Let’s break down this “platform” quote that has some PlayStation fans in a tizz

After about a week of theories rolling around, Sony has confirmed that it intends to move away from a hardware focus to a “platform business”. Now, there’s some kind of misunderstanding, quotes taken out of context, and the general confusion when it comes to reporting on Japanese-only investor meetings by some PlayStation enthusiasts online.

The source, an X (formerly Twitter) user, Genki_JPN, appears to have made a logic jump from what the Senior Vice President in charge of Finance and IR, Sadahiko Hayakawa, said. It’s also not the full quote, which is below:

“Thank you very much for the question. So the investment in Bandai, and of course, we have been shifting to creation. So, for example, the entertainment 3 businesses basically account for 60% of our consolidated revenue.

“So basically, our business portfolio is shifting more to the creation. And then, as for the electronics business and TV, compared to output devices, we are now shifting to creation devices that include digital cameras.

“So as a result, we are seeing more stability in profitability and in revenue, and also the productivity of our performance is increasing. And against such a backdrop, and for example, in the Music business, Music Streaming and EMI Music Publishing have been acquired, and then we increased the music catalog.

“And as I mentioned in the speech, in the gaming business and moving away from a hardware-centric business to more of the community-based engagement business, and then that has been increasing. So now, as we make more transitions to entertainment creation, the stability and the productivity, our performance are increasing. So this upward revision might not have been a direct result of these.

“However, the Music Publishing and also the acquisition of a music catalog and also the acquisition of Crunchyroll, these are the areas where we are seeing growth. And as a portfolio, we have been expanding our businesses and also improving our profitability.”

I’m not a business person, and most investor-based calls make my eyes glaze over. However, what appears to be said here is that rather than focusing on producing hardware, like TVs, they’ll be moving to provide more platforms that continuously make cash and create “platforms”. They’ve seen 60% of their revenue come from three sectors; of course, they’ll start prepping ways to get more out of it.

This means that they’re going to be producing far more in these verticals. More cameras, a bigger presence in the music industry, and ensuring there’s just more of what they’ve seen people pick up. It’s not the most revelatory piece of information, but it’s a clear indicator that Sony has already picked up on the tech and gaming business changing as rapidly as it has.

It’s also intriguing that they’ve mentioned Crunchyroll here, as Sony now has a small monopoly on anime. The platforms were so focused on fighting over different series, they didn’t see Sony come up from behind them and swallow the premier streaming service whole. Bearing in mind, it already owns Funimation, securing its anime future.

So What About PlayStation, Then?

So what does any of this have to do with video games, ultimately? Outside of mentioning that they’re going to be looking at ways to expand the business, does this mean that Sony is considering making PlayStation multiplatform? We can only really speculate.

We’ve already got evidence that PlayStation is already invested in the multiplatform nature that the industry is going, but this doesn’t mean it’s about to give up entirely on PlayStation as a hardware brand. PlayStation, aside from Nintendo, is pretty much the only dedicated console hardware to sell anything this generation. That’s an overstatement. Xbox has shifted some consoles, but nowhere near the 80.3 million units the PS5 has sold up to now.

However, game development has gotten incredibly expensive, especially for the PlayStation’s first-party titles. These are in the hundreds of millions, and you can’t exactly rely on a singular source to make all the cash these days. Hence, Sony, after six months to a year, releases their games on PC. Numbers go up, and more people have access to PlayStation-published titles.

It’s Clear That Sony Wants a Piece of That Pie

More recently, a job opening showed that Sony was taking steps to follow Microsoft, which is where this particular segment of the investor call gained so much traction. Reported last week, the job application was for a Senior Director of Multiplatform and Account Management.

This gig mentioned explicitly that they’d be in a “critical leadership” role that shapes and executes on the company’s “commercial strategy for PlayStation Studios software titles,” further than just the PS5. It mentions PC storefronts Steam and Epic (where they’ve already existed for some time), but also mobile, Xbox, and Nintendo.

It’s already begun to enact its “commercial strategy”, as Helldivers 2 has hopped over to Xbox. MLB had already forced PlayStation to go multiplatform with its baseball title, The Show, which has been enforced since 2021. However, if you look at figures for how Xbox is doing since becoming the largest publisher in the industry, you’ll find that it’s dominating the PlayStation platform.

Of the top best-selling games sold last quarter, six of the ten games come from Microsoft. Forza, Minecraft, Indiana Jones, Oblivion, Call of Duty, and DOOM sold big, and as much as Xbox appears to be floundering on the surface, it’s actually doing big business right now. So much so that it’s confusing about all those layoffs. What do I know, though? I don’t wear a logo T-shirt under a blazer on stage twice a year.

PlayStation is Going Multiplatform, Do I Need to Gesture Wildly at What’s Going On?

So yeah, we already kind of know that Sony is intending to go multiplatform. It doesn’t mean that Sony is going to give up on the PlayStation hardware; it’ll probably swing it around to “this is best on PlayStation” advertising strategy. Want God of War now? Well, get a PS5, it’ll be out in six months or so, on everything else.

It’s like the only reason to really buy an Xbox in 2025 is that it’s an all-in-one package if you have a Game Pass, ensuring first dibs and not dropping $70 every time Microsoft manages to push a game out.

The grapevine has also begun to sprout little rumor nuggets of the PlayStation 6 and the reported new handheld. All this probably means is that Sony will gladly sell you PlayStation games wherever you can get them. In fact, starting next year, that’s going to be very much the case.

Marathon, Bungie’s troubled extraction shooter reboot of its classic first-person shooter series, will hit all three major platforms. Could you imagine a multiplayer game solely on PS5 in 2025? Absurdity, really.

Much like when cross-play and cross-saves became a thing, people want access to their games wherever they go. The console wars you knew are dead, and everything is everything these days. This is just the next step of that mentality.

A company like Sony isn’t even competing with its obvious rival, Microsoft, anymore. Instead, it has to begin work on ensuring that it can beat attention harvesters like Fortnite and Roblox. Limiting software to your hardware only isn’t the right path.

The industry is on fire, game development is incredibly cutthroat at the moment, and Sony isn’t about to let another Concord happen. While the original quote isn’t wholly explanatory of the console maker’s gaming plans, it’s clear that they’re taking a leaf from Microsoft’s book. If they can have thumbs in every pie, so can they. They also don’t have a machine that lets foreign powers scan and surveil everyone, which makes them a pretty penny.