard about how and if these titles are brought to other platforms. As such, it seems like the current strategy of late PC ports for single-player games will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
While ports of PlayStation Studios’ developed games are likely to continue releasing on PC years after their console debut, that doesn’t seem to be the case with games that are only published by the company. Shift Up’s Stellar Blade launched on PC only a year after its console debut, and Lost Soul Aside will be launching simultaneously on PC and console this August. Hopefully, the recent success of Stellar Blade on PC will compel PlayStation to focus more on the PC market in the future.
