Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida has said in the latest Corporate Strategy Meeting that the company is preparing to announce a ‘compelling lineup’ of PS5 games soon.
Kenichiro Yoshida discussed the state and direction of each business segment, starting with the Game & Network Services. Here are the highlights:
Game & Network Services
At a time when people are staying indoors, the demand for digital entertainment such as video games is increasing globally. With this came a significant increase of PlayStation users. PlayStation Plus subscribers increased by 2.7 million over the three months of the fourth quarter from the previous fiscal year. The total number of subscribers reached 41.5 million as of March 31, 2020.
The goal is to “further revolutionize” the game experience for users through the launch of the PS5, which is scheduled to release in the holiday season of this calendar year. Sony has worked on improving not only the resolution but the speed of the games to enhance senes of immersion. For example, Sony plans to realize game data processing speeds on PS5Â approximately 100 times faster than PS4 through its custom-designed high-speed SSD. In other words, game load times should be much shorter and players should be able to move through immense game worlds in a flash.
The controller is another area that Sony is looking to revolutionize with the PS5 DualSense. The controller uses haptic feedback that allows players to get a better sense of feelings through gameplay. For example, you might feel the heaviness while driving over a muddy road. You’ll also feel a sense of tautness while pulling back a bow, and so on, through the adaptive triggers.
Lastly, the focus on sound. A customized 3D audio processing unit on the PS5 will make it possible for players to experience sound that moves from front to behind, above to below, and all around.
To summarize for the PS5, Sony plans to combine the processing speed, haptics, and sound to further improve on the experience of the PS4. Sony Corporation President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida concluded the section with the following bit about the PS5 game announcement coming soon:
Kenichiro Yoshida: “Games for the PS5 that deliver this new gaming experience are being made by both 1st and 3rd party developers, and we plan to introduce a compelling line up of titles soon.”
While the topic of immersion was a big one, Sony reiterated its plans to continue providing seamless game experiences going forward.
Since launching in 2014, Sony’s cloud gaming service PlayStation Now has reached over 2.2 million paid subscribers as of April 2020. This comes from a change of price and a boost in the game catalog with numerous AAA titles and more.
Remote Play also saw a massive increase of approximately 2.5 times in a comparison between December 2018 and December 2019. The functionality released for iOS and Android during this period.
The PlayStation 5 is scheduled to release this holiday season. The console will reportedly be limited in its first year of launch.
