Sony Balances Creation and Control in Multibillion-Dollar Gaming Expansion

In the past year, Sony has been actively managing its gaming empire, seeking to ensure its "first-party studios" contribute more to overall revenue growth while also taking measured risks. According to interviews with Sony's top games executives, the company is trying to strike a balance between creation and control.

The collapse of the Concord game, developed by Firewalk Studios, which Sony acquired in 2023, appears to have been a wake-up call. Concord, an effort to catch up in the lucrative "live-service gaming" market, was shut down after just two weeks due to poor sales and reviews. This expensive failure has led Sony to implement more rigorous testing and oversight, with the head of PlayStation studios, Hermen Hulst, saying the company has "put in place much more rigorous and more frequent testing in very many different ways."

Meanwhile, the emergence of Astro Bot, a character created by Sony's Tokyo-based Team Asobi studio, has sparked growing belief that it could become the company's answer to Nintendo's iconic Super Mario franchise. Hulst says Sony is taking a "very intentional approach to IP creation" to turn new concepts into "iconic franchises for PlayStation."

As Sony continues to invest heavily in its first-party studios, it is also grappling with the challenge of maintaining the studios' distinct identities and creative independence while aligning them with the company's broader ambitions. The goal is to provide the resources for these studios to build bigger operations, while ensuring they don't lose the "intimacy" that brought them success in the first place.