Financial Times - Sony rules out moving into hybrid gaming consoles
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June 11, 2017. Leo Lewis, Kana Inagaki.
Group will stick to PlayStation strategy despite success of Nintendo’s Switch.
Sony has scotched speculation that it could follow Nintendo into the hybrid games console market despite the runaway global success of its rival’s Switch machine.
Launched in March this year, Nintendo’s Switch became the first device to combine both handheld and TV-based play — a concept that sacrifices the high definition and speed of Sony’s PlayStation 4 console for portability, and has proved a huge hit with the so-called casual gaming market.
After more than three months on sale, the Switch remains an immediate sellout wherever it has been released, forcing Nintendo to increase production to meet the unexpectedly fervent demand.
That level of success has prompted analysts, games developers and others to speculate that Sony, whose PS4 console has sold nearly 60m units worldwide, could seek to enter the hybrid market pioneered by its rival.
But Atsushi Morita, head of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s operations in Japan and other parts of Asia, said Sony would stick with its existing PlayStation strategy that has evolved from simple game playing to a broader entertainment service that offers TV and music streaming as well as virtual reality.
“PlayStation has never been exclusive to homes,” Mr Morita, the nephew of Sony founder Akio Morita, said in an interview. “We’ve always made it possible for PlayStation to be played both inside the home and outside through the PlayStation network. Is there a new market (for hybrid consoles)? We don’t think that’s the case.”
Last week Andrew House, global chief executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment, also said Switch’s popularity was not eating into sales of the PS4.
Nevertheless, say analysts, Sony has shown that it can be influenced by Nintendo’s success: shortly after its rival introduced the successful motion-sensitive controllers for its Wii console in 2006, Sony produced versions of its own.
“Both Sony and Microsoft [which produces the Xbox consoles] are a bit in awe of what the Nintendo machine has done to attract the general user,” said games industry consultant Serkan Toto. “Nobody predicted such a breakout success and it makes sense to ask how Nintendo’s rivals would respond.”
But analysts identify several reasons why Sony will steer away from a hybrid — one of the strongest being the conclusion that Switch sales are being driven by the strong line-up of titles accompanying its launch.
Atul Goyal, technology and games analyst at Jefferies, said: “The success of the Switch is in the games. If it didn’t have Zelda and Mario would people say they love the hybrid console concept? Probably not. Sony and others may try something like it, but they will fail unless it comes with compelling games.”
David Gibson, a games industry analyst at Macquarie, said: “Sony will definitely have discussed internally about a hybrid machine, but not surprising if they decide against it. Battery life for now will kill the possibility of doing a portable PS4 or PS4 Pro.”
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