Following its recent Q1 fiscal year 2020 financial results for the three month period ending on June 30th, chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki spoke to investors and analysts in a conference call. He noted the strong first and third party sales for the quarter and expected demand to normalize in the second quarter. This will be in addition to expenses when marketing the PlayStation 5.
Totoki was asked about volumes and price for the PS5. Though not offering specifics, he did interestingly comment that, “With regards to the volume and price, right now I can’t talk about that. We have upside and risks, both sides. But at this point in time, we feel that this balance is good and we’ve shown a plan based on that.”
Another interesting topic that came up was regarding investment in Epic Games and Bilibili. Sony invested $250 million in the Fortnite developer, which didn’t seem all that surprising after the Unreal Engine 5 demo showcase on PS5. These efforts may only be the beginning though as Totoki said that, “At a time when digitization of the entertainment industry is accelerating, we plan to leverage these investments to expand the customer touch points for our diverse array of content as well as create new digital content and ways of enjoying that content that go beyond our business segments in partnership with these companies.
“Going forward, we intend to proactively pursue strategic investment opportunities to explore future growth.”
Sony has quite the busy month ahead with a State of Play presentation set for August 6th and a PS5-related announcement rumored for later this month. Though the upcoming State of Play won’t offer any updates on price, pre-orders or games from PlayStation Studios, it will provide new details on third-party titles, upcoming PS4 and PlayStation VR games and so on. As always, stay tuned in the coming days for new information.
