Sony will talk about their game streaming strategy at their Corporate Strategy Day next month / PSNow at 700K subscribers, 40%+ annual growth

gofreak · Apr 26, 2019

On their earnings call just now -

In talking about the game business, they took several minutes out to 'reintroduce' Sony's game streaming business to investors, given that 'the area has been getting a lot of attention lately'.

It was a bit of a PR spiel - they talk the history of it, how Sony saw the potential in its investments 5 years ago, the Gaikai acquisition etc.

They say that their goal is for Playstation to be 'the best place to play' whether on consoles or on streaming.

Some current stats:

- 700K subscribers
- over 40% growth annually
- play time on downloaded titles on PSNow is twice as long an average vs streaming

They say they will talk in more detail about their vision and strategy for game streaming going forward at their Corporate Strategy day next month.

edit - slides and transcript from the earnings call:

Eolz · Apr 26, 2019

Pretty bad for PSNow.

Knight613 · Apr 26, 2019

Nice of Sony to give out a number.

ArmGunar · Apr 26, 2019

It's time for Sony to lower the price to $9.99/month and to do some $2 sale to attract users

DrJackson · Apr 26, 2019

Bring PS Now to IOS with dualshock support, that'll up their game.

bane833 · Apr 26, 2019

People are in for a rude awakening if they think other streaming services will be much bigger.

Bashteee · Apr 26, 2019

If Stadia is working as advertised - regarding instant load times and so on - then Sony need to step up their game. Microsoft is working on xcloud, too. PSNow just doesn't appeal to me right now. I'd like to play my owned games via streaming, I'd pay for that, too.

Prine · Apr 26, 2019

Yeah, after 5 years I'd assume the number would be higher.

Going to be interesting to see others performance a year from now.

Chief Malik · Apr 26, 2019

All they need to do is add first parties exclusives day 1, gamepass and EA has proven that it doesn't hurt traditional sales at least not in the short term. It was also crappy PS3 games for like 4 years and for whatever reason not available on mobile.

gofreak · Apr 26, 2019

Second question in the Q+A asked about streaming.

Paraphrasing - " At last earnings call you characterised game streaming as a threat. Today you sound different. Is the improvement in the environment for streaming a threat or a plus? Cannibalisation of existing sales could be one threat, but what is your view"

Answer: "In terms of threat or opportunity, if I express quantitatively (?) it might be a threat, but we have to turn threat into opportunity. The change in trend must be captured accurately. We have to go in that particular business, we have to follow that trend. When everyone finds opportunity there is more competitors, and a new set of threats. I don't know how long it will take, but for us, growth is not a surprise. Many players have been rising to the challenge of this way of playing games, it's not a new story for us at all. But it's important to show solid strategy and vision, and we will be talking more at our IR day."

(My transcript is bad, but hopefully you get the gist )

Flash · Apr 26, 2019

bane833 said:
People are in for a rude awakening if they think other streaming services will be much bigger.

I think the people that are in for a rude awakening are the ones discounting it all together.

Google Stadia is literally what Linux users have been waiting for since forever especially considering that Nvidia aren't going to show that side of PC computing any love with dedicated day 1 Drivers. All you need to play games at 4K on Linux now is Google Chrome. It's not just a Windows exclusive streaming service which is why it's so attractive. This is what Steam should have done a long time ago.

Google Stadia will surpass 700k subs easily lol stating anything to the contrary is just laughable.

TheRaidenPT · Apr 26, 2019

ArmGunar said:
It's time for Sony to lower the price to $9.99/month and to do some $2 sale to attract users

Yeah and a bigger marketing push behind it...

Abdul Malik Ka'bah said:
All they need to do is add first parties exclusives day 1, gamepass and EA has proven that it doesn't hurt traditional sales at least not in the short term. It was also crappy PS3 games for like 4 years and for whatever reason not available on mobile.

They won't do this because it would steal both digital/retail copies and consoles sales.

BubblegumNemesis · Apr 26, 2019

700k is pretty low.

Flash · Apr 26, 2019

BubblegumNemesis said:
700k is pretty low.

5 years after launch which is the truly embarrassing part.

DrainedSpirit · Apr 26, 2019

Flash said:
I think the people that are in for a rude awakening are the ones discounting it all together.

Google Stadia is literally what Linux users have been waiting for since forever especially considering that Nvidia aren't going to show that side of PC computing any love with dedicated day 1 Drivers. All you need to play games at 4K on Linux now is Google Chrome. It's not just a Windows exclusive streaming service which is why it's so attractive. This is what Steam should have done a long time ago.

Google Stadia will surpass 700k subs easily lol stating anything to the contrary is just laughable.

I'd rather Valve continue investing in Linux with Proton than force users to sub to a proprietary streaming-service that can shut down anytime and forces you to always be online.

Soap · Apr 26, 2019

The only compelling way to pull me into the service is to have more modern Sony exclusives akin to Microsoft and game pass. The thing is Sony's first party games sell exstry well, so I can't see them doing that.

