Sony just held one of its regular “fireside chat” meetings, a cosy name to describe an incredibly dry and boring investor relations Q&A session full of corporate speak and incredibly rehearsed non-answers. Despite the drab presentation, there was a particularly interesting topic brought up directly to Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO Hideaki Nishino, being asked for his thoughts on investor concerns that Nintendo’s brand new Switch 2 comes with improved relations for third-party support and with that comes more competition for PlayStation.
Nishino’s response, underneath all the corporate speak, was a firm and dismissive one – Sony isn’t worried because the PS5 is more powerful. To quote him exactly, Nishino said “We believe PS5’s level of performance is required to achieve a great experience on big screens […] we will continue to be best place and to play and to publish.” It’s interesting to see Sony’s casual response in the face of Nintendo securing the fastest-selling console in history with the Switch 2, but it’s also unsurprising given Sony will want to reassure investors, not scare them.
Those same investors also expressed concern about Nintendo’s appeal to younger generations, and the potential of these younger gamers choosing to stick with Nintendo as they age. Nishino again played it reassuring, effectively saying that PlayStation has had wide demographics for three decades, and it likely won’t change anytime soon. Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst also added to this, saying that their franchises like Horizon, Marvel’s Spider Man and Astro Bot all contribute to their broader demographics.
Do you think Sony have anything to worry about with Nintendo’s astronomical rise with the Switch and now the Switch 2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below, and keep your eyes on GameLuster for more breaking gaming news and industry coverage.
People who buy switches are fans of the Nintendo games or are buying it for their kids since Nintendo has more child friendly games.
People get Playstation for their exclusives but majority of it is to play third party games like NBA, Madden, Call of Duty on a TV.
Other way around, people buy Nintendo for exclusives, which is the point of this article in that that the Switch 2 is powerful and we’ve reached a point in computer graphics that generational jumps between the big 3 aren’t big enough to notice so gamers are finding that Nintendo systems really can handle the same demanding third party games with the added attractive feature of being mobile.