Sony has been more popular since Walkman than ever before

Von WOM

The last time that Sony was worth so much on the stock exchange was Bill Clinton President and the PlayStation 2 was in American shops shortly before her debut. In the past two and a half decades, Sony, the 78 -year -old company that invented the Walkman and the Playstation, was not easy. It largely missed the connection to the mobile radio revolution, while the Playstation was profitable, the production costs for other electronics products increased and at the same time decreased.

a change in the corporate strategy

With the emerging opportunities in the area of ​​streaming, Sony tries to walk from a traditional provider of consumer electronics to a company for original content and entertainment. This strategy has fruits: In the past three years, Sony's share ( Sony ) freed from a decades. The share price in Japan recently closed for the first time since March 2000 at a record high, which symbolizes the confidence in the ability of the company to further develop its range of games and to concentrate on entertainment, says Damian Thong, Research Analyst at Macquarie.

from hardware to content

The Sony Group, Japan's third largest company after market capitalization, has changed through the innovation of their playing business beyond consoles and has been doing acquisitions to expand their intellectual property rights (IP), reports Joost van Dreunen, part -time professor at the NYU Stern, who deals with the business world of video games. SONY 2021 Anime company crunchyroll and acquired 2022 the American video game company Bungie for $ 3.6 billion.

synergies in the entertainment industry

In addition to Sony Interactive Entertainment that produces the PlayStation, the Sony Group also includes Sony Pictures, which produces films such as the Spider-Man series, as well as Sony Music, to which Columbia Records belongs. Sony tries to create synergies between his subsidiaries to produce original entertainment content for consumers.

This strategy for using its intellectual property became clear in the 75th Emmy Awards in January when the TV series "The Last of Us" won eight prizes in important categories. It was the first time that a TV series adapted from a video game received great recognition at a Hollywood event. Sony first published “The Last of Us” as a video game in 2013 before it was adapted as a TV series on HBO and Max in 2023. (HBO and Max share ownership with CNN.)

Investments in content and IP

Without a separate streaming network, licensing its intellectual property and original content is part of Sony's strategy to compete with streaming giants such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon. Robert Lawson, Chief Communications Officer of the Sony Group, said in a statement that the company has invested around 1.5 trillion yen in content IP in various entertainment areas since the takeover of Emi Publishing in 2018.

"The Sony Group has geared its corporate strategies to strengthen its creative and entrepreneurial assets," said Lawson, emphasizing that the company focuses on "new cooperation between the sister companies of Sony", also in anime genre

growth of the entertainment segment

In the last financial year to March, Sony's entertainment segment, which includes music, films and games, made up 60 % of total sales. This is a doubling compared to a decade ago when the entertainment segment only made 30 % of sales.

from the beginning to dominance

The focus on entertainment represents a change of Sony's origins. Before Sony there was the tokyo telecommunications Engineering Corporation , which was founded in 1946 by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka. In 1950 the company Japan's first magnetic band launched. In 1958 the name was changed in Sony Corporation.

In the 1960s, Sony expanded its business in the United States and established itself as a household name in consumer electronics. The company produced iconic devices such as the Trinitron TV in 1968, the Walkman 1979 and the first CD player in the world 1982.

success in the gaming area

The 1990s were a highlight for Sony when it broke into the world of game consoles. With the publication of the Playstation in 1994, Sony opened a new era in the arcade and gaming sector. Since then, Sony has been a dominant player in the area of ​​video game consoles, with the PlayStation 5, which was released in 2020, exceeds its main competitors such as Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Nintendos Switch, according to the data of the analytics company Ampere Analysis.

van Dreunen said that Sony also wants to grow beyond the consoles in the gaming area and is looking for new target groups and sales methods. "We are currently going through a weaker phase in gaming, which raises the question: What is coming next? How can you remain innovative as a dominant console manufacturer and expand the business?"

future strategies

Thong added that Sony successfully acts as a profitable sales channel for third -party third -party games. Sony diversifies its strategy in the gaming area, for example by publishing a game called Helltivers 2 for both PlayStation 5 and for the PC. Helldivers 2 was a hit for Sony and sold over 12 million times within three months of publication, according to Anna Kerr, research manager for games at Ampere Analytics.

In November, Sony announced an increase of 69 % in the net quartals win, which was partly driven by the game segment. The company continued to record strong quarters this year, which were supported by profitability in the gaming area.

Now the company is in conversations to take over Kadokawa, a Japanese video game giant, who produces the popular game "Elden Ring", report people who are familiar with matter. Despite some setbacks, such as the moderate success of the "Concord" video game and the latest Spider-Man film series, they are more learning processes for a company that has planned 1.8 trillion yen ($ 11 billion) for takeovers by March 2027.

At the annual general meeting for investors in May, the CEO Kenichiro Yoshida stated that the company is pursuing a "creative entertainment vision". Thong noted that Sony's development into an entertainment company was not always certain: "Sony had to struggle with considerable pain for a few years, but I think it is to be thanked for you that you held out and did it."

Sonys IP on the big screen

van Dreunen found that in the past there was not so much demand for video game adaptations for film and television. But "The Last of Us" showed that Sony has the chance to bring more IP to the big screen. Before published "The Last of Us", Sony tried to adapt "Uncharted", a film from 2022 with actor Tom Holland, which was based on a video game series that Sony published in 2007.

In addition, Sony, the video game series "God of War", which it first published in 2005, is planning to bring the big screen next year, as Kerr reports. Although Sony continues to work in the electronics business, the company has stored its identity as a mass producer of consumer electronics.

by 2025 Sony intends to integrate its online banking and insurance units further and to further expand its entertainment options. Sony's stock value increased by almost 18 % last month and exceeded the large entertainment companies such as Disney and Netflix. This is also fueled by the interest of investors at the NASDAQ, which this week exceeds the 20,000-point mark.