Sony’s online game enterprise noticed spectacular development throughout the latest monetary quarter, boosted by gross sales of blockbuster motion sport Black Myth: Wukong that greater than made up for the disastrous launch of Concord.
Sony’s Game & Network Services (G&NS) division, which incorporates PlayStation, introduced in 1,071.5 billion yen (approx $7 billion) throughout the second quarter of the monetary 12 months (July to September 2024). That’s a “important improve” of 12% year-on-year, Sony stated. Profit tripled to 138.8 billion yen (approx $911 million), up a whopping 184% year-on-year. Those constructive outcomes have been ok for Sony to lift its monetary 12 months forecast for its gaming enterprise.
Sony stated the increase to income got here from a rise in gross sales of non-first-party video games, together with add-on content material (like microtransactions), in addition to the influence of overseas change charges and a rise in gross sales from community providers, primarily from PlayStation Plus. (Sony will get a reduce of all gross sales on the PlayStation Store, and naturally generates income from gross sales away from its platform, akin to Steam.) Dragging these gross sales down, nevertheless, was the continued fall of PS5 gross sales.
On the working earnings aspect, Sony stated it had seen an enchancment in {hardware} profitability (sometimes consoles are bought at a loss), in addition to the aforementioned improve in gross sales of third-party video games and community providers.
Sony bought one other 3.8 million PS5 models throughout the quarter, down 29% in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months. The four-year-old console is now on 65.5 million shipped, with Sony not too long ago admitting the PS5 is within the second half of its life cycle. PlayStation Network has 116 million month-to-month lively customers, flat quarter-on-quarter.
As reported by VGC, Sony particularly talked about “a brand new sports activities title” (EA Sports FC 25 launched on the finish of September) and “an motion RPG title from China” (Black Myth: Wukong) for PlayStation’s gross sales success within the quarter.
Black Myth: Wukong, from Chinese developer Game Science, launched on August 19 and bought an eye-watering 18 million copies in simply two weeks throughout PC and PS5, reportedly making over $700 million in income within the course of. That’s sufficient to place Black Myth: Wukong up there with Grand Theft Auto 5 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as one of many fastest-selling video games of all time, and is an astonishing return for a sport that had a reported funds of $70 million over six years of improvement.
Concord, a reside service hero shooter from Sony-owned Firewalk Studios, adopted on August 23, however flopped spectacularly. Amid disastrously low participant numbers, Sony hauled Concord offline simply two weeks after launch. It ultimately shuttered Firewalk and confirmed Concord wouldn’t return. The Sony-developed Astro Bot, which was additionally launched throughout the monetary quarter, has bought 1.5 million copies.
Despite its latest monetary success, Sony’s gaming enterprise has endured a troublesome 12 months with sweeping layoffs and a number of studio closures. In February, Sony introduced a spherical of layoffs affecting 900 workers, or about 8% of its international PlayStation workforce. The layoffs impacted a variety of PlayStation studios, together with Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, and Firesprite, however PlayStation’s London studio was hit hardest with a discover of closure. Since then, Sony-owned Bungie has additionally suffered devastating cuts as Destiny 2 struggles to seek out business success.
Sony has simply launched the PS5 Pro, a $700 mid-gen improve that reinforces the graphics and efficiency of PS4 and PS5 video games. Amid a quiet time for first-party launches (Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yōtei is slated for launch in 2025), Sony will profit from upcoming third-party video games Monster Hunter Wilds and Rockstar’s assured megahit GTA 6, which dad or mum firm Take-Two not too long ago insisted was nonetheless on observe for a fall 2025 launch.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
