Sony Group would invest 300 billion yen ($2.17 billion) to speed up the research and development for its gaming division for 2024 in an effort to catch up to rival Microsoft. Moving away from its entire reliance on sales of its PlayStation game platform, Sony will now attempt to concentrate on live service games that allow customers to buy add-ons for titles that are streamed online.

 

For fiscal 2024, it is anticipated that the technology and entertainment conglomerate will invest 760 billion yen in R&D across the board. Sony's profits are aided by the gaming industry, whose Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) reached 337 billion yen last year, an increase of more than 60% from five years earlier, according to sources.

 

Activision Blizzard, which also owns the "Candy Crush Saga" and "World of Warcraft" properties, is currently being acquired by one of the Sony's biggest international rivals, Microsoft, who is also in the process of gaining all necessary regulatory permissions. By fiscal 2026, Sony wants to have 12 live service gaming titles available, up from just one in fiscal 2021. 

 

"We will continue to make strategic investments going forward, prioritising intellectual property," Sony Group president Hiroki Totoki.