The latest Sony financial report is in, and the PlayStation division is particularly excited about the performance of its increasingly multiplatform strategy and the success of live service titles like Helldivers 2.
In its latest financial report, Sony says that "Total play time on PS in the month of March increased 15% year-on-year, and, for the entire fourth quarter ended March 31, 2024, it reached the second highest level in history, second only to the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021 ('FY20'), which benefited from significant stay-at-home demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic."
PlayStation says its high number of monthly active users - 118 million in March - is "thanks primarily to the growing penetration of PS5, as well as the success of Helldivers 2 and third-party free-to-play titles." Helldivers 2 in particular has already sold over 12 million units, which Sony is quick to note surpasses "the record set by God of War Ragnarök in the same period after its release in 2022."
Helldivers 2 is Sony's "biggest PC hit title to date, and as a multi-platform title, it also contributed significantly to sales and profit last quarter." With that in mind, the publisher says it's "looking forward to the release of live service games" this year including Destiny 2: The Final Shape and Concord.
Sony says that up until the PS3, its gaming business model "was focused on increasing the number of software units sold in relation to newly sold hardware for each console generation." The PS4 marked a "transition period," and now, "the PS5 model has shifted to one where playtime on the platform has increased due to expansion of the user community beyond console generations."
The heads of PlayStation have spent the past few years indicating their commitment to live service games and PC versions of their titles, and this financial report suggests they're not slowing down on that front. The traditional big budget single-player games Sony is known for are mentioned only once in this report, where the sales of God of War Ragnarok are compared unfavorably against Helldivers 2.
"By steadily maintaining and expanding the consistently increasing number of active users and user engagement," Sony says, "while also strengthening control over business costs, we believe that we will be able to steadily increase sales and profits from the PS platform going forward." In other words, you should probably expect games like Helldivers 2 - live service titles enjoying multiplatform launches - to more and more become the norm.
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