Sony says focus is on creativity, with games, movies, music, sensors, IP, and not gadgets

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese electronics and leisure firm Sony says it’s specializing in creativity in films, animation and video video games, somewhat than old style gadgetry.

Its chief government, Kenichiro Yoshida, outlined the corporate’s technique Thursday, saying Sony was serving to inventive professionals ship what he referred to as “kando,” or a transferring expertise.

Yoshida didn’t discuss studies Tokyo-based Sony and Apollo International Administration are fascinated with shopping for Paramount International.

Yoshida mentioned the corporate is now emphasizing the inventive course of itself as an alternative of prized merchandise of the previous just like the Walkman moveable music participant and Trinitron coloration TVs. He mentioned “synergies” are now not between leisure and electronics, however decided by mental property spanning animation, music, video games and movies.

“We’ll proceed to help folks’s creativity by our expertise,” he mentioned in a web based briefing.

Sony is adapting to more durable instances, with rivals making cheaper however aggressive electronics. Critics say venturing into films, music and different leisure will be unprofitable.

Beginning with its acquisition of EMI Music Publishing in 2018, Sony has invested roughly 1.5 trillion yen ($10 billion) within the final six years to strengthen its content material creation.

In 2021 it acquired Crunchyroll, which has greater than 13 million paid subscribers and delivers Japanese animation globally. One other was Yoasobi, a Japanese music duo that features Vocaloid expertise, or singing voice synthesizer software program, and is attracting world followers.

Sony’s real-time computing expertise that information “this second,” as Yoshida put it, is being utilized in cameras at sports activities occasions as a result of it might seize shortly transferring topics with out distortion.

It’s additionally used for information protection and modifying and in 3D video and pc graphics, together with hit films like “Godzilla Minus One,” and video games primarily based on human athletes’ actions, in response to Yoshida.

Sony just lately reported its quarterly revenue rose to 189 billion yen ($1.2 billion) from 141 billion yen the yr earlier than. Quarterly gross sales for the maker of the PlayStation recreation machines rose 14% to three.48 trillion yen ($22 billion).

However for the fiscal yr by March, Sony recorded a 3% decline in revenue at 970 billion yen ($6.2 billion) as a result of a weak efficiency in its monetary companies phase, which might be partially spun off subsequent yr.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on X: