Sony’s CEO has made a statement revealing that PlayStation is largely on the same wavelength as Xbox nowadays.
As reported by PSU, Kenichiro Yoshida was recently interviewed by Nicolai Tangen in the latest episode of the In Good Company podcast. Tangen himself is CEO of the podcast’s owner, Norges Bank Investment Management. Of course, this podcast is really more about the executive leadership side of business than being any gaming podcast.
Still, Nicolai asked the pertinent questions about the company’s gaming business , and Yoshida had answers. As Yoshida put it:
“In short, it will be ubiquitous. Wherever there is computing, users will be able to play their favourite games, seamlessly. Gamers will be able to find a place to play in different spaces. While PlayStation will remain our core product, we will expand our gaming experiences to PC, mobile, and cloud.”
Nicolai also asked Yoshida about subscriptions, and here was his reply:
“We do have subscription models. At the same time, people usually play one game at a time. So, all-you-can-eat type of game (models) may not be so valuable, compared with video streaming services. So, we have a balanced hybrid service on PlayStation network: subscription as well as pay-per-content.”
Finally, when asked about the Microsoft-Activision deal, Yoshida said:
“Healthy competition is necessary for the game industry to grow. At Sony, we believe it is important to provide gamers with different options to play. So we will continue with our efforts to achieve this.”
Just last week, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, talked about bringing their games to “Xbox and consoles, the PCs, and now even including mobile gaming and cloud gaming.”
While Sony under Yoshida still seems reticent when it comes to subscriptions, it’s clear that they and Microsoft are largely in line when it comes to bringing their games outside of their dedicated consoles.
It’s a growing indication of the change that is coming in the industry, which is becoming less about bringing new customers to their platform, and more about following customers to the platforms that they are already on.
Some gamers seem to be afraid that this will eventually lead to the end of console gaming, but it’s clearly too early to make such a hasty conclusion. It remains the case that a certain segment of younger male gamers are drawn to the relatively low cost, and the community building, that is found in video game consoles. Even when cloud gaming finally comes of age, it may not be enough to draw gamers away from the platform.
You can watch this episode of In Good Company on YouTube below.