Eoin · Apr 26, 2019

This is actually not far off where PlayStation Plus was before the PS4 launched.

In early February 2014 Sony said about 50% of PS4 owners were Plus subscribers: https://www.justpushstart.com/2014/02/50-percent-ps4-owners-playstation-plus-subscribers/
That was when PS4 sales were at 4.2m so there were probably somewhere around ~2.2m PS4 owners subscribed to Plus.

In late January Sony said Plus subscribers had tripled since the PS4 launched: https://www.psu.com/news/sony-confirms-ps-plus-subscribers-have-tripled-since-ps4-launch/

Depending on how much overlap there was between PS3 Plus subscribers and PS4 Plus subscribers, PS3 Plus subscription numbers would therefore have been between 1.1m (0% overlap, 1.1m on PS3, 2.2m on PS4, PS4 launched trebled 1.1m existing subscribers to 3.3m total) and 0.73m (100% overlap, 0.73m subscribers on PS3 all bought a PS4 and were joined by an additional ~1.5m new subscribers).

So 700K seems low by the standards of the huge number of Plus subscribers that we're now used to, but it's quite close to how many subscribers Plus had when it was mainly a games service, back before it was required to play online. As Sony's secondary, games-only subscription service, this number isn't that bad.

Sangetsu-II · Apr 26, 2019

As a PS Now subscriber, color me surprised, wonder how many subs GamePass has?, Less or More?

Bojanglez · Apr 26, 2019

Sangetsu-II said:
As a PS Now subscriber, color me surprised, wonder how many subs GamePass has?, Less or More?

I imagine Gamepass has more, mostly due to the extremely competitive pricing MS has been offering. I got 2 years worth for about £30 a couple of months ago. However I do think 700,000 for PS Now is actually a solid number when they have stuck to what I perceive as a price that is not worth me paying.

Knight613 · Apr 26, 2019

Abdul Malik Ka'bah said:
All they need to do is add first parties exclusives day 1, gamepass and EA has proven that it doesn't hurt traditional sales at least not in the short term. It was also crappy PS3 games for like 4 years and for whatever reason not available on mobile.

Microsoft won't even tell you how many subs Game Pass has.

Deleted member 19924 · Apr 26, 2019

kostacurtas · Apr 26, 2019

bane833 said:
People are in for a rude awakening if they think other streaming services will be much bigger.

This.

Especially when they will be several different install bases from the various streaming services (Sony, Microsoft, Google, EA, etc).

It is just an option for some gamers.

Kiekura · Apr 26, 2019

I think we are going to see improvements in PSnow and also some marketing push. There has been zero marketing and deals for it.

Ensirius · Apr 26, 2019

Does this show that the service isn't ready for mainstream yet or that the marketing push was not good enough?

Kiekura · Apr 26, 2019

Flux said:
Good job SuperData.

This doesn't mean they weren't right. Already explained on other thread.

Assenzio · Apr 26, 2019

I am expecting more recent exclusive to hit the service. They are probably going to announce games to realese 6 months or 1 year after d1

randompasserby · Apr 26, 2019

40% annual growth seems like a lot for a service deemed not very competitive/successful per the replies above.
What happened recently?

TechnicPuppet · Apr 26, 2019

Not a surprising number they don't seem to care about it at all. Though that could be changing depending what they discuss.

IIFloodyII · Apr 26, 2019

Flash said:
5 years after launch which is the truly embarrassing part.

It's still not even out for all of Europe yet.

IIFloodyII · Apr 26, 2019

randompasserby said:
40% annual growth seems like a lot for a service deemed not very competitive/successful per the replies above.
What happened recently?

Started to expand it to new markets. Recently released in a lot of places in Europe.

crazillo · Apr 26, 2019

I never quite believed that chart that said PS Now had more revenue than Game Pass which has millions of subscribers according to Microsoft's sources. I guess giving away Game Pass for $1 waaaaay too often might impact that number negatively for Xbox though. Also, the chart was from mid-2017 or so?

Time to improve PS Now anyways, Sony! The streaming market segment will become more important five years from now.

gofreak · Apr 26, 2019

randompasserby said:
40% annual growth seems like a lot for a service deemed not very competitive/successful per the replies above.
What happened recently?

In the last 6 months or so it was launched in 9 more European countries and added downloads as a play option.

randompasserby · Apr 26, 2019

IIFloodyII said:
Started to expand it to new markets. Recently released in a lot of places in Europe.

gofreak said:
In the last 6 months or so it was launched in 9 more European countries and added downloads as a play option.

I see, that makes sense.
Thanks for the replies guys.

Assenzio · Apr 26, 2019

IIFloodyII said:
It's still not even out for all of Europe yet.

It's up in all major and biggest markets. It's really no excuse for a number so low.

Simply the offer was not great. I had it up for 2 moths and that was it

Ada · Apr 26, 2019

DrJackson said:
Bring PS Now to IOS with dualshock support, that'll up their game.

Not possible on iOS. All bluetooth controllers need to be certified for iOS, before the device will even be recognised. There is a fee involved and I think it even needs hardware certificates.

Rosebud · Apr 26, 2019

You are all forgetting that PS Now is in few countries.

I would sign if was available in LATAM.

IIFloodyII · Apr 26, 2019

Assenzio said:
It's up in all major and biggest markets. It's really no excuse for a number so low.

Simply the offer was not great. I had it up for 2 moths and that was it

Has been for a short time (not 5 years) and has plenty of markets to get to still. It has been growing fast since they started to expand it, it seems. 700k subs (if that is subs and not just active users) isn't bad at this point, they have plenty of room to grow the service from here.

Elephant · Apr 26, 2019

They haven't exactly done a stellar job of marketing it. The streaming isn't that great. I use a wired connection and I need to reboot my router and restart my PS4 to get a smooth uninterrupted experience. I have to do this every time I want to use PSNow.

But I have every faith they're going to make several improvements to this service with GamePass picking up pace and Stadia looking to enter the market. Include PSNow in the PS+ subscription for PS5. Up the price a couple of quid and sorted.

nekkid · Apr 26, 2019

bane833 said:
People are in for a rude awakening if they think other streaming services will be much bigger.

PSNow isn't just a streaming service.

gofreak · Apr 26, 2019

Ada said:
Not possible on iOS. All bluetooth controllers need to be certified for iOS, before the device will even be recognised. There is a fee involved and I think it even needs hardware certificates.

Yeah.

I think it will come to iOS - and possibly fairly soon - but like the Remote Play app it'll be mifi controllers or on-screen touch controls rather than Dualshock support.

[With DS5 they could potentially do something like what Google is doing with Stadia's - put wifi directly in the controller itself, and maybe pair the controller to your iOS hotspot, where it can talk directly to the server rather than through the app. But who knows.]

Assenzio · Apr 26, 2019

IIFloodyII said:
Has been for a short time (not 5 years) and it has been growing fast since they started to expand it, it seems. 700k subs (if that is subs and not just active users) isn't bad at this point, they have plenty of room to grow the service from here.

Well counting they had US, UK, Canada and Germany 700k is low.

There is room for improvement, but that number is due to price and games offer, not really markets.

Rosebud · Apr 26, 2019

nekkid said:
PSNow isn't just a streaming service.

It was till some months ago

ScribeofGeadhain · Apr 26, 2019

How is 40% growth YoY bad? We have no numbers on their competitors so we can't assume they're doing better.

Astandahl · Apr 26, 2019

There are still lot of entry barriers for streaming :

1) Internet speed available in most of households
2) Datacenters distribution
3) Price
4) Quality of the service

I live in Italy and i have a 200mb download , 30 mb download connection. I tried PS Now ( ethernet and not wi fi which would be even worse ) and the input lag was big. There is still a long way for these services.

SuikerBrood · Apr 26, 2019

Sangetsu-II said:
As a PS Now subscriber, color me surprised, wonder how many subs GamePass has?, Less or More?

We don't know. But I think it's safe to assume that at least 2,5 million people have used Game Pass. As Sea of Thieves had 5+ million players (August 2018) , with around 50% coming from Game Pass.

But how many people are subscribing month after month.. who knows.

plié · Apr 26, 2019

That's a HORRIBLE number. YIKES.

Just put your 1st party games there day 1, and problem solved. People can still buy the game if they wish.

IIFloodyII · Apr 26, 2019

Assenzio said:
Well counting they had US, UK, Canada and Germany 700k is low.

There is room for improvement, but that number is due to price and games offer, not really markets.

Markets is very important too, especially which something as niche as game streaming. The lack of most of Europe was a massive hole in potential subs/users. I don't think it's reached most of Asia, LATAM or the Middle East yet either, PlayStation has a strong and growing presence in these markets. That requires more effort than them putting their games on the services quicker, which is something they haven't done yet either. 700k for what PSNow currently is, is a good place to build from.

TheGhost · Apr 26, 2019

90 million something consoles and only 700k is not a good look at all.

I expect a complete revamp and possible name change by the time ps5 comes out.

Sangetsu-II · Apr 26, 2019

plié said:
That's a HORRIBLE number. YIKES.

Just put your 1st party games there day 1, and problem solved. People can still buy the game if they wish.

They would lose money.

Mr.Deadshot · Apr 26, 2019

Astandahl said:
There are still lot of entry barriers for streaming :

1) Internet speed available in most of households
2) Datacenters distribution
3) Price
4) Quality of the service

I live in Italy and i have a 200mb download , 30 mb download connection. I tried PS Now ( ethernet and not wi fi which would be even worse ) and the input lag was big. There is still a long way for these services.

True. It's not the time yet. Maybe in 10-20 years but for now digital downloads and retail games will stay the norm. At least in the core market. Streaming will grow eventually but slowly.

Sony will talk about their game streaming strategy at their Corporate Strategy Day next month / PSNow at 700K subscribers, 40%+ annual growth

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