Sony: We Are Moving Away From A Hardware Centric Model

[JRPGfan]

twintail said:

Soundwave said:

From Sony's financial brief today for the recent quarter:

"In the gaming business, we are moving away from a hardware centric business model more to a platform business that expands the community and increases engagement." - Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony Senior Vice President

This is a pretty vague quote just on its own, zero context. This is what he actually said:

And then as for the Electronics business and TV, compared to output devices, we are now shifting to creation devices that include digital camera. So as a result, we are seeing more stability in profitability and in revenue, and also the productivity of our performance is increasing. And against such backdrop, and for example, in the Music business, Music Streaming and EMI Music Publishing has been acquired, and then we increased the music catalog.

And as I mentioned in the speech, in gaming business and moving away from a hardware-centric business to more to the community- based engagement business, and then that has been increasing. So now as we make more transition to entertainment creation, the stability and the productivity, our performance is increasing. So this upward revision might not have been a direct result of these. However, the Music Publishing and also acquisition of a music catalog and also the acquisition of Crunchyroll, these are the areas where we are seeing growth. And as a portfolio, we have been expanding our businesses and also improving our profitability.

Which means that hardware numbers aren't their focus in reporting, but MAU. Which is not surprising, because Sony have been talking about the importance of MAU metrics since the PS4 days.

The single reference line makes it sound like they're abandoning hardware and going full 3rd party, which may one day be true, but very clearly not what was being said. 

^ this is why context and the actual quote matters.

What is said in the real quote is very different than what the OP said.

This is about them focusing less on hardware and more on communities with engagement.
Ei. platforms for music and videos and anime. 

This doesn't even sound like its related to PlayStation lol.