Sony's revival depends on game consoles

Sony recently announced that its PlayStation 4 video game console has sold more than 10 million units. The console was launched in the United States, Western Europe and Latin America at the end of November last year, almost at the same time as Microsoft's Xbox One, which Microsoft said in April this year that the cumulative shipments of Xbox One had exceeded 5 million units.

When I saw this little news, I was not surprised at all. The PS4 is welcomed by players all over the world and continues to sell well, which is expected. If you combine this information with Sony's first quarter financial report for fiscal year 2014 released at the end of last month (in this quarter, Sony's sales were 1809.9 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%, and operating profit was 69.8 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 96.7%), you will find that PS4 has lived up to expectations and has become Sony's "mainstay" together with the movie business, and has also become a unique highlight in Sony's consumer electronics business. In the long run, I think that PS4 and even the game business will not only become the core of Sony's electronic business, but also the key to its revival.

The financial report mentioned above shows that Sony's "Game and Network Services (G&NS)" sales have increased significantly, from 131.6 billion yen in the same period last year to 257.5 billion yen. Behind the performance growth is the result of Sony's completion of the structural reform of its electronic business. With Sony's withdrawal from the PC business and the spin-off of its TV business, the importance of hardware products such as smartphones and game consoles has become prominent. However, in the IT electronics industry, where you either advance or retreat, Japanese companies that once had a first-mover advantage have been overtaken by Korean companies, mainland China and Taiwan companies in many aspects. Samsung has greatly squeezed out Japanese companies in the fields of mobile phones, TVs, and electronic components. Taiwan's Hon Hai, TSMC, MediaTek and other companies are good at foundry and IC design, and mainland China companies such as Huawei are also showing an aggressive trend. Therefore, as a traditional Japanese electronics giant, Sony's mobile phone, TV and other businesses have been besieged and difficult to fight back, which is also reasonable. However, it is unrealistic to seize the commanding heights of American companies in the fields of software and operating systems, so it is normal for Sony to reduce the development and sales of products such as televisions, shrink some traditional businesses, and "not pursue scale and sales."

But the gaming business is an exception. According to Sony President and CEO Kazuo Hirai, "PS4 will thoroughly pursue sales expansion." Such confident words imply that the gaming business is difficult for Chinese and Korean competitors to copy and catch up, and is a unique advantage of Sony and even Japanese companies.

If we look at this sentence from a broader perspective, I think it can be interpreted as follows: Japan's game, animation, comics and other content industries that claim to be "Cool Japan" are strategic areas for opening up overseas markets, expanding Japan's economic prosperity and promoting economic development. In terms of tourism and international exchanges, the role of Japan's content industry is also becoming increasingly important. When IT giants such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft infiltrate the traditional game industry, Sony wants to become the protagonist of the game industry again through PS4, which can bring huge profits to Japanese companies including Sony.

In fact, PS has made Sony successful for many years. If you ask a consumer, what best represents Sony? The answer is probably the PS game console, in addition to Walkman. They not only make Sony popular, but also become a global exclusive term. Since the first generation of PS came out in 1994, Sony has joined hands with Japanese companies such as Nintendo and Sega to create an unexpected gaming era. While changing the entertainment economy, it also created a business miracle. Japanese game culture also began to ferment rapidly around the world. "Business Week" once said that for men aged 12 to 30 around the world, the status of game consoles is completely on par with DVD players and CD speakers. The book "Everything Bad is Good for You" wrote: "For the generation born in the last 30 years, games are not only a powerful boost to the increase in IQ, but can also be seen as a contemporary extension of entertainment such as chess and puzzles, just like the extension of movies to drama and music to poetry. The game economy is more commercial and regular, and far more diverse than music and movies."

However, Sony's PS was once defeated by the mobile phone storm. Since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, few people realized that it would not only change the communication industry, but also the ecological environment of the gaming industry. The emergence of Android phones later exacerbated this trend, so that the sales of Sony's PS3 launched in 2006 were seriously affected. However, the PS4 is now popular again, which makes me think that Sony's emphasis on the professionalism of home consoles and the public opinion created by "mobile phones cannot replace SLR cameras" have begun to work, and this theory is being recognized by more and more game fans.

Not only that, the reason why PS4 is more popular than its predecessor is, of course, the content factor that cannot be ignored. Nowadays, whether it is PS4 or Microsoft's XBOX One, if they compete with mobile devices in performance, it may be a bit overconfident. The chips used in today's mobile devices are smoother and more powerful than these game consoles. The chips of Apple's iPhone 5s and iPad Air are no different from PCs. Therefore, game consoles can only make a fuss about content. What probably makes them feel comfortable is that there is no game masterpiece on mobile terminals that can compare with game consoles. Whether it is "Call of Duty" or EA's sports game series, they are not available to mobile phone or tablet users. For mobile game developers, it will be very difficult to produce a masterpiece that can compete with game consoles, and the cost will be much higher than most mobile games.

Therefore, these constitute the reasons and confidence for the PS4's popularity. The author believes that as a product evolving into a multi-functional entertainment device, the PS4 also deserves the public's applause. It is a product that pays tribute to the PS2, which once sold more than 150 million units. It is so similar to the design of the PS2: color matching, classic matte glossy design, etc., but it contains greater ambitions: the PS4 will achieve or even exceed the "achievements" of the PS2. Kazuo Hirai once said, "Selling hardware (game consoles), selling software, and selling content and services through the Internet." Sony can promote the online sales of game software, music, and movies by promoting the sales of PS4, and perhaps it can also attract more new players with virtual reality technology and feed back the already declining Sony TV business, because high-quality games require different highlights and the assistance of high-definition TVs. Sony's virtual reality headset "Project Morpheus" can give game consoles like the PS4 a different new experience, while the game mode of Sony TV can give PS4 players a better experience. Therefore, when consumers' entertainment methods have shifted to mobile phones and tablets, how to expand strategic thinking beyond games, with the PS game series consoles as the core, and link game consoles with other consumer electronic devices, products and services (such as Sony's PSN and SEN services) is Sony's best way out in the long run.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.