PlayStation Wants To Focus More On "Platform Playtime" Than Software Sales
thegamer.comIt's been explained by Sony general manager Sadahiko Hayakawa that PlayStation has become much more concerned about "platform playtime" over the past couple of console generations, rather than software sales.
It's an odd time for the big boys of the games industry at the moment, with both PlayStation and Xbox facing various different challenges to keep their fans happy, their consoles relevant, and their games selling well. It feels like a big change is on the horizon, whether that be due to the ballooning costs of video game development, Xbox looking increasingly likely to ditch its hardware altogether, or Square Enix essentially scrapping the idea of console exclusive releases due to poor sales.
Things have changed dramatically over the past decade, whether it be good or bad, and PlayStation is no exception when it comes to companies looking to do business differently. In a recent call with investors (thanks Wccftech), Sony general manager Sadahiko Hayakawa explained that PlayStation has been slowly changing its business model since the release of the PS4, as the company focuses more on "platform playtime" over software sales as a metric of success.
After a transition period during the PS4 generation, the PS5 model has shifted to where playtime on platform has increased due to expansion of the user community beyond console generations.
It's not all that surprising that PlayStation would rather you play its games more than buy them all, especially when you look at the company's recent strategies in game development. We know that there are a quite frankly absurd number of service games headed to the platform in the future, and it's clear that PlayStation would rather people get extremely deep into one or two titles than paddle around in a dozen. It just makes more money.
We also know that games are taking longer and longer to make these days, so we're going to start seeing fewer big releases year after year from the likes of PlayStation and Xbox. If
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