Key Takeaways
- Sony shares hit a record high, with confidence in Sony’s entertainment products cited as the cause.
- Gaming is singled out in reports, as the company enters its fourth holiday season with the PS5 on the market.
- Despite financial gains, job security remains an issue as PlayStation and other industry giants have laid off thousands of workers this year.
Sony shares have reached a record high, beating the previous record from the early 2000s. This is reportedly due to confidence in Sony’s gaming output.
Stock prices closed at 3,338 yen today, which beats the previous record of 3,260 yen more than two decades ago. This comes as the PS5 is in the middle of its fourth holiday season, now alongside the upgraded PS5 Pro.
Investors Have Confidence In Sony’s Entertainment Ventures
The Wall Street Journal (paywalled) reports that there are “growing hopes” in PlayStation, which is the main drive behind these record stock prices. Sony’s other entertainment ventures, film and music, are also said to play a role in this. Investing.com reports that entertainment made up almost 60 percent of Sony’s revenue in the past fiscal year.
While we don’t know much about Sony’s plans for more PlayStation products beyond the PS5 Pro, it has been reported by multiple sources now that a handheld console is in the works. Unlike the PlayStation Portal, this is said to be a separate, independent console that runs PS5 games natively.
Related
Do We Really Need A PlayStation Handheld?
PlayStation can offer little that competitors don’t already provide.
Today’s reported financial success is rarely felt by the workers, however, as 2024 has proven to be yet another precarious time for the developers who make these gains possible. Back in February, the industry giant laid off 900 workers, including job cuts at Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla and Firesprite, and the complete closure of PlayStation’s London Studio. Then, in October, it shut down Concord developer Firewalk after the disastrous launch (and ensuing shutdown) of the live service.
So, given that a range of studios have been included in PlayStation’s layoffs this year – some of which found great success with their recent releases – job security is still very much an issue. These record-high share prices don’t mean that this will change either, and we’ll just have to wait and see what the new year brings, and whether 2025 proves to be a better year for workers.
PlayStation 5
The PlayStation 5 was launched in 2020 as Sony’s next-gen console, armed with an SSD and the new DualSense controller. Disc-based and digital models are available, and it supports the new PS VR2 virtual reality headset.