PlayStation 4 Is Still Important To Sony Despite The PlayStation 5 Being Around

It seems like people are still sticking with last-gen as far as Sony gaming consoles are concerned.

During a Sony business segment meeting a day ago, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s new co-CEOs Hideaki Nishino and Herman Hulst shared an update on the PlayStation business and strategies of the future. They said that the PlayStation 5 is the company’s most profitable generation to date. However, the PlayStation 4 still makes up half of its monthly active console users at 49 million users. PlayStation 5 users are spending more money and time playing games than on PS4.

“The PlayStation 5 userbase has continued to grow significantly, driving to half of our monthly active consoles. While the PlayStation 4 is still an important part of our business, our PlayStation 5 players are even more engaged than in our previous generation, and we expect these trends to continue.”

Herman Hulst added that tentpole games for the current PS5 generation include existing hit franchises and ambitious new IP from studios with successful track records. These will be complemented by live service games and experimental titles (read: indie and low budget). Tentpole titles will be out exclusively for consoles first, with live service/online games going on console and PC (like Helldivers 2). Though from now until April 2025, there will be no major existing franchise titles to be announced by the company. Of course, that means we may see either minor existing franchises (at least to the masses) or new IPs being announced that are out of the current action-adventure PlayStation norm (like Horizon and Spider-Man).