Sony has revealed some additional details on the merger of Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment into Sony Interactive Entertainment.
The company spoke about how it is please by the success of PlayStation and Network Details, as well as sharing details about Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) during the quarterly earnings call for overseas investors and analysts.
Chief Financial Officer Kenichiro Yoshida talked about the performance of the PlayStation business in the latest quarter.
“This business has great momentum and it’s different from our branded products and devices business, because it is increasing its service-related revenue. The installed base of PS4 hardware is expanding faster than any of our previous consoles. Sales of the product during the holiday season were extremely strong, and network revenues for the third quarter increased approximately 50% year-on-year.
The PlayStation is steadily growing into a global network entertainment platform due to the power of the PlayStation 4 hardware console, and the ability of our team to bring content creators to the platform.”
Speaking about the merger, Yoshida also revealed that the headquarters of SIE will be in the United States. This would allow the firm to quickly respond to the rapidly changing business environment, as US acts as the ‘hub’ for digital content.
“On Tuesday, we announced that we’ll be combining Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment into a single company, known as Sony Interactive Entertainment. The headquarters of the new company will be based in the United States. Many of our key partners across the network services, content and technology are based in the United States, and major shifts in the digital content landscape are happening fast in the U.S. Locating our headquarters there will allow us to quickly respond to the rapidly changing business environment and continue to expand and strengthen the PlayStation business.”
It seems the merge is more of a tightening of the business aspect, and combining the two companies into SIE allows this.
Corporate Planning & Control and Accounting Senior Vice President Kazuhiko Takeda gave more insight on the Game & Network segment, mentioning how the company was pleased with the performance of network sales.
“In the Game & Network services segment we have upwardly revised our fiscal year operating income forecast by five billion yen to 85 billion yen, following the strong momentum of the PS4 platform. We have been especially pleased with the strong performance of network sales, which have been outperforming our expectations.”
