The profitability of Sony's gaming business does not reach 15%
That's the reason why Jim Ryan wanted all studios to start working on GAAS.
Simon Carless from GameDiscoverCo brought up an interesting piece of information from the FTC and Microsoft case hearings, which discusses the profitability of PlayStation.
According to information from the court, PlayStation's profitability is in the range of 11-14% (low teens). In contrast, Activision Blizzard's profitability stands at around 30%.
This is one of the reasons why the outgoing CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, wanted to invest in GAAS (Games as a Service) projects. Firstly, they have higher profitability; secondly, it is important for Sony to reduce its dependence on third-party developers.
❗️ However, Sony is facing difficulties in implementing the transition to GAAS. Jason Schreier from Bloomberg reported that internal studios have little desire to create service-based games. They are accustomed to working on single-player narrative projects.
As of the current moment (October 2023), 92.7% of Daily Active Users (DAU) on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 are accounted for by games from third-party developers.
