Sony Sees a ‘Really Strong’ Holiday For PlayStation 5 Sales. Spider-Man 2 Is a Big Reason. - Interview with Eric Lempel
Sony's Eric Lempel says, "We’re expecting one of the strongest seasons in our history in terms of console sales."
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Q: Since the PlayStation 5 launched in 2020, Sony has struggled to meet demand during the holidays due to pandemic driven chip shortages. My assumption is this will be the first holiday you'll have less supply chain issues. What does that mean for your sales outlook for PS5 and PSVR 2?
Lempel: You're right. We've had consoles a bit here and there over the last three holidays, but this is the first time we're in full supply and we're thrilled about that. We launched back in 2020, and the reality was it took some time for us to catch up, like everybody else in the world, with some of the component shortages coming out of COVID. But now we're excited that anyone who wants a PlayStation 5 will be able to get one
Our outlook on PlayStation 5 is really strong. We're expecting one of the strongest seasons in our history in terms of console sales. It's a combination of the great product we have and the titles that have released since launch—as well as most recently with
Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
Then switching over to VR. The VR category is important to us. It's a category that can help us with innovation. It's never going to be the only way people play games, but I'm happy that we're in it. There are great experiences to be had and consumers really like it. But it's a nascent business for us.
It's something that we want to be a part of but it's not the core proposition we have this season. PlayStation 5 is the core.
Q: How has Sony been able to consistently make high-quality story-based games in an industry filled with hits and misses?
Lempel: It comes down to how we're managing the studios and each individual title. It's our focus on quality. That's what's most important. It represents PlayStation.
We've been fortunate. It's not easy to achieve this type of success in terms of quality and the Metacritic scores. We're humbled by how good these titles are. In some cases, behind the scenes, we will do a lot to make sure that the studios have what they need to put out a quality title.
Q: If there are development issues, are you sending in additional technology resources and doing more collaboration between the studios?
Lempel: Exactly. It could be collaboration, lending resources or expertise from other parts of the organization. It could be giving the studio a bit more time to polish the game. It's those types of things that happen behind the scenes that helps the studios deliver at this level.
Q: What is the PlayStation intellectual property strategy for film and television?
Lempel: We've got great IP that are set in incredible worlds with deep characters, meaningful storylines, and complex narratives. It was in some ways restricted to the PlayStation audience.
The first outing was the
Uncharted film and then we had the
Last of Us series. We had the
Gran Turismo film. We've got a
Twisted Metal series on Peacock.
The response has been incredible. A ton of people who were unaware of this IP are engaging with these alternative forms of entertainment and liking it. But in addition, the fans clamoring for more.
This is now a core part of our strategy to bring these great characters and worlds to a wider audience.
Q: There's been some criticism over the size of the recent PS Plus subscription price increases—roughly 30%. How do you justify the hikes to the consumer?
Lempel: We want to make PlayStation Plus great. With our reboot last year and introducing the tier system, a lot of consumers have recognized that there's a lot of value in PlayStation 5.
Like practically everything else in the world, we have to look at our pricing and we have to adjust to market conditions.
I'm happy to say, unlike a lot of other subscription services out there, we haven't touched the PlayStation Plus pricing for 85% of the world in many years. So, this was the first time we did something there.
Q: What are your thoughts on the Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass business model, incorporating day one game releases into their subscriptions versus PlayStation's strategy?
Lempel: It comes down to what you're going to get in the service in terms of the type of game and the quality of games. I can't comment on what the competition is doing. But with us, we feel we're offering a great curated catalog of games, as well as other features and services with PlayStation Plus.
Also, we give you the options with the three tiers to engage as much or as little as you want, depending on what you'd like to do.
It's a very different offering, but it's one that resonated with consumers. Since we introduced the tiers, we've seen a third of the Plus user base opt for the upper two tiers, which was more than we had expected.
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