The Last Of Us drama success drives Sony gaming sales

TOKYO – Sony Group said on Wednesday that the success of hit drama The Last Of Us from television network HBO is boosting sales of the game series on which it is based, in a standout case of the group repurposing its popular franchises.

“We could see very, very clearly that every time an episode of that show dropped that sales of the game increased very dramatically,” Sony Interactive Entertainment chief executive Jim Ryan told an investor briefing.

The success of the show is a notable example of efforts by Sony to drive business across different business lines after its transformation from electronics maker to entertainment giant spanning games, music and movies.

Sony has also brought the franchise for The Last Of Us – which depicts characters struggling for survival in a post-apocalyptic United States – to personal computers (PCs) as part of a push to diversify beyond consoles.

“Already, our PC business is a significant profit contributor,” Mr Ryan said.

Sony expects PC revenue to hit US$450 million (S$606 million) in the current financial year, compared with US$80 million two years earlier.

In consoles, supply chain snarls have eased, with PlayStation 5 sales likely to catch up with and then exceed those of the PlayStation 4 in the current financial year. Meanwhile, investors are waiting for further details on expansion into live service and mobile games.

While Sony’s traditional strength is in single-player games, more than half of PlayStation investment in 2023 will be in live-service games, which offer continuous updated play.

Innovation in cloud technology and artificial intelligence is widely expected to shake up the gaming industry, where Sony has played a gatekeeping role.

“We do have some fairly interesting and quite aggressive plans to accelerate our initiatives in the space of the cloud that will unfold over the course of the coming months,” Mr Ryan said, without providing details. REUTERS