Sony, the global electronics giant, has announced it will take a more focused approach when it comes to metaverse experiences as part of its entertainment strategy. The company that owns the Playstation brand revealed that prior investments in Epic, makers of the Fortnite game, and Bungie, another gaming studio, are part of this new push.
Sony to Take Metaverse Seriously
Gaming and entertainment brands are now trying to integrate metaverse experiences to entice more users to enter their ecosystems. Sony, one of the most influential companies when it comes to entertainment and gaming, has announced its interest in including more metaverse-inspired experiences to attract customers.
At an annual strategy meeting held this week, Sony Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida stated:
The metaverse is at the same time a social space and live network space where games, music, movies and anime intersect.
Sony’s prior investments in other companies include Epic Games, the makers of popular online franchise Fortnite, and Bungee, creators of the Destiny series, and are part of this new focus. According to numbers presented by the company, more than 50% of the revenue in the last fiscal year came from Sony’s entertainment division, which encompasses gaming, movies, and music-related services.
Playstation vs. Other Metaverse Players
Sony intends to use its Playstation brands to secure a place among the leaders in the metaverse industry. The Sony Playstation has one of the biggest install userbases in the world, so it might serve as a tool for this new metaverse push. In this sense, the company stated it “intends to leverage the unique strengths provided by its diverse businesses and expertise in game technology… creating new entertainment experiences in the area of the metaverse.”
However, the company is already playing catch-up with others in the field like Meta, which is producing hardware to provide metaverse immersion experiences to its customers. Meta owns the Oculus brand of VR headsets and provides its flagship metaverse app, called Horizon Worlds, exclusively to owners of these products.
Microsoft is another company positioning itself to be a metaverse player, acquiring Activision for almost $69 billion dollars as an approach to the metaverse, and launching Mesh, a corporate metaverse for its Teams meeting suite.
Sony has already presented its VR2 line of headsets to work in tandem with the PS5 line of consoles. The headset was rumored to be set for release this year, but it might be delayed until 2023 due to supply chain issues.
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