Sony CEO: “The PlayStation 4 Is Entering The Final Phase Of Its Life Cycle”

Today is Sony IR day, and Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO John Tsuyoshi Kodera shared a few statements on the company’s current business plans.

The Wall Street Journal’s Takashi Mochizuki attended the meeting and shared some notes on Twitter:

• The above is from the materials provided for Sony’s IR day. Sony openly acknowledges problems in the growth of PlayStation VR, PlayStation Vue, and its mobile company ForwardWorks and plan to tackle each of their issues to help improve on their engagement.

• Kodera says the PSVR continues to sell, but it is doing so less than market forecast. From this point on, Sony will aim for a more realistic outlook and healthy growth in the business of the VR device.

• As for ForwardWorks, he says there has been some development and release delays, and they’re planning on improvements to make it a more efficient operation.

• As for business strategies beyond 2018, Sony will put more effort in the development and enhancement of exclusive titles.

• John Kodera: “(The PlayStation 4 is) Finally entering the final phase of its console life cycle.”

• John Kodera: We will put in more effort into the continuous engagement with the users.

• The Vue reached its lowest dip in 2016 and has since then been improving. Sony plans on taking measures to improvie its long-term profitability.

• John Kodera: “It has been a big year of learning for ForwardWorks. It’s difficult to start brand-new IPs, not limited to ForwardWorks and PlayStation. We will continue using pre-existing PlayStation IP as the core of establishment for ForwardWorks, but we’d like to do so while managing the size of new IPs. We’ll continue pushing forward using personnel with knowledge on this point.”

• John Kodera: “As for first party investment, it isn’t necessarily only about increasing new IPs. Part of it is about refreshing current IPs, and enhancing contents by developing franchises for successful IPs.”

• Lastly, Kodera says that the middle management period up until March 2021 will be a period for a breather in preparation for a bigger leap for PlayStation.