From our other sites
The story
An analysis piece published by the business media outlet dime.jp argued that while Nintendo’s stock fell after unveiling a new “Kirby” title, Sony has grown less dependent on selling game consoles and first-party software, with revenue from add-on content for existing titles increasingly becoming the core of its business. The article was picked up on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (“GeHa”) board, where reactions split between cold dismissal of the piece as a Sony-friendly puff piece and a more sympathetic view that the shift toward an add-on/microtransaction model does have some merit. Several posters also pointed to Sony’s reliance on other companies’ free-to-play titles, such as Genshin Impact.
Stock Price Drops After New “Kirby” Announcement — The IP-Nurturing Dilemma Plaguing Nintendo
PlayStation, on the other hand, is the one that fits today’s market. That’s because its business model is becoming less dependent on how many consoles or first-party titles it sells.
At Sony’s games business, add-on content — additional content released later for existing software — now accounts for a large share of revenue.
Source: dime.jp / Original article here
What people said
The day free-to-play games die is the day SIE dies
I don't know how much they got paid, but having to write an article like this must be rough.
Even people overseas would laugh this off.
Nakaido [a games-industry commentator] said the same thing.
Lol, even a puff piece is admitting they're leaning on other people's success.
They genuinely can't even pull off stealth marketing properly anymore.
People have been saying it's the end for a while, but lately the degree feels different.
Free-to-Play Station
Home electronics are dead, PlayStation is dead.
Whether it's acting like they own Demon Slayer or padding out hollow profits,
the public won't even meet their eyes — no interest at all.
This garbage is supposed to be a pillar of the business? Lol
This rhetoric looks weirdly familiar.
saying you don't even need to sell hardware units is a stretch…
"We don't need to sell the console itself" is something Totoki [Sony Group President/COO Hiroki Totoki] said, so of course they have to fall in line and back him up.
Nintendo's policy of prioritizing user enjoyment over profit gets a cold reception from shareholders, so the stock falls.
Sony's policy of squeezing huge profits out of users through spending is well liked by shareholders, so the stock rises.
Users and shareholders each have their own position, so you can't flatly say which is better.
Given that this is a home console business, I think Sony's approach is going to get harder going forward.
The issue is that home console hardware gets replaced with something new every few years.
When PS6 comes out, how many users will actually switch over?
They can't keep running PS5 for 10 or 20 years, and will users who only play free-to-play games bother upgrading to PS6 just to keep playing?
Looked at that way, Nintendo, which prioritizes user enjoyment, is more likely to get users to buy the next piece of hardware.
In the short term SIE's [Sony Interactive Entertainment] approach might work out, but in the long term Nintendo's approach might actually be the better one.
Even though that already failed spectacularly with the Vita.
so saying you're not chasing unit sales can't possibly be a good sign.
Hong Kong research firm Counterpoint has announced that global smartphone shipments in 2026 are projected to fall 13.9% year-on-year to 1.08 billion units.
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC029400S6A600C2000000/
Saying "Sony isn't dependent on its own content" is just odd phrasing —
isn't "dependent on other companies' content" the more accurate way to put it?
But "not even selling the console, and profiting from services" — what does that even mean? Is SONY really doing that? [Note: the original plays on "sonna koto" ('something like that') sounding like "SONY-koto," a pun that's hard to fully carry into English.]
kind of like Google or Apple.
Come to think of it, someone taking a cut of the microtransaction profits that Google and Apple used to almost monopolize on mobile games
isn't actually such a bad thing.
so it's really nothing but a vulnerability.
Rough…
A giaaant smaaartphooone 😅😂😅😂😅😂😅 ["kuso-deka sumaho" ('damn huge smartphone') is a recurring jab implying the PS5 is basically an oversized phone/app platform.]
Feels like they've finally admitted it — probably triggered by dropping the disc drive.
Hook it up to a TV and a controller and you can play Genshin or any other free-to-play game just fine.
Sony's future, the direction they're heading — now crystal clear lol lol lol
These days, nobody in Japan but a Sony employee would praise a dying PlayStation.
And the fact that the content amounts to praising the "giant smartphone" means that's basically Sony's official line.
I mean, wanting to make money purely as a platform holder — I get the appeal, sort of…
but how exactly do they plan to pull that off without hardware sales???
Pathetic.
This might also explain the point of the miHoYo anime adaptation.
Maybe they want an early-access tie-in on PS to headline their subscription service and spending.
Sounds like they also want to launch a PS-hardware-exclusive video service.
You don't really feel it when you're in Japan, though.
Which is exactly why it's currently in the middle of a huge backlash, one led mainly overseas.
It kicked off with dropping the disc drive and it's still smoldering — that's really something.
Honestly, compared to overseas, this still-ongoing backlash has barely made a ripple in Japan.
Background and Key Points of Debate
The backdrop here is the growing presence of free-to-play, gacha-monetized titles like Genshin Impact, which has reinforced the console’s role as just one of several ways to play such games. Opinion in the thread split between two readings: viewing this positively as “a stable revenue structure no longer dependent on hardware or first-party unit sales,” versus viewing it skeptically as “simply losing the ability to earn on its own and becoming reliant on other companies’ software.” Not mentioned in the article itself is that home consoles get replaced with new hardware every few years, and it’s unclear how many users of free-to-play titles will actually follow along when that transition happens — this uncertainty is part of why some commenters questioned the model’s long-term stability. The overseas backlash against moves like dropping the disc drive, a topic making headlines around the same time, also appears to be feeding into the skeptical reception this analysis piece received.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch Hardware/Industry (“GeHa”) board thread “Fuwa [presumably the dime.jp article’s author]: ‘Sony’s business model is becoming less dependent on how many consoles and first-party titles it sells’.”
Leave a Reply