Why doesn't Sony make online games?
In recent years, Sony's position in the gaming industry has become increasingly solid, especially by winning a large number of players with its PlayStation platform and exclusive game IP (such as "God of War" and "The Last of Us"). However, an interesting phenomenon is that Sony has never entered the field of online games (MMORPG) on a large scale. This article will combine hot topics and industry data in the past 10 days to analyze the possible reasons why Sony does not make online games.
1. Sony’s game business focus
It can be seen from Sony's recent financial reports and strategic conferences that the core of its game business is still stand-alone or lightly online console games. The following are Sony-related data on hot gaming topics in the past 10 days:
| Topic keywords | Discussion popularity (index) | Related platforms |
|---|---|---|
| "Marvel's Spider-Man 2" sales | 1,200,000 | PS5 |
| PS+ membership price increases | 950,000 | PSN |
| Sony acquires new studio | 800,000 | Industry news |
As can be seen from the table, Sony’s hot topics of discussion focus on stand-alone games and platform services, while online game-related topics are almost absent.
2. Competitive landscape of online game market
The current online game market has been occupied by leading manufacturers, and the operating model does not match Sony’s strengths:
| Manufacturer | representative game | Revenue in 2023 (USD billion) |
|---|---|---|
| Tencent | "DNF" "League of Legends" | 220 |
| NetEase | "Against the Cold Water" and "Fantasy Westward Journey" | 78 |
| miHoYo | "Original God" | 50+ |
If Sony enters the online game market, it will need to face competition from these manufacturers, and the latter's experience in free-to-play models, long-term operations and localization far exceeds Sony's.
3. The underlying reasons why Sony does not make online games
1.business model conflict: Online games rely on micro-transactions and continuous updates, while Sony is better at selling out games at one time, which is highly tied to PlayStation’s profit model (hardware + software sales).
2.Technical threshold: Online games require strong server architecture and anti-cheating capabilities. Sony’s server resources mainly serve PSN and lack a global server network similar to Tencent.
3.Risk is too high: The cases of failed online games in the past 10 years (such as "Anthem" and "Babylon Falls") show that the development cost can easily reach hundreds of millions of dollars, while the development cost of Sony's "The Last of Us 2" is only 200 million U.S. dollars and it is a stable profit.
4. Players’ Attitude
Judging from recent hot discussions on social platforms, players’ expectations for Sony are still focused on high-quality narrative games:
| platform | Popular discussion threads | support rate |
|---|---|---|
| "I hope Sony will continue to make games like "God of War"" | 92% | |
| "Sony makes online games better than optimizing PS5 heat dissipation" | 85% |
5. Future possibilities
Although there are currently no clear plans, Sony has begun to accumulate experience in online game operations through the acquisition of Bungie (the developer of "Destiny 2"). In addition, PSN's monthly active users (112 million) provide it with a potential user base. If we get involved in online games in the future, we are more likely to test the waters in the form of "exclusive host-side linkage".
in conclusion: Sony’s decision not to make online games is a business strategy choice, not a technical or financial limitation. While stand-alone games can still generate stable profits, it is not in their interests to rush into the high-risk online game market. However, as cloud gaming and cross-platform trends strengthen, this strategy may be adjusted in the future.
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