Sony Discusses PS4 Focus Shift And Their Plans To Explore Microtransactions
It's no secret that microtransactions have been a topic on everyone's minds lately - both industry [...]
It's no secret that microtransactions have been a topic on everyone's minds lately - both industry folks and the gamers themselves. With the rising popularity of the "pay-to-play" mentality, and more and more optional options coming in the form of loot boxes and the like; many are wondering how this will negatively impact the community. Despite this, more and more publishers continue to see the value this practice has and are seeking new ways to fit this practice into everyday gaming.
What may are concerned for, however, is when the bottom line of profit begins to overshadow the market itself and that's where the line becomes clearly drawn in the sand. Sony themselves are a hugely popular name in the gaming industry with the PlayStation 4 dominating the console market. Though they have made controversial moves in the past - such as being the only one choosing to be excluded from cross-platform talks with Valve, Nintendo, and Xbox - they continue to evolve the way their business model works.
Moving forward:
During a recent investor's call, a few points were made about future progression and what changes the Sony team are looking to make. One focus came from Finance and Corporate Development Exec Atsuko Murakami and how she plans to re-evaluate retention efforts including the the pull of more mcrotransactions within their day to day.
In what can be seen as a more aggressive move, Miss Murakami discussed that they would like to engage more active users on the PlayStation Network with rewards for participation. Due to the fact that over half of their sales comes from Game and Network Services, they want to spend a quality amount of time investing in that particular point of profit.
prevnextThe next step:
In an effort to be more direct with the consumer, the focus will then shift from hardware to less tangible services such as their PlayStation Plus program. As Chief Financial Officer Kenichiro Yoshida puts it, they are shifting their focus from the hardware itself to primarily on the user base. Specifics though, are still a little unclear.
Regarding microtransactions, Sony plans to increase their focus on what content players can purchase in-game with a desire to see those sales numbers increase. This is also set to include third-party sales of DLC and microtransactions as well, because that bottom line is intricate to their sales goals regarding this localized growth.
Hopefully the plan moving forward will be done smartly and in a way that truly benefits gamers as well, which seems to be the primary aim.
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