Over the last year, Sony has acquired several studios and companies, including Returnal developer Housemarque, PC port specialist Nixxes Software, U.K.-based Firesprite, and Bluepoint Games. But the company is looking to continue being aggressive by investing in development capabilities, according to VGC.
This addition of studios and companies that led to a subsequent employee surge has been a huge boon for Sony, leading to record revenue numbers in the company’s second-quarter financial results. The Japanese-based company won’t stop there, though. It plans to “aggressively invest in development capabilities,” meaning that more developer acquisitions could be on the way.
Executive deputy president and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki discussed these recent studio acquisitions and the company’s plans moving forward when it pertains to growing its development capabilities.
“To further strengthen our software development capabilities, we announced the acquisition of Firesprite in September and Bluepoint Games this month,” Totoki said. “Both companies have excellent technical capabilities and superb track records and they have contributed to the development of many of our software titles.”
Totoki added that the company isn’t done and that Sony will continue to push the envelope, using these studios’ full strength and capabilities.
“Going forward, we plan to leverage these studios to increase the development capability of PlayStation Studios and to use the expertise necessary to deploy games to PC and mobile devices,” Totoki said.
The executive deputy president and chief financial officer also brought up the company’s desire to continually invest in its gaming arm. This new branch has been one of Sony’s most successful divisions in recent years.
“As a result of the acquisitions announced since the beginning of this fiscal year, the number of PlayStation studios will increase by four to 16, and the number of developers will increase by almost 20%,” Totoki said. “We plan to continue to aggressively invest in our development capability going forward.”
Sony reported its second-quarter financial results earlier today. Sony’s games and network division generated $5.86 billion in revenue and $0.751 billion in profit between July and September 2021, according to Resetera’s collected data. On top of that, Sony shipped over 4.5 million PS5 consoles in 2020 alone, similar to the PS4’s launch.
With Microsoft’s executive vice president of gaming Phil Spencer announcing that Xbox plans to expand its brand with more studios and software-focused increases last week, many people will be curious to see how Sony will continue to respond.
