Earlier today, Sony announced the quarterly financial results for Q1 2025, where we learned that the PlayStation 5 console had shipped 80.3 million units as of the end of June. The whole Game and Network Services (G&NS) segment registered an 8% year-on-year increase in sales of 936.5 billion yen ($6.35 billion), primarily due to the rise in third-party software sales, which was partially offset by the negative impact of foreign exchange rates.
As a consequence of the recent strong user engagement trend, Sony has upwardly revised their fiscal year 2025 forecast for sales slightly from last time to 4 trillion 320 billion yen ($29.31 billion), as well as the forecast for operating income by 4% to 500 billion yen ($3.39 billion). Year-on-year, user engagement continued to increase, with the number of monthly active users (MAUs) across PlayStation increasing by 6% in June compared to the same month last year, reaching 123 million accounts. Total playtime for the quarter also increased by 6% year-on-year.
Sony also said that operating income increased approximately 2.3x year-on-year to 148 billion yen ($1 billion), a new quarterly record high for the segment. This was primarily due to the impact of the increased sales of third-party software and an increase in network services revenue.
But arguably the most interesting tidbit, at least for gamers, came from the subsequent Q&A with investors, where Sadahiko Hayakawa, Senior Vice President in charge of Finance and IR at Sony, said:
In the gaming business, we are moving away from a hardware centric business model more to a platform business that expands the community and increases engagement.
The Q&A is available here, and the translation was shared on X along with the news by Tokyo-based user Genki_JPN, who often reports on Japanese news. This aligns with the recently discovered job listing for a Senior Director of Multiplatform & Account Management, which hinted that Sony would bring even more games not only to PC but also to Xbox and Nintendo platforms, too, in an effort to increase PlayStation users (those elusive monthly active users, or MAUs).
So far, it was believed that it might be limited to live service games such as Helldivers 2, but that caveat was seemingly not specified this time. If such a business shift were to be confirmed, it would mean that Nintendo alone will keep making first-party games for its own consoles only, essentially heralding the end of the console wars.
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