Eric Lempel, Sony's head of business operations, states that the company's PlayStation 5 is now stocked in full measure across retailers and other distribution channels worldwide. This follows a series of shortages that rendered numerous players worldwide without a PS5. Despite the heightened rivalry from Microsoft, Lempel said that Sony is actively seeking out new developer partners to craft exclusive titles for PS5, although that might not always be in the form of takeovers.
Eric Lempel, Sony's head of business operations, told CNBC exclusively that the PlayStation 5 is now fully stocked in stores across the world and the company is set to reach its sales mark of 25 million units. This will be the first holiday season in which PS5 is available in all territories, after shortages in 2020.In addition to the global chip shortage and supply chain disruptions that hindered the availability of not only the PlayStation 5 but Microsoft's Xbox Series X and S, the consoles were in particularly short supply after their release in November 2020.Sony faced difficulties in meeting the demand for the PS5, with shortages occurring yearly. However, Lempel asserted that such issues are behind them and the expectation is for "record-breaking sales" this holiday season. The success of this year's sales is attributed in part to the release of titles such as Marvel's Spider-Man 2, which is exclusive to PS5. Sony is scheduled to report earnings on Nov. 9.
Sony's PS5 has sold millions, selling more than Microsoft's Xbox Series X. Microsoft is banking on gaming becoming a more essential part of its business, which is why it paid an incredible sum of $69 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard, including big titles like "Call of Duty," "Candy Crush" and "Crash Bandicoot." Competitors, such as Sony, were concerned that this move might limit competition if Microsoft were to make Call of Duty exclusive to its Xbox platform, something that could potentially generate billions. However, the cloud gaming rights, which involve streaming video games through remote data centers, will instead be transferred to French publisher Ubisoft. As a result, Ubisoft should be able to stream Call of Duty on its Ubisoft+ subscription service following an arrangement with U.K. regulators. Sony had expressed worries over the impact of the Microsoft-Activision deal and even cautioned that the quality of PlayStation games could be reduced if Microsoft tried to maliciously interfere with the programming. Microsoft has replied, however, that it has no plans to do that and that the Activision takeover will be beneficial for competition.
When asked by CNBC about whether Sony should respond to Microsoft's efforts to secure intellectual property, Lempel highlighted that Sony will be looking to secure exclusive titles from new developer partners for PS5. However, he emphasised that this may not always take the form of acquisitions. He explained, "We have a number of ways of looking at this. In terms of great content, that's where we're focused. We've done more M&A in the past decade than we've ever done. We're always looking to work with new partners, whether that's somebody as an external provider or working with a developer and then acquiring them later." As an example of this, Lempel referred to the hugely successful work Insomniac Games have done with the PlayStation Marvel's Spider-Man franchise. Originally an external partner, Sony then became more integrated with the studio before finally acquiring it. The release of its Spider-Man 2 game resulted in sales of over 2.5 million copies within 24 hours, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever in this time period.
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