Sony Has Delayed Several PlayStation First-Party Titles From FY23

Sony has made some internal changes to its first-party portfolio and delayed a bunch of games out of the current fiscal year. Based on Sony’s latest Q1 FY23 financial report, the company was hit by a negative impact of changes in the launch dates of “a portion of first-party titles” to its Operating Income forecast. The exact games and the amount the wave of delay has hit remain unclear due to the vague wording.

It is possible that the internally delayed Sony exclusive projects were already uncertain about their exact release dates because of being early in development. Still, a delay would mean we will not get to play new first-party entries on the PlayStation 5 for quite a while. The internal change could explain why the PlayStation showcase was lacking to some extent and failed to meet the expectations of many fans.

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We can expect these delayed projects to release sometime in mid-next year or early 2025. The titles affected by the delays likely include the newly announced Fairgame$, Naughty Dog’s multiplayer project based on The Last of Us universe, and Helldivers 2.

The financial report sheds light on other important details for the giant conglomerate. The deterioration in the profitability of PS5 hardware negatively impacted the operating income forecast. It was caused mainly by changes in promotions by geographic region and the sales channel mix, as mentioned.

Overall, the operating income forecast has not been changed because of the growth in third-party game sales and all the add-on content that comes with it. Moreover, the decrease in production costs has also positively impacted Sony.

The company is working on a multitude of AAA entries to come out at the top of the competition in the current generation, and its vast arsenal of first and third-party titles has already helped a lot. It also seeks to deplete over 300 billion yen (2.1 billion dollars) on gaming research and development through March 2024. The conglomerate will primarily spend funding on live-service entries, VR gaming, and subscription-based services.

Sony boasts a healthy portfolio of games, including exclusive and third-party content to fill the niches of all genres. Regardless, the community has grown wary about Sony’s current-gen roster of titles for the next few years, and recent findings only fuel the fires of speculations. From another perspective, the delays in the first-party games will eventually bring polished releases for the second half of the current generation.

The giant conglomerate had a massively successful first quarter for the fiscal year 2023. It sold over 3.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles, and the total amount has grown to over 41 million. Sony has seemingly reached over a six billion figure in total PS game and software sales when all of its consoles, excluding PS Vita, are combined. The PS4 and PS5 alone amounted to game sales of over 2 billion for the PlayStation brand. 

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