Sony will start "aggressively investing" in first-party PlayStation studios

Sony plans to start "aggressively investing" in its first-party studios in the year ahead, which means you can expect even bigger things from teams such as Naughty Dog, Santa Monica Studio, and beyond.

CFO Hiroki Totoki discussed his company's plans for its gaming efforts in the latest Sony quarterly financials conference call. Totoki noted that the company plans to increase "development, personnel and other costs in our in-house studios" by 20 billion yen, or about $180 million USD, in its current financial forecast. He also cited PlayStation partnering with Jade Raymond's new studio for a PlayStation exclusive as an example of increased investment in external partner studios.

"We aim to strengthen the PlayStation platform through action such as the recently announced partnership with Haven Entertainment Studios, which was established by Jade Raymond, the creator of the famous game Assassin's Creed, and our additional investment in Epic Games," Totoki said. "Along with the rest of the Sony Group, we will also work to enhance the social and platform capabilities of games."

Why is Sony juicing its game development efforts so hard? Well, Totoki also revealed that global playtime on PlayStation platforms was up 20 percent in March as compared to in March 2019, and it expects players to stay just as engaged in the fiscal year ahead - so Sony had better get busy making more stuff for them to play.

Hopefully this extra push from Sony means we'll have even more to add to our list of upcoming PS5 games in the months and years ahead.